What is Buddhism ?
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Buddhism is the name given to the teachings of a Buddha. Buddha is a sanskrit word that means “enlightened”, a human being enlightened with the true about the life and the universe.
As a difference with other major religions, buddhism is not a about a divine revelation. All starts when a man, through their own efforts, discovered the ultimate true inside him and taught all people could do the same. In that sense, buddhism does not mean only a learning from a buddha. Is more than this, is a knowledge that allow us to reveal our own nature of Buddha, to develop our innate enlightened condition, or Buddhahood.
The Buddhism began in the north of the India with a man called Shakyamuni or Siddharta Gautama, who lived about 3,000 years ago. In his vision, all the people, even if they are rich or poor, experiences inevitable pains. Shakyamuni called this “The four sufferings; birth, old age, sickness and death.” People are born in a world where they can´t avoid the grief and frustration. They suffer the pain and humillation of the illness and growing old, and for the consciense of their own mortality.
Fundamentally, the four basic sufferings are related to what Buddhism calls the truth of impermanence, everything is forever changing and does not stay the same even for a moment. People in this world suffers seeking wealth, power, status or love, which by their own nature they are destined to change. As opposed to other doctrines, Shakyamuni seek the solution for this problem inside his own life and profethized in the Daishitsu Sutra that 2,000 year later, the true Buddha will be born and he will reveal the Universal Law to all the humanity. His desire was to be born again in that epoch to meet the true Buddha.
So, in Japan in the XIII century Nichiren Daishonin was born. He strictly complied with all the prophecies in the teachings of Shakyamuni whit their own life, day after day, revealing to the humanity the Law of the Life (Mystic Law) in a way that all people could practice.
Nichiren invoked the law of life “Nam myoho renge kyo” for the first time in April, 28th of year 1,253 and his reason for coming to this world was to merge that Law in a physical object of devotion for all the humanity. This object is the Dai-Gohonzon.
The Buddhism, as other greater religions, tries to set the humans free from the sufferings, joining them with the ultimate truth or reality of life. Western religions tend to personify this truth as a God, or anexternal power higher than the people, higher than you and me, in which we should trust. Before searching a superior kingdom, the Buddhism is to look for happiness inside us! The human Being is the central point of the Buddhism, The human being has all the unlimited potential to manifest Buddahood. The Buddhism consider this as center of our own life.
The law of life (Mystic Law), which Buddhism postulates was not created by someone, but is eternal and is the ultimate reality inside the life of all human beings. Thus, the Buddhism states that the people have the state of Buddha inside them and they are likewise capable to reveal their own Buddha nature. In this manner , Buddhism provides the key for the equality of all the people and it focus on the reverence to the dignity of life.
It is important to note that the Buddhism never has been spread with the sword neither used as justification for the war or other atrocities. Because all the people are interrelated, one person cannot enjoy the true happiness or enlightment separated from other. Through the buddhist practice, people can understand sacred state of their own life and other people life. So this reading suggests us to teach the buddhist practice to other people, so they can know the ultimate true too and achieve happiness and liberty, transforming gradually the world in where they live to a better one. The double goal of the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin is to achieve the buddahood, and at the same time to make efforts benefiting other people.
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