By Philip Pai, March 12, 2020 — When I was young, I followed my relatives to worship at a temple, a Buddhist Temple. Actually, I am not a believer in Buddhism. Recently I got some information from the Buddhists. They said that Buddhism is a faith that was founded by Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha) more than 2,500 years ago in India with about 470 million followers. Scholars consider Buddhism one of the major world religions.
The founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama, was born into a wealthy family as a prince in present day Nepal. The religious former Buddha is considered an extraordinary man, but not a god. All the Buddhists live by five moral precepts which prohibit:
• Killing living things
• Taking what is not given
• Sexual misconduct
• Lying
• Using drugs or alcohol.
Types of Buddhism
• Theravada Buddhism
Prevalent in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, and Burma
• Mahayana Buddhism
Prevalent in China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Vietnam
• Tibetan Buddhism
Buddhism is different from Christian or Catholic or Muslim [religions]. They think if human beings do something good or best in the world everyone will become a Buddha. So, there are many gods in the world. So, if you love people [and] help people you can become a Buddha or god.
