On Buddhism: In the Beginning

My new friend Dustin asked a little about the basics of Buddhism. Here is what I came up with...
I will start with the basics...
Buddhi, is the Sanskrit word that means “awaken.” If it sounds familiar to you, that’s because—you guessed it... it is the root of the word Buddha, or “Awakened One.” The

There have been, are, and will be, many Buddha’s, but the one credited as the patriarch of the philosophical path called Buddhism, was the man born Prince Siddhartha Gautama.

Please note that I said man.
There is a common misconception out there particularly among those uneducated in other cultures or belief systems that Buddhists “worship” the statue of a short, fat bald guy. This could not be further from the truth in most cases. Buddha never claimed to be God, or even a god. No Buddha was just a man who came to a realization, and had the good nature and heart to share it with others. Simply put, that realization was how to put an end to your suffering. Nothing more, and nothing less. No eternal salvation. No eternal damnation, none of that.

Buddhism began approximately 2500 years ago—which means that it predates Christianity by about half a millennium. It is a philosophy rather than a religion, though there are aspects of both in its practice. I say this in this way because of a passage in S. Dhammika’s book “Good Questions, Good Answers” regarding this very subject.

“The word ‘philosophy’ comes from two words ‘philo,’ which means ‘love,’ and ‘sophia’ which means ‘wisdom.’ So philosophy is the love of wisdom, both meanings describe Buddhism perfectly.”

In fact, I should have thought of this earlier. One significant resource for both practicing Buddhists and those who are just curious can be found online, with many MP3 downloads, e-books (including the one I just cited) and other useful tools. All of this is free to use, and may be more helpful than I am going to be, Dustin. You can find all of this at Buddhanet, which is listed on my links to the right.

I encourage you to read over the “Good Questions, Good Answers.” Then if you have any further questions, I would be happy to go further into the philosophy. Remember that I am more of a Zen guy than a “practicing Buddhist,” and I tend to do little with scripture, and focus more on practice and intention.

Let me know if any of this helps, and please... keep asking.