Anglo-phone religions: Buddhism

In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.

Buddha

All over the world there are more than 300 million people who consider Buddhism as a religion. Buddhism is based on the idea of Buddha’s enlighten. Buddha is the creator of Buddhism, but differently from the other religions he is not a god. for this reason Buddhism is also seen as a philosophy more than a religion.

File:Ascetic Bodhisatta Gotama with the Group of Five.jpg

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
Buddha

"Siddhartha Gotama was born into a royal family in Lumbini, now located in Nepal, in 563 BC. At 29, he realized that wealth and luxury did not guarantee happiness, so he explored the different teachings religions and philosophies of the day, to find the key to human happiness. After six years of study and meditation he finally found 'the middle path' and was enlightened. After enlightenment, the Buddha spent the rest of his life teaching the principles of Buddhism — called the Dhamma, or Truth — until his death at the age of 80."

Buddhism is a very open-minded religion, what differentiate Buddhism from other religions is that Buddhism accepts all religions. You can be both Buddhist and Christian.
For example Japan has two religions (buddhism & shintoism) that live side by side. You can attend marriage in a buddhist temple and funeral in Shinto shrine.

another thing that differentiates Buddhism from other religions is that it is a scientific religion, this means there is no supernatural power of entity.

In the Buddhist religion there is the belief of the Karma. the karma is a law which states that every action has a cause. this means that depending on what you do and why you do it you will change your life.

Nirvana= profound mind peace in indian religions

the way to reach enlightenment is through meditation.

There is also an idea of rebirth. Rebirth in Buddhism is not a supernatural action, once the person’s body is dead , new life is formed, this means that your body is reborn in different forms such as insects, plants … the idea of the soul is not present, in fact the belief is that the mind controls the body, and you have to control the mind.

'There is no reason to suppose that the world had a beginning at all. The idea that things must have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our thoughts.'(Bertrand Russell)

"Buddhism supports the idea that the beginning of this world and of life is inconceivable since they have neither beginning nor end.Buddhists believe that the world was not created once upon a time, but that the world has been created millions of times every second and will continue to do so by itself and will break away by itself. According to Buddhism, world systems always appear and disappear in the universe."

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.
Buddha

"Meditation is a practice in which an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness, either to realize some benefit or as an end in itself."

other practices are:

Mantras - Sacred sounds

Mudras - Symbolic hand gestures

Prayer Wheels - Reciting mantras with the turn of a wheel

In the Anglophone world Buddhism is not as spread as other religions but it is present.

As we can see it is spread in Asia and in the Anglo-phone world such as : America,UK,Australia,New Zealand...

the percentage of spread is really little in fact only 1-9% of each country population belief in the Buddha’s teachings.

Due to the beliefs ( wealth isn't what makes a happy life) this religion has difficulties in the modern society.

in America, buddhism is one of the largest religions, after Christianity, Judaism, at the same level as islam and hinduism.
In Australia buddhism is the second largest religion (after christian religions), it increased by the 79% between 1996-2001