Buddhism Essay

When people think of Buddhism, the first things they would generally think about are monks and temples. However, that is not all of what Buddhism is really about. Buddhism is a popular religion, a belief system that relates humanity to an order of existence, like many others such as Christianity and Catholicism. Buddhism encompasses many traditions and beliefs based off the teachings of the Buddha, mainly focusing on peace, compassion, and relief from suffering. (insert source here)

Buddha Shakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, is known to be an enlightened being who revealed a spiritual path of peace, love, and wisdom. Various traditions of Buddhism believe that there are many different Buddhas from the past and in the future. The Buddha was

Western society was introduced to Buddhists and thus became important aspects to their lives such as politics, economics and culture. Modern ways of thinking, democracy and socialism have influenced not only the Buddhist community, but also others across the world (“Buddhism”). Buddhism continues to reshape itself and its traditions. Different influences have changed the core elements of Buddhism and its meaning. However, with today’s high stress of modern life, people become interested in Buddhism for its meditation and inner-peace. People search for monks to teach them self-discipline and to deepen their spiritual energy (“About Buddhism”). Many temples have been built in the United States to spread Buddhist teachings and to expand the Buddhist community. With every temple comes different practices since a majority of the Buddhists come from different backgrounds which they brought from all of over

During special holidays, such as Lunar New Year, my family would attend several Vietnamese temples. We would light incense and pray to different Buddhas at each temple, for the fact that each Buddha represented a different need of ours. At these temples, we would be fed vegetarian meals to promote the days that we are supposed to not eat meat, each half and full moon. (insert source here) We would also give a donation to the monks who uphold the temple and these traditions. Similar to Buddhist rituals, there are chants from a bible that we say in Vietnamese. There are different chants for different occasions. For example, many of these chants can be read to help guide oneself or to calm oneself. However, there is also a chant made specifically for someone’s death, in which the mourning family must say in order to spiritually guide them to a better afterlife, karma. The bible also presents the story of Buddha and how he came to enlightenment. Along with the story of Buddha, there are also passages that explain the Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold