Buddism: Should You Pursue This Religion?

Buddhism is a widely know religion across the globe, that many people practice and teach on a day-to-day basis. Buddhism comes from the teachings of a man named Siddhartha Gautama who lived approximately twenty-five centuries ago. The focus of Buddhism is to become “enlightened.” As opposed to most religions, Buddhism is non-theistic, meaning instead of believing in a God or God(s), one is left to discover what he believes and thinks of his own experience (Barbara O’Brien, 2013.) The question is whether or not you believe the religion is worth pursuing for yourself.

Siddhartha Gautama was born around 560 B.C. in the Northern part of India. Suddhodana, Siddhartha’s father, was a ruler close to the Himalayas, which is now the city of Nepal. Growing up, his father sheltered him from the outside world, allowing him to only experience the pleasures and wealth of the world. Eventually, Gautama one day became restless, and he begged his father to allow him to explore outside of the palace.

On this journey, Siddhartha was forever changed. While he was outside of the palace, he observed four people: an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a beggar. The experience of seeing these four people caused him to become deeply distressed, and he decided he must do something about this pain. He decided that living a life of luxury was not for him, and he set out on a quest to figure out the answer to the human experience of pain and suffering.

He also believed in the Hindu tradition of reincarnation; meaning after death, one returned to this world either to a higher or lower life form, depending upon your past life in how much good and bad deeds you made. This brought across another question Siddhartha wanted to solve, how do you break the rebir...

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...orld’s violence and ignorance to an unacceptable degree,” (Sam Harris, http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/killing-the-buddha/)

Like everyone else, most people are influenced with their thoughts and decisions by what they’ve been exposed to. Buddhism seems to be a widely known religion, that many people all across the globe worship and follow. Some people agree with the thoughts and wisdom from a Buddhist’s thoughts and actions, while others not so much. I personally agree with much of the Buddha’s teachings and philosophies about how to go through life, however I do not consider myself to have the religion of Buddhism. Whether or not you choose Buddhism as your own personal religion, all depends on your personal thoughts and experiences. Either way, Buddhism seems to effect a lot of people’s day-to-day lives, and share a lot of wisdom we could all use in life.