1. What is Buddhism? The word Buddhism comes from buddhi which means waking up in this sense, Buddhism is the philosophy of awakening. Buddhism is so named because its founder was a man who at one point in their lives brightened. -woke-and was named Buddha (who woke up). Buddhists are followers of Buddha.

2. History of Buddha.- Buddha was a man born in 563 BC. His name was Siddhartha Gautama. From a young age he showed great intelligence. According to the customs of the time he married at age 16. He had a wife and a son. He lived in northern India in a luxurious setting. But he saw the suffering of others, had a crisis and decided to leave in search of truth. He left his family, and sat at the feet of religious teachers in their region. It was the great start. He was 29 years.

These teachers taught him many things, but nobody knew the cause of suffering and how to overcome. After six years of study, meditation and strong ascetic, had an experience where ignorance disappeared and suddenly understood. From that day was called Buddha, the Enlightened One. This lighting took place at the foot of a fig tree, which became sacred tree of Buddhism.

Since then, he traveled through northern India, teaching what he had discovered. His compassion and patience were legendary and he had thousands of followers. He died in 483 BCE at eighty years old, sick, but happy and at peace.

3. Was Buddha a god? It was not a god. Buddha, didn´t proclaimed God or God's messenger. He was a man who perfected, and taught that if we follow their example we can achieve perfection. Before the lighting was a yogi and practiced yoga, and then insisted on meditation.

4. Do they worship Buddha in Buddhism? Buddhists do not worship or make offerings to Buddha. They do not give worship, but admiration and respect. As an example, consider the meaning of some symbols used in Buddhism: the Buddha statues invited to develop peace and love in us, the perfume of incense reminds the pervasive influence of virtue. The lamp indicates the light of knowledge, the flowers wither symbolize impermanence, a reverence expressed gratitude to the Buddha for his teachings. This is the nature of Buddhist worship.

B. BUDDHIST PRACTICE
(We started talking about practice, because the theory is more complicated).

1. How is the ethics of Buddhism? Buddhist ethics is based on the five precepts: respect for life, not take what is not given to me, correct sexual behavior (which is not harmful to others or me), not to speak in a harmful way (lying, rudeness, display, gossip, idle talk), and not taking intoxicants (mind-altering and threatening to break the other precepts).

2. The Four Noble Truths.- In Buddhism are named the following statements:

• Everything that exists is subject to pain, suffering.
• The origin of suffering is desire. (thirst, lust, anxiety for life).
• The pain can be deleted (off those desires).
• To extinguish the suffering, one must follow the road of the eight trails.

4. What is practiced in Buddhism? A Buddhist practitioner is characterized by two activities: the study of the teachings of Buddha, and the exercise of the eightfold path, meditation mainly.

5. How is meditation in Buddhism? Is important and peculiar. Sometimes it is a yoga technique, sometimes an effort not to think about anything. It differs from Christian prayer or meditation.

6. What is Nirvana? In Buddhism, Nirvana is the ultimate goal pursued by a Buddhist. After years of yoga, sacrifices and meditation, the Buddhist gets off on it, all desire, even of life, and is entering a new state called Nirvana which has overcome the suffering.

C. THEORIES OF BUDDHISM

1. Where is the doctrine of Buddhism? The 84,000 teachings of Buddha are contained in the texts called sutras or suttas. The pali collection is complete. They are also abundant in Sanskrit texts.

2. How is the existence in Buddhism? In Buddhism nothing is permanent, everything flows. There is no God or anything, neither individuals nor beings. There is only change, along with suffering that you want to change.

3. How is the individual in Buddhism? In Buddhism, every man is a composite of matter, sensation and perception, subconscious and consciousness. And these things are removed and reassociate at every moment under the law of karma, so that the individual does not remain.

4. What is karma? Karma is the law of cause and effect that governs the change. If it does well, the new human composite gets improve. Thus reincarnation is continuous without death to stop it.

5. The chain of twelve causes.- In addition to the four noble truths, this chain of conditional generation occupies a central place in Buddhist theory. Therefore in some Buddhist monasteries depicted a wheel divided into twelve sectors. These causes or conditions originate in the inner man: ignorance, the unconscious and consciousness, the senses and sensations, and sexual desire. The exit to the exterior is rather obvious: from sexual desire comes marriage, and from it the existence; from existence comes birth, old age and death, with the suffering that accompanies them.

D. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. Is Buddhism a religion or a philosophy? Buddhism seeks perfection of man's mind and in the love for others, but makes no reference to God. Therefore, it is not religion but philosophy. It can be confused with a religion because it encompasses all life and points out an ultimate goal of man without God. Buddhism is a school of wisdom that develops methods that lead to nirvana by following paths of meditation and penance.

2. The suffering and death in Buddhism.- Death and pain are the major problems need to solve for Buddhism. And in both cases, the solution provides is the elimination of desire.

• The eightfold path is meditation and sacrifice techniques that seek to achieve insensitivity to pain, so that even if the suffering is present, there is no inssatisfaction in a person.
• To solve the problem of death, Buddhism comes to the continuous theory of reincarnation, which ends when one gets beyond the desire to live.

• The absence of self, blur in continuous change. The absence of beings equally blurred in an endless stream. (Things and people are determined to assert its real existence contradict these theories Buddhists).
• The somewhat negative view of the world and of human perfection: the world is full of pain and its perfection consists in turn desires. The ultimate goal is also somewhat poor, not to suffer. (The reality is that the world has many beautiful things, and many noble desires that it should not be deleted).
• The absence of references to God removed category compared to Buddhism religions.

• For Mahayana Buddhism, the saint who manages to reach the nirvana does not go there, but by compassion, is left out helping others to be released.
• This Buddhism transformed the Buddha into a god, and awakened Buddhas, into saviors. For Vajrayana Buddhism, the Buddhas would be supernatural beings who created the world for the magical powers of his mind, as gods in various scales.