Buddhism
Note: All of this is basically paraphrased. But in Buddhism it's all about telling the story. For more information you may want to visit your local temple. A lot of them offer classes and lots of free information.
The big things in Buddhism are the life of the Buddha (the four passings), The Four Noble Truths, and of course the Noble Eightfold Path.
The Life of the Buddha
His given name was Siddhartha Gautama, but I like to say the Buddha because it's short. The Buddha basically means "enlightened one," and technically can be used to refer to any person who has attained enlightment. However, the monks usually refer to enlightened ones who have passed on as the Arahats.
So the Buddha grew up very sheltered. As the story goes, his father was told by a fortune teller that his son would grow up to be either a great warrior who would rule the country, or a great religious figure. His father, being power-hungry, sought to prevent the Buddha from ever seeing anything that would get him all philosophical.
Anyway, one day, he actually left the safety of his father's complex. (Some people believe that the gods were the ones who made this happen, but in Buddhism gods are regarded as the furniture of the universe and basically useless, so it's kind of contradictory.)
This is known as the
four Passings/Sights.The Buddha jumped on a carriage and went for a ride around the place. Then he saw something he'd never seen before: a very old man. He asked the driver what is was. "He is an old man. Every person in the world gets old someday." They kept going until the Buddha stopped the driver again, asking about another man on the side of the road. "He is sick," said the driver. "Everyone in the world gets sick sometimes." The Buddha sat back and thought about this. Finally, he saw a funeral. He asked the driver what was going on. "They are grieving for a dead man. Everyone in the world dies someday." Well this shocked the Buddha, and he wanted to go home. He had never in his life seen any of these horrible things. Before reaching home, the Buddha saw one more thing which stayed with him for the rest of his life: ascetic monks, who had renounced all forms of earthy pleasures. The peaceful looks on their faces changed his mind about becoming a warrior.
Basically, it was the cool thing for monks to starve themselves to death and the like back in the Buddha's day. See, he was the second son, so he was able to get away with shirking his family duties and running off with the monks after convincing the eldest son.
The monks he was with were Ascetics, who basically thought that to rid yourself of all the karma (which weighs you down to this world), you have to....uh, not eat anything, not kill so much as an insect, live off of scraps from people, stand out in the hot sun instead of the shade, and out in the snow during winter. The idea here was not to build up ANY karma, which weighs down the soul.
Now, the Buddha did this too for a while. And then he realized that, uh, it wasn't doing much for him. So he set off under the Bodhi tree and attained enlightenment through the Middle Way. In other words, in between the extremes of self-gratification and self-mutilation. Moderation is a good thing.
(If anyone's interested, he came back and set those other monks straight. That kinda makes me laugh).
Anyway. He came back with the
Four Noble Truths.1. All life is suffering
2. Suffering is caused by desire
3. To stop suffering one must stop desiring
4. To stop desiring, one must follow the Noble Eightfold Path
And of course, this is what follows:
The Noble Eightfold Path
Right View (realizing, believing the four Noble Truths)
Right Intentions (the intention to break your cycle)
Right Speech (speaking truthfully and kindly; telling others of your way of life)
Right Action (Just, kind, and moral actions)
Right Livelihood (Your occupation is not harmful to others/society; eating the right way, ect).
Right Effort (This and the last two are mostly about meditation; not being a lazyass in all this stuff)
Right Mindfulness
Right concentration
Buddhism is interesting because it is more like a kind of psychology than a religion. Unfortunately, the Buddha never revealed any theory of the self, so it is unclear how he saw the individual soul.
The best way to explain the Buddhist soul is with a candle flame. Imagine lighting a candle and letting it burn all the way through the wick. Just before the flame goes out, take a brand new candle and light it with the old flame. This is how the Buddhist sees reincarnation. However, they see the human soul as fluid, and ever-changing in almost every aspect.
So again, it's a little iffy here. The fact that the Buddha himself had no real theory of the self lead to different conclusions by his followers, which makes it kinda confusing.
