Top Highlights

• Buddhism's central vision can be summed up in four verses from one of its central sacred texts, the Dhammapada:
• This school is characterized by a focus on individual enlightenment.
• It was founded by the sage Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha l. c. 563 - c. 483 BCE) who, according to legend, had been a Hindu prince.
• His teaching centers on the Four Noble Truths, the Wheel of Becoming, and the Eightfold Path to form the foundation of Buddhist thought and these remain central to the different schools of Buddhism which continue in the modern day.
• Siddhartha lived comfortably as a noble with his wife and family but once he became aware of human suffering he felt he had to find some way of easing people's pain. He pursued strict spiritual disciplines to become an enlightened being who taught others the means by which they could escape samsara, the cycle of suffering, rebirth, and death. The ...

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