In India, more than 2500 years ago, the doctrine of spiritual awakening, known as Buddhism, arose.
This is the most peaceful and hospitable of the world's religions, however, the smallest in number.
Thanks to its openness, the popularity of Buddhism is growing all over the world and now the number of its adherents reaches over one billion people.
However, few are able to understand the essence of Buddhist practices. The core ideas of Buddhism are misunderstood for various reasons.
We will look at the most common misconceptions and try to refute them.
Buddhism is a typical religion
To speak of Buddhism as a typical religion is at least incorrect, since it lacks fundamental religious concepts, such as belief in God, Holy Bible, sin.
In Buddhism, there is no call to renounce other beliefs, as in other world religions, such as, for example, Christianity. Buddhism is also distinguished by the absence of clergymen, although the ritualism that has arisen in it is rather similar to religion, perhaps only externally.
With caution, one can call Buddhism a religion of experience, in which the understanding gained is the result of trial and error, i.e. analysis of knowledge gained in practice, unlike other religions, where faith is the cornerstone.
Buddhism can be considered a philosophical concept, since it is a complete and logical worldview. But here again we come to the conclusion that only practice can lead to an understanding of the essence of phenomena as a whole, using not only the power of the intellect, but also the subconscious, emotions, feelings, speech.
This, in turn, leads to a positive transformation of a person, in contrast to philosophy, which explains the essence of phenomena at the formal level of concepts and words.
Progressively realizing the nature of phenomena, we naturally come to the final result of practice - a state of perfection beyond concepts.
All Buddhists are pacifists
The main ideas of Buddhism include the idea of pacifism - the disappearance of all violence as a phenomenon, opposition to wars solely through the condemnation of their immorality. The idea and practice of non-violence are not the same at all.
Buddhists, of course, practice non-violence, but in the event of an imminent threat, they take active steps to prevent violence directed against them. There are many examples where monks practice martial arts and, when it is impossible to avoid a fight, they demonstrate their skills without doubt or hesitation.
All Buddhists meditate
Surely many people think that to meditate means to sit in the lotus position and methodically “moo”, concentrating and concentrating on your inner feelings.
In fact, this is a whole range of methods that allow you to achieve physical and moral self-improvement.
This is a generalized name for a set of basic spiritual practices aimed at developing self-observation, mindfulness, achieving enlightenment and nirvana.
Of course, not all Buddhists meditate, or rather, as studies show, only a small percentage of monks representing this denomination.
Dalai Lama Buddhist Pope
It is not entirely correct to draw parallels between the Dalai Lama and the Pope. The Dalai Lama, according to the doctrine of reincarnation, is the embodiment of the same bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who refused full enlightenment in order to save, protect and patronize all living beings on earth.
The search for a new reincarnation of the Dalai Lama is always a ritual. The supernatural occurrences associated with his birth, the indications by the oracle of the signs by which the chosen candidate is sought, all this is part of the ritual. However, considered a spiritual teacher and mentor, the Dalai Lama is not the leader of the Tibetan Gelug school.
Formally, this elected office is held by Ganden Tripa. The Pope of Rome for Catholics is the full sovereign of the Holy See, owning three inseparable functions of power.
Buddha is a cheerful fat man
One of the most popular characters, embodied in the sculpture of a fat man sitting in a lotus position and laughing, is by no means a Buddha.
This is, in fact, one of the seven deities of happiness - Hotei, Budai. He is also considered one of the incarnations of the bodhisattva Maitreya, the future teacher of humanity. According to numerous legends, wherever Hotei came, he brought prosperity, health, good luck, and also helped fulfill wishes.
Pagan Buddhists
If we proceed from the fact that all pre-Christian and non-Christian religions are pagan, then Buddhism can be called such.
The main ideas of Buddhism also have family ties with paganism, which is due to the tradition of the absence of the rule of the excluded middle, which determines the special position of Buddhism among world religions, while remaining tolerant of other beliefs.
