Buddhism

Around the end of the Epic Age, a new religion sprang up in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. Buddhism shared many of Hinduism's beliefs, but it focused on ending the cycle of reincarnation and achieving Nirvana (nuhr-VAH-nah), a term that suggests the idea of blowing out a fire. The “fire” in this case was personal desire; by subduing all thoughts of self, Buddhists believe that an individual can become one with the Godhead.

Also unlike Hinduism, Buddhism had a definite founder, a young prince born c. 563 b. c. in northern India between the Ganges and the Himalayas. His name was Sid-dartha Gautama (sid-AHR-tah GOW-tuh-muh), but he is known to history simply as “the Buddha,” a term that means “The Enlightened One.” Raised in incredible luxury, the prince was never allowed to learn that suffering existed; but at the age of 29, his curiosity led him to sneak out from the palace of his father. Beyond its walls, he discovered a world of horrible disease and misery—the reality of life in ancient India and most other parts of the world.

The young Siddartha was so moved by what he had seen that he decided to embark on a journey to discover the reason for suffering and the path to the enlightenment that would end such suffering. For many years, he studied with various holy men and ascetics (uh-SET-ikz). An ascetic is someone who renounces all earthly pleasures, even such basic ones as food and shelter, as part of the search for spiritual truth. Eventually, however, Siddartha decided that punishing the body was not the best way to enrich the spirit, and he broke with the ascetics. He spent many more years seeking truth and eventually became enlight-ened—that is, he understood the reasons for suffering, and the way to escape it. From then on, he was known as the Buddha.

For the remainder of his life (he died in about 483 b. c.), the Buddha taught his belief system, which he called the “Middle Way.” It involved accepting “Four Noble Truths”: that pain is a part of human life; that desire leads only to suffering and ultimately destruction; that only by giving up one's desires can one achieve Nirvana and end the cycle of reincarnation; and that one must follow a set of principles he called “the Eightfold Path” [see sidebar, “The Eightfold Path of Buddhism”] in order to achieve Nirvana.