A lot people, especially from the United States make the common mistake that Buddhism is a religion. Some people out there will call Buddhism an atheistic religion. But that is also a big stereotype. In fact the faith of Buddhism is not actually a religion at all. But first before I go any further let me give a brief story of how the Buddhist faith began to begin with.
Buddhism was started by a wealthy Hindu prince named Siddartha Goutama in the sixth century B.C. He was from India and lived a completely care free life inside his palace walls until the age of seventeen when he finally went outside his palace gates and finally saw a world full of sufferings. When he saw all the sufferings in the world he wanted to find a way to put an end to suffering in this world. So he told his servants to saddle up his horse and open the gates so he could go on a spiritual journey and find answers.
He left his palace and started fasting and meditating under the bodhi tree for almost a full year and finally found the answer. He found out that the only way you can put an end to suffering in your life is absence of selfish desires. In other words, an individual will suffer nothing if they desire nothing. Which pretty much makes sense if you come to think of it. If you do not want or desire anything how are you going to feel suffering in your life? That is the whole philosophy of the Buddhist faith, you suffer nothing if you desire nothing. Siddartha Buddha himself did not preach anything about worshipping any deities or divine beings and a lot of people in America will think that Buddha is worshipped as a god. But he is not. Buddha was simply a philosopher and a very wise person who wanted to help people and put an end to suffering in this world.
The term Buddha basically is the term for a very wise person. When you translate the word Buddha into English it basically means “He who is awake”. It is the term for an individual who is aware and more intelligent and more wise than the average person.