However, on the other hand, Buddhism is fundamental in relation to the need to destroy the causes of being on Earth, and family and clan relations, love for the Earth are in this case an undoubted obstacle on the path to personal salvation - on this, Buddhism breaks ties with paganism. The Dalai Lama once said: "Religion is something we can probably do without."
Suffering is the main goal of Buddhist spiritual practice
Naturally, adherents of Buddhism do not seek to torture themselves physically to death. The main ideas of Buddhism are the four truths: “There is suffering, there is a cause of suffering, there is an end to suffering, there is a path of practice that ends suffering.”.
Considering them all together, as a whole, such a pessimistic conclusion does not at all arise that life is suffering. Yes, in Buddhism, suffering is a characteristic of being, it accompanies everything, even pleasant moments of life. In essence, suffering is attachment to the physical form, feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and consciousness. And Buddhism considers the problem of all mankind as a whole and offers ways to solve it.
The Buddha, having experienced unconditional happiness, points people to the cause of suffering and ways to overcome them. That is, you can completely end suffering on your own with the help of research and understanding of their causes.
All Buddhists are ascetics and vegetarians
Excessive asceticism, involving the abandonment of all desires in order to achieve a personal spiritual ideal, was condemned by the Buddha himself as absolutely useless. As a result, the ascetic acquired supernatural abilities, but they served selfish interests.
The ideal is a bodhisattva who cares about the welfare of others. Encouraged self-control physical states body as a means of achieving complete control over the mind. Accordingly, it is absolutely not necessary to adhere to vegetarianism and strictly limit yourself in food.
Eating meat is not equated by Buddhism with participating in murder. Thus, it is encouraged that when a person seeks to throw off his mind a kind of sleep with meat and eating it correlates, but rather weakly.
Buddhist belief in reincarnation
Belief in the transmigration of souls is phenomenal. However, not all Buddhists believe in a constant cycle of rebirth. Rather, it is about re-incarnation, i.e. placing the essence of a living being in another body.
Buddhist philosophy denies the existence of the soul, respectively, and reincarnation. There is the concept of santana - the extension of consciousness, which does not have any support, but is associated with constant changes.
The stay of consciousness in the world of the living, as well as after death, is determined by the mental state and is determined by karma.
Of particular importance in Tibetan Buddhism are the Dalai Lamas, who maintain the line of rebirth.
Siddhartha Gautama - divine being
One of the misconceptions about Buddhism is that the Buddha is a divine being. This is not true. As a spiritual teacher to his followers, Shakyamuni Buddha was human and never claimed divinity. At birth, he received the name Siddhartha Gautama. He became a Buddha (literally "awakened") when the truth was revealed to him after a long search.
Thanks to this great event, wisdom and compassion descended on him, and he realized his great destiny - to convey the truth to people. The presence or absence of God, the Buddha did not consider essential.
Misconceptions about the Dharma
The concept of Dharma has no unambiguous analogue, it is a fundamental set of laws and rules, the observance of which is necessary for the development of the cosmos and society, an indivisible unit of being. This is the central category in Buddhism, certainly the most complex and undoubtedly ambiguous. The nature of the Dharma is incomprehensible, but those who live according to its foundations can achieve nirvana.
Often it seems to some people that they can choose some situations and moral principles that they like, and the rest, which are difficult to understand, accept, can be excluded or discarded. There are various vows that forbid accepting certain parts of the teaching and neglecting others. Another mistake is the belief in the possibility of improving practices, having received a human life again as a result of rebirth.
Karma is some analogue of fate
The idea of karma in Buddhism cannot be overestimated. If we talk about karma in a completely simplified way, then it will be something like this: positive deeds lead to happiness, and negative deeds lead to suffering.
Thus, by avoiding everything negative and doing only positive actions, a person lays the foundation for achieving a state of absolute happiness.
A person has the opportunity to improve, thereby improving his karma, since in the teachings of Buddhism a direct causal relationship has been drawn between the present life of a person, his past and future incarnation.
However, often a person is mistaken, believing that karma is something the same as fate, that everything is already predetermined, otherwise, in fact, there would be no way to change anything.
