The Buddhist Tradition

"Thanks and praise for our Buddhist brother and sisters, for their call to peace and compassion for all sentient beings."

Buddhism is the religious and philosophical tradition founded in India in sixth century BCE by Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha, or the "One who Awakened."Buddhism practices meditation and mindfulness as well as the observance of moral precepts.

The basic doctrines of Buddhism include the Four Noble Truths taught by the Buddha: existence is suffering; desire is the cause of suffering; suffering ceases; and there is a path leading to the cessation of suffering, or Nirvana.

This path, the Noble Eightfold Path, consists of right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

For Buddhists, the goal of existence is the cultivation of perfect wisdom expressed in perfect compassion.Buddhist philosophy is animated by the exploration of the implications of the interdependence of every event in the universe with every other. The tradition flourishes in Asia and gains influence in the modern Western world.