Preface

Preface____________________________________

Overtime many significant events have shaped history, from natural disasters, wars and the never ending feud of politics they have all played a significant role in history. But there is one that has had the most influential effect of all, religion. Throughout time there has been an abundance of different religions and practices formed over the years, from Christianity to Judaism, each of them having their own impacts on culture and society, one of the major religions that formed was Buddhism.

While studying the World religion and other related research works, I found the subject ‘Origin and Spread of ‘Buddhism in on ASEAN Countries and its Impact’countries’ very intriguing, since I am a Hindu that has not had much religion experiences outside of Hinduism though both are Hinduism are Buddhism closely knitted.

The Buddhism, the culture that I had to know more about it. That is why I decided to write about early Buddhism origins, practices as well the Economic conditions of the ASEAN countries in a nut shell. This book will discuss how Buddhism was founded, the practices of it, and how it has changed as it has entered a new area and interacted with a new people.

Buddhism was founded by or Siddhartha Gautama also known as “Buddha” was born about 2565 years ago in what is now part of Nepal. A contemporary of Mahavira and came from the same warrior social class, born the son of a chief of one of the tribes in the Himalaya. At the age twenty-nine, he became unsatisfied with his life of comfort, he left home to become a wandering ascetic. He travelled south to the kingdom of Magadha, where he studied with yoga masters According to ancient traditions Buddha was mediating under a tree when he reached enlightenment which is defined as the perfect insight to the process of the universe, after this process he began to preach his beliefs to mass groups of people and began to attract a diverse audience.

As you will observe Buddhism has had prominent and everlasting effect on religion in history, from the very beginning with Siddhartha Gautama meditating under a tree, to the present of the religion being practiced in countries worldwide, it will always be one the most influential and vital religions of the world.

There are two forms of Buddhism that are still prevalent in society today, these are Theravada and Mahayana. Both these traditions have existed for many centuries and encompass important beliefs derived from the Pali Canon and other ancient Indian Buddhist literature. They revert back to the orthodox teachings presented by the historical Gautama Buddha such as The Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path. Both these forms of Buddhism stay devoted to the traditional beliefs that the religion was built from and they accept the same basic understandings. However, the concept of enlightenment and how it is attained is debated among these two groups and it is the only major difference between the two Buddhist forms.