In fact, the deeper the understanding of the interdependence of the past, present and future, the more likely it is to effectively intervene and change habits, experiences, which can change karma.
The most difficult thing is to see the connection between the cause (factors, emotions, external actions) and the corresponding effect due to the possible large time gap between them.
All our actions leave an imprint in the subconscious, and this knowledge can be an intermediate step for understanding what actions to practice, which ones to avoid in the continuation of the karmic path.
There are many more misconceptions about Buddhism than have been listed. The main ideas of Buddhism are erroneously described due to the difficulty of understanding, the peculiarities various schools and so on.
Buddhism as a world religion is one of the oldest, and it is not in vain that there is an opinion that without understanding its foundations it is impossible to feel all the richness of the culture of the East. Under her influence, many historical events and the core values of the peoples of China, India, Mongolia and Tibet. IN modern world Buddhism, under the influence of globalization, found even a few Europeans as followers, spreading far beyond the locality where it originated.
Emergence of Buddhism
For the first time they learned about Buddhism in about the 6th century BC. Translated from Sanskrit, it means "teaching of the enlightened one", which really reflects its organization.
Once, a boy was born in the Raja's family, who, according to legend, immediately got to his feet and designated himself as a being that surpasses all gods and people. It was Siddhartha Gautama, who subsequently underwent a significant transformation and became the founder of one of the largest world religions that still exists. The biography of this person is the history of the emergence of Buddhism.
Gautama's parents once invited a seer to bless the newborn on happy life. Asit (that was the name of the hermit) saw on the boy's body 32 marks of a great man. He said that this child will either the greatest king or saints. When his father heard this, he decided to protect his son from various religious movements and any knowledge of the suffering of people. However, living in 3 palaces with rich decoration, Siddhartha at the age of 29 felt that luxury was not the goal of life. And he set off on a journey beyond the castles, keeping it a secret.
Behind the walls of the palaces, he saw 4 spectacles that changed his life: a hermit, a beggar, a corpse and a sick person. This is how the future learned about suffering. After that, Siddhartha's personality underwent many metamorphoses: he hit various religious movements, searched for a path to self-knowledge, studied concentration and austerity, but this did not lead to the expected results, and those with whom he traveled left him. After that, Siddhartha stopped in a grove under a ficus and decided not to leave until he found the Truth. After 49 days, he gained knowledge of the Truth, having reached the state of nirvana, and learned the cause of human suffering. Since then, Gautama has become a Buddha, which means "enlightened" in Sanskrit.
Buddhism: philosophy
This religion carries the idea of non-causing evil, which makes it one of the most humane. She teaches followers self-restraint and the achievement of a state of meditation, which ultimately lead to nirvana and the cessation of suffering. Buddhism as a world religion differs from the rest in that the Buddha did not consider the divine principle to be the basis of this teaching. He offered the only way - through the contemplation of one's own spirit. Its goal is to avoid suffering, which is achieved by following the 4 noble truths.
Buddhism as a world religion and its 4 main truths
- The truth about suffering. Here comes the statement that everything is suffering, all the key moments of the existence of the individual are accompanied by this feeling: birth, illness and death. Religion is closely intertwined with this concept, practically linking all of life with it.
- The truth about the cause of suffering. This means that any desire is the cause of suffering. IN philosophical understanding- to life: it is finite, and this gives rise to suffering.
- The truth about the cessation of suffering. The state of nirvana is a sign of the cessation of suffering. Here a person must experience the extinction of his desires, attachments and achieve complete indifference. The Buddha himself never answered the question of what it was, like the Brahmin texts, which stated that the Absolute can only be spoken of in negative terms, since it cannot be put into words and mentally comprehended.
- The truth about the path. Here we are talking about which leads to nirvana. A Buddhist must overcome three stages, which have several stages: the stage of wisdom, morality and concentration.
Thus, Buddhism as a world religion is significantly different from others and offers its followers to adhere only to general directions without specific instructions and laws. This contributed to the emergence of different directions in Buddhism, which allows everyone to choose the closest path to their soul.
