INTRODUCTION TO BUDDISM
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As I am sure you will realize, it is not easy to summarize a                   
religion that has been evolving for over 2500 years in many                    
different cultural settings. Therefore, the following attempt to               
answer the question of what Buddhism is cannot possibly offer more             
than a very brief sketch.                                                      
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Siddhartha Gautama was born near the border of what are now Indian             
and Nepal approximately 563 years before the birth of Jesus of                 
Nazareth (whom Christians call the Christ). He is known by the                 
description Buddha, which means one who become awake.                          

The central question that the Buddha was interested in answering was:

Why are living beings not content?

The answer he gave to this was:

Living beings are not content because they have unrealistic desires, and
they have unrealistic desires because they have certain false beliefs.
By eliminating these false beliefs one can get rid of unrealistic desires
and therefore become free of unnecessary forms of unhappiness.

And finally, there are methods by which a person can cultivate correct
beliefs and eliminate unrealisitc desires.
     
The most important of the false beliefs that people have are that:
 
1) their own individual existence is more important than the existences
of other individuals.

2) fulfillment can be achieved by acquiring and owning property.
                                               
Happiness and fulfillment, on the other hand, can be achieved by               
learning to recognize that":

1) no one is more important than anyone else.

2) the very idea of ownership is at the root of all conflicts among living
beings. It is, in other words, important to learn that we all belong here
on earth, but none of us belongs to anyone else, and none of the earth
belongs to anyone.

    (So far, people are diffitely not doing very well in learning this lesson.)        

The methods by which the contentment is to be achieved are both                
mental and practical. Intellectually, one can gradually become free            
of the kinds of beliefs that cause unnecessary pain by carefully 
observing one's own feelings and thoughts and by observing how one's           
own words and actions affect others. This kind of reflection can   
make a person more humble. And this humility can be reinforced by              
practising generosity and by putting oneself into the service of               
others who are in need and in pain.

A saying of the Buddha by which Buddhists try to live is:                                                       

   If others practise hatred, let us practise love.
                             
   If others practise war, let us pracise peace.
                             

As for the Buddhist attitude towards other religions, it was perhaps           
best expressed by a monk named Nagasena over 2000 years ago.                    
Nagasena said that the heart of Buddhism is dharma (virtue) and that           
dharma can be found anywhere in the world in which people treat one            
another with kindness and compassion. Although the dharma was the              
heart of the teachings of the Buddha, said Nagasena, the Buddha was 
by no means the only person to teach dharma. So Buddhists are                  
encouraged to applaud any religion or philosophy that tries to help            
people to live in peace with one another without hatred, without               
envy, without suspicion and without fear.                                       
Perhaps this very brief answer has satisfied your curiosity to some         
extent. If you have other questions, may I recommend a book entitled           

What the Buddha Taught. It was written by a Buddhist monk named                
Walpola Rahula over 30 years ago and remains one of the most                   
commonly used introductions to Buddhist thinking and practice in the           
English language. It has also been translated into several other               
languages.                                                                      

May we all go in peace.                                                         -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
from Richard Hayes 
Religious Studies
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec        
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Buddha put forth a way of life to live called "THE EIGHT FOLD PATH"

Buddhists try not to belive in that way but to live it.

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THE EIGHT FOLD PATH:

RIGHT BELIEF

RIGHT INTENTIONS

RIGHT SPEECH

RIGHT ACTIONS

RIGHT LIVIHOOD

RIGHT ENDEAVORING

RIGHT-MINDFULLNESS

RIGHT CONCENTRATION

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