"Believe nothing, O monks,
merely because you have been told it…
or because it is traditional,
or because you yourselves have imagined it."
Do not believe what your teacher tells you
merely out of respect for the teacher.
But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis,
you find to be conducive to the good,
the benefit, the welfare of all beings —
that doctrine believe and cling to,
and take it as your guide."
— Gautama Buddha
"Whosoever honors his own religion and condemns other religions,
does so indeed through devotion to his own religion, thinking 'I will glorify my own religion.'
But, on the contrary, in so doing he injures his own religion more gravely.
So concord is good: Let all listen, and be willing to listen to the doctrines professed by others."
— The Buddhist Emperor Asoka of India, 3rd Century B.C.
In This Section
Watch & Learn
The Story of the Buddha
The Life of the Buddha
Some Helpful Links
This site offers a good overview of the basics.
A complete resource on all traditions of Buddhism, including e-books, talks, chants, and complete histories — all free.
What Is the Buddhadharma?
The Buddhadharma — literally, "the teaching of the Awakened One" — is the spiritual path established by Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, who lived and taught in northern India roughly 2,500 years ago. The word "Buddha" means "one who has awakened," and the dharma he taught is not a set of beliefs to be accepted on faith, but a practical method for waking up to the true nature of reality.
At its heart, the Buddhadharma begins with the observation that life, as ordinarily lived, is marked by dukkha — a word often translated as "suffering" but more accurately meaning a deep unsatisfactoriness or unease. The Buddha identified the cause of this suffering as tanha, or craving — our relentless grasping after pleasure, permanence, and a fixed sense of self in a world where everything is impermanent and interconnected. The freeing insight is that when craving is abandoned, suffering ceases, and the mind awakens to a state of clarity, compassion, and peace known as nirvana — literally, "the blowing out" of the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion.
The practical path the Buddha taught to realize this awakening is the Noble Eightfold Path: right understanding, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. These are not commandments but disciplines — a way of cultivating wisdom, ethical conduct, and mental cultivation that leads, step by step, toward liberation.
What makes the Buddhadharma distinctive is its emphasis on direct experience over blind belief. As the Buddha himself instructed, one should test every teaching against one's own examination and observation, accepting only what proves conducive to the good and welfare of all beings. It is this spirit of honest inquiry — rather than dogma — that defines the Buddhist path and that resonates so deeply with the AllFaith approach to spirituality.