Probably, everyone has questions, the answers to which are not so easy to find. Many think about the spiritual beginning, begin to look for a way to realize their existence. One of the oldest religious denominations - Buddhism, helps in such searches, teaches the comprehension of wisdom and the increase of one's own spirituality.
What is this religion
It is difficult to answer briefly what Buddhism is, since this, its postulates are more reminiscent of a philosophical doctrine. One of the fundamental provisions is the assertion that only impermanence is permanent. Simply put, in our world, only the incessant cycle of everything is constant: events, birth and death. 
It is believed that the world arose by itself. And our life is, in fact, the search for the reasons for our appearance and awareness, for which we appeared. Speaking briefly about religion, Buddhism and its path are moral and spiritual, the realization that all life is suffering: birth, growing up, attachments and achievements, fear of losing what has been achieved.
The ultimate goal is enlightenment, the achievement of the highest bliss, that is, "nirvana". The Enlightened One is independent of any concepts, he has comprehended his physical, mental, mind and spirit.
Origins of Buddhism
In the north of India in the town of Lumbini in royal family the boy Siddhartha Gautama was born (563-483 BC, according to other sources - 1027-948 BC). At the age of 29, thinking about the meaning of life, Siddhatrha left the palace and took an ascetic life. Realizing that severe asceticism and debilitating will not give answers, Gautama decided to cleanse by deep.
By the age of 35, he had achieved enlightenment, becoming a Buddha and a teacher to his followers. The founder of Buddhism, Gautama, lived until the age of eighty, preaching and enlightening. It is noteworthy that Buddhists accept enlightened other religions as teachers, such as Jesus and Mohammed.
Separately about the monks
The community of Buddhist monks is considered the most ancient religious community. The way of life of the monks does not imply a complete estrangement from the world, many of them actively participate in worldly life. 
Usually they travel in small groups, staying close to the laity who share their faith, since it is monasticism that is entrusted with the mission of preserving, enlightening in the faith, instructing and spreading the teachings of Gautama. It is noteworthy that after making a decision to devote their lives to monasticism, initiates are not required to completely break with the family.
The monks live off the donations of the laity, being content with only the most necessary things. Shelter, and they are provided by the laity. It is believed that a layman who helps a monk in his mission improves his own by working through its negative aspects. Therefore, believing laymen provide the monasteries financially.The task of the monks is to show by example the right way of life, to study religion, to improve themselves both morally and spiritually, and also to keep religious writings, holy book Buddhism - Tripitaka.
Did you know? Contrary to the existing opinion that only men are monks in Buddhism, there were also women among them, they were called bhikkhunis. A classic example of this is the mother of Gautama Mahaprajapati, whom he himself elevated to the monastic rank.
Fundamentals of Doctrine
Unlike other religions, Buddhism has more philosophy than mysticism or blind faith. The main ideas of Buddhism are based on the "four noble truths". Let's briefly consider each of them.
The truth about suffering (duhkha)
The truth about suffering is that it is continuous: we are born from suffering, during our life we experience it, constantly returning thoughts to some problems, having achieved something, we are afraid to lose, suffering again about this.
We suffer in search of correcting the deeds of the past, we feel guilty for misconduct. Constant experiences, fear, fear of imminent old age and death, dissatisfaction, disappointment - this is the cycle of suffering. Awareness of oneself in this cycle is the first step to the truth.
On the Cause of Suffering (Trishna)
Following the path of self-awareness, we begin to look for the cause of constant dissatisfaction. At the same time, all actions and actions lend themselves to scrupulous analysis, as a result we come to the conclusion that life is a constant struggle with suffering. Striving for something and getting what he wants, a person begins to desire even more, and so on in a circle. That is, the primary source of our suffering is an insatiable thirst for more and more new achievements.
On the cessation of suffering (nirodha)
Rotating in the cycle of struggle with their own dissatisfaction, many mistakenly believe that they can get rid of suffering by defeating their ego. However, this path leads to self-destruction. It is possible to come to an understanding of the path without suffering only by stopping the struggle with it..
