1. The largest branch of Hinduism

2.  Siddhartha Gautama was a wealthy prince of India  Siddhartha was not allowed to leave his home so didn’t know life was bad outside the palace  After getting married and having a first child Siddhartha sneaks outside the palace and discovers an old man, sick man, and corpse.  This experience freaks him out and he wonders why life is so full of suffering.

3.  Siddhartha decides he must abandon his family and discover how to help the world overcome such poverty and suffering  He becomes an ascetic (person who denies physical pleasure to focus on spirituality) and begins to fast for a month eating and drinking barely enough to survive  After a month of meditating under a tree with little food he becomes enlightened  Buddhist believe he achieved Nirvana (moksha)in this life and had his eyes opened to the world and what you must do to eliminate suffering

4.  Siddhartha becomes the Buddha (great teacher) and says to be happy must accept 4 noble truths 1. Accept that life is suffering 2. Realize that suffering comes from desire of material goods 3. To become happy and enlightened you must deny yourself of desire 4. To accomplish this you must follow the eightfold path  In other words he claims that people get hung up with acquiring stuff that they most likely will not be able to have or will lose. This causes suffering. People should be positive and be content with what they have and focus on what they can do to help not what they don’t have.

5.  8 steps you must take to deny yourself of desire. Most of these are ideas like Right Speech (have positive speech and be thankful for what you have not talking about the bad in the world) Right vision (realizing that happiness does not come from desires of the physical body but through helping people and spiritual insight. Etc  Buddhists believe that once people follow these ideas they will be enlightened and achieve Moksha. Unlike Hinduism where this means your soul is freed and becomes one with God, this indicates that your continuous cycle of reincarnation stops and you finally can rest.  Became popular among poor because it did not stick to a strict caste-system and said poor people could achieve Moksha immediately

6.  A Moral Code for Buddhists The main five are:  1. Don’t take the life of anything living  2. Don’t take anything not freely given  3. Abstain from sexual misconduct and sensual overindulgence  4. Refrain from untrue speech  5. Avoid intoxication, losing mindfulness.