More than 2500 years ago, Buddhism existed in India. It is a faith founded by a person named Siddhartha Gautama, who people referred to as Buddha. After leaving a wealthy life in which he was born into Gautama sought to live like a poor person however that did not satisfy what he was searching for so, he decided to live a life that wasn’t wealthy nor poor. Above all, he decided to start teaching people how to get to that satisfying spiritual state he had discovered and achieved. Years later he died, and people who believed in him came up with a religious movement that was responsible for continuing Buddha’s teachings and which became the foundation of the faith that became Buddhism.
Five interesting facts about Buddhism
1. It has no single holy book
Muslims have the Quran Christians have the bible in contrast though Buddhism does not have a sacred book of reference. What they have instead are the teachings of Buddha that were written down by the monks which are known as Dipika. These teachings were first written down on palm leaves because there were only a few people who had the memory of them, and the followers did not want to lose them. Another name of the writings is the three baskets because the palm leaves that had the papers filed three baskets. Many Buddhists do not have access to these teachings because they are placed in the monastery so if they need to access them they would go to the monasteries and copy the instructions by hand on palm leaves.
2. Do not believe in a supreme being
Many other religions believe in a higher person of whom they have names accorded to them. Buddhism, on the contrary, has its focus on the individual’s spiritual development and the search of the true nature of life. They believe that there is nothing that cannot be changed and that they have faith that through a continuous practice of morality meditation and wisdom they can reach the state that their leader Buddha was able to accomplish. They believe that this life has no end and that people live in it over and over again, they are therefore subject to suffering.
3. it’s the fifth largest religion in the world
Christianity, Islam, Unaffiliated, Hinduism and Buddhism is the order in which the beliefs are significant in terms of percentage respectively. This is as of 2018 that is Christianity leading by 31.5%, followed by Islam which accounts for 24.6%, Unaffiliated which is 15.2%, Hinduism which is 15% and lastly the fifth largest by percentage is Buddhism accounting for 7.7%.
4. Half of its believers in the world live in china
As was said earlier Buddhism originated from Asia spread to other parts of the world which include China, Thailand, and Japan. Half of the Buddhists population are in China,13% of them are in Thailand,9% in Japan and most of the rest live in East and South Asia, and only 1.4 % of the Buddhists in the world live in other countries other than Asia.
5. Nuns and Buddhists monks cut their hair
In one of their writings, it’s written that they should shave their hair when it just grows a little. They believe that by cutting their hair, they have been able to leave their past lives.
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