Buddhism Research Paper Thesis

Buddhism
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Buddhism
Introduction
Historians traced the origin of Buddhism in the northern part of India in the 5th BC.E originally founded by Siddhartha Gautama in Nepal around 2,500 years back. Historians approximates that Siddhartha Gautama lived between 566-486 BCE (Robinson & Willard, 1982). Siddhartha Gautama was born as a royal prince in Lumbini north of India currently known as Nepal. He grew up in a privileged life, his parents named him Siddhartha as an indication of wonderful predictions in future. As much as he lived as a royal child, his major turnaround in life came when he saw the first time an old man, a sick person, and a corpse. He became disturbed and realized that death, sickness and old age were very much inevitable for humans. This prompted Siddhartha Gautama to start searching for ways of escaping the inevitable death, old age, and pain by studying alongside religious men. Siddhartha Gautama did not get any answers from the religious leaders. He continued to search for the answer and on his path; he encountered an Indian ascetic who encouraged him to practice self-denial (Robinson & Willard, 1982).
Siddhartha Gautama abandoned the luxury life to seek for answers that he eventually found enlightenment under the Buddha tree. This happened one day when he sat under the tree as he was meditating and reflecting on his life. It is alleged that during meditation he saw an infinite succession of deaths and births in an endless flowing river of life. He suddenly developed an internal perception on how to be liberated from the cycle of rebirths. After understanding everything; he became enlightened. For Siddhartha to discover the path of enlightenment he passed through allots of suffering to realize a rebirth resulting to enlighten known as Buddha the awakened one. After being enlightened he spread what he had learned travelling all over India, teaching rather than worshiping. He was frequently referred to as the Arahants or the noble one. He gave sermons and also formed the Sangha; a community order composed of monks, nuns and several disciples (Robinson & Willard, 1982).
For forty years, Buddha traveled through India with his teachings commonly known as the Buddha-Dharma, which means the teachings of the enlightened one. The key principle of his teaching was how to undergo the rebirth cycle known as samsara or reincarnation to achieve Nirvana. Nirvana, according to Buddhism, represents heaven. Buddha taught his followers that the long journey to nirvana could only be achieved by following the four Nobel Truths called pativedhanana.
In total Buddha taught eighty-four thousand teachings to assist people to be permanently liberated from their suffering. He was mainly motivated by passion and love for people resulting to helping people finding a lasting peace or nirvana. With such strong passion, Buddha reached many people who gained enlighten and taught others that formed an unbroken chain of his teaching that have continued to date. Buddha cannot be considered as a god, but he was a human being who used tremendous efforts of his heart and mind to transform people (Robinson & Willard, 1982).
By the time Buddha died at the age of eighty years, his followers h...