Letting go of negative thoughts (anger, envy, hatred that destroy the mind and soul), starting to look for piety in ourselves, we can look at our struggle from a distance. At the same time, an understanding of the true goal comes - the cessation of the struggle is moral purification, the rejection of unholy thoughts and desires.
Truth about the path (marga)
It is important to correctly understand the true path to enlightenment. The Buddha called it the "middle way", that is, self-development and spiritual purification without fanaticism. Some of his students misunderstood the truth about the path: they saw it in a complete renunciation of desires and needs, in self-torture, and in meditative practice, instead of calm concentration, they tried to introduce themselves to bring themselves to.
This is fundamentally wrong: even the Buddha needed food, clothes, in order to have strength for further preaching. He taught to look for a way between severe asceticism and a life of pleasure, without extremes. On the path of enlightenment important role meditative practice plays: at the same time, concentration is mainly aimed at gaining peace of mind and observing the flow of one’s thoughts at the moment.
By learning to analyze your actions here and now, in the future you can avoid repeating any mistakes. Full awareness of one's "I", the ability to step beyond the limits of the ego lead to the realization of the true path.
Did you know? In the hills east of Moniwa in Myanmar, there are unusual Buddha statues. Both are hollow inside, open to everyone, while inside there are images of events related to the development of religion. One of the statues rises to 132 meters, the second depicting the Buddha in a reclining position, has a length of 90 meters.
What Buddhists Believe: Stages of the Buddhist Path
Followers of the Buddha's teachings believe that each person did not appear on this earth by chance, each of us with each of our appearances (reincarnation) has a chance to clear karma and achieve special grace - "nirvana" (liberation from rebirth, a state of blissful peace). To do this, you need to realize the truth and free your mind from delusions.
Wisdom (prajna)
Wisdom lies in the determination to follow the teachings, the realization of truths, the manifestation of self-discipline, the renunciation of and desires. This is a vision of the situation through the prism of doubts and the acceptance of oneself and the surrounding reality as they are.
Comprehension of wisdom consists in opposing one's "I", intuitive insight through meditation, overcoming delusions. This is one of the foundations of the teaching, which consists in comprehending reality, unclouded by worldly prejudices. The word itself in Sanskrit means "superknowledge": "pra" - the highest, "jna" - knowledge.
Morality (sila)
Morality - maintaining the right lifestyle: renunciation of violence in any form, trafficking in weapons, drugs, people, abuse. This is the observance of moral and ethical standards: purity of speech, without the use of swear words, without gossip, lies, rude attitude towards one's neighbor.
Concentrations (samadhi)
Samadhi in Sanskrit means unification, completion, perfection. Mastering the methods of concentration, awareness of oneself not as an individual, but in merging with the higher cosmic mind. Such an enlightened state is achieved through meditation, calming one's consciousness and contemplation, as a result, enlightenment leads to perfect consciousness, that is, to nirvana.
About the currents of Buddhism
Throughout the history of teaching, many schools and branches from classical perception have been formed, at the moment there are three main currents, and we'll talk about them. In fact, these are the three paths to knowledge that the Buddha passed on to his disciples. different methods, in different interpretations, but they all lead to the same goal.
Hinayana
Hinayana is the oldest school that claims to accurately transmit the teachings of its founder, Buddha Shakyamuni (in the world - Gautama), based on the teacher's first sermons on the four truths. Followers draw the basic postulates of faith from the most authoritative (according to them) sources - Tripitaka, sacred texts compiled after Shakyamuni's departure to nirvana.
Of all the (eighteen) schools of Hinayana, there is the Theravada today, more of a meditative practice than a philosophy of teaching. The goal of the followers of Hinayana is to get away from everything worldly through strict renunciation, achieve enlightenment, like the Buddha, and leave the cycle of samsara, having gone into a state of bliss.
Important! The key difference between the Hinayana and the Mahayana is that in the first, the Buddha - real person, which has reached enlightenment, in the second - a metaphysical manifestation.
Mahayana and Vajrayana
The Mahayana movement is associated with Shakyamuni's disciple Nagarjuna. In this direction, the Hinayana theory is rethought and supplemented. This direction has become widespread in Japan, China and Tibet. Theoretical basis- these are sutras, a written form of spiritual revelations, according to the practitioners of Shakyamuni himself.
However, the teacher himself is perceived as a metaphysical manifestation of nature, the primary matter. The sutras state that the teacher did not leave samsara and cannot leave it, because a part of him is in each of us.
Fundamentals of the Vajrayana - . The direction itself, along with the practice of Mahayana, uses various rituals and rituals, reading to strengthen the individual and her spiritual growth, and self-awareness. Tantrics most revere Padmasambhava, the founder of the Tantric movement in Tibet.
How to become a Buddhist
For a person interested in learning, there are several recommendations:
- Before becoming a Buddhist, read the relevant literature, ignorance of terminology and theory will not allow you to fully immerse yourself in the teachings.
- You should decide on the direction, choose the school that suits you.
- Study the traditions of the chosen trend, meditative practices and basic postulates.
To become a part of a religious teaching, it is necessary to go through the eightfold path of realizing the truth, which consists of eight stages:
- Understanding, which is achieved by thinking about the truth of being.
- Determination, which is expressed in the renunciation of everything that exists.
- This stage is to achieve a speech in which there are no lies and swear words.
- On this stage a person learns to do only good deeds.
- At this stage, a person comes to an understanding of true life.
- At this stage, a person comes to the realization of the true thought.
- At this stage, a person must achieve complete, renunciation of everything external.
- At this stage, a person reaches enlightenment, having gone through all the previous stages.
Having traveled this path, a person learns the philosophy of teaching and joins it. Beginners are advised to seek guidance and some clarification from a teacher, this may be a wandering monk.
Important!Keep in mind that several meetings will not give the result you expect: the teacher will not be able to answer all the questions. To do this, next to him you need to live side by side long time maybe years.
The main work on oneself is to renounce everything negative, you need to apply in life everything that you read about in the sacred texts. Give up bad habits, do not show violence and rudeness, foul language, help people without expecting anything in return. Only self-purification, self-improvement and morality will lead you to an understanding of the teaching itself and its foundations.
You can be formally recognized as a true follower by meeting with the Lama in person. Only he will decide whether you are ready to follow the teachings.
Buddhism: differences from other religions
Buddhism does not recognize one god, the creator of all things, the doctrine is based on the fact that everyone has a divine principle, everyone can become enlightened and achieve nirvana. Buddha is a teacher.
The path of enlightenment, unlike world religions, consists in self-improvement and the achievement of morality and morality, and not in blind faith. A living religion recognizes and recognized science, smoothly adjusting to it, recognizing the existence of other worlds and dimensions, while considering the Earth a blessed place from where, by purifying karma and achieving enlightenment, you can get into nirvana.
Sacred texts are not an indisputable authority, but only guidance and guidance on the path to truth. The search for answers and awareness of wisdom lies through self-knowledge, and not unquestioning obedience to the postulates of faith. That is, faith itself is based primarily on experience. 
Unlike Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, Buddhists do not accept the idea of absolute sin. Sin, from the point of view of the teachings, is a mistake of the individual, which can be corrected in subsequent reincarnations. That is, there is no strict definition of "hell" and "heaven" because there is no morality in nature. Any mistake is correctable, and as a result, any person through reincarnation can clear karma, that is, pay off his debt to the Universal Mind.
In Judaism, Islam or Christianity, the only salvation is God. In Buddhism, salvation depends on oneself, understanding one's nature, following moral and ethical standards, refraining from negative manifestations of one's ego, and self-improvement. There are also differences in monasticism: instead of complete thoughtless submission to the abbot, monks make decisions as a community, the head of the community is also elected collectively. Of course, respect must be shown to elders and experienced people. In the community also, unlike the Christian ones, there are no titles or ranks.
It is impossible to learn everything about Buddhism at once, teaching and improvement takes years. One can be imbued with the truths of the teaching only by devoting oneself entirely to this religion.
