BUDDHISM by "Swarm" on the Buddhism board on http://zenbuddhism.tribe.net/ See the site.)

While Buddhism is often practiced as a religion and its teachings have been preserved by a strong monastic tradition, Buddhism is better thought of as a wisdom tradition instead of as a religion.
. . I say this because what one professes, has faith in, or believes, is not central to the practice of Buddhism. There is no real concept of sin, soul, deities or after life nor is there any special supernatural authority for its teaching.
. . Buddhism is fundamentally about who and what you are, how you live, the quality of your life and the nature of existence and reality ...here and now. It is ultimately experiential and pragmatic. Everyone must prove its truths personally. Nothing can be taken for granted or given by an outside authority if one is to personally awaken to full realization. The aspects of Buddhism which cannot be proven and demonstrated directly are its trappings and ornamentation. While interesting, they are not the topic at hand.
. . The Buddha was a guy who lived in what is now India, 2500 years ago. He was born a prince and had an over-protective dad. He married and had a son. Eventually he grew old and died of food poisoning. During his life, he noticed that certain aspects of life obsessed him and diminished the quality of his enjoyment of life: sickness, old age, death, missing his loved ones, the company of jerks, war, greed, poverty, all the same ills we still have today. All of these things seem inevitable to him and they caused him great mental and spiritual anguish, which he called suffering.
. . When he hit his midlife crisis, he decided to see if he could figure out a remedy to this suffering he felt. He tried the answers which were available at the time, drowning his cares in sensual excess, and the opposite extreme of complete asceticism, and found them both unsatisfactory. So he decided upon a course of moderation and sat down under a tree to work it out himself.
. . He decided that he while he couldn't change the nature of reality, he constantly wanted it to be changed and was clinging to false hopes and desires. This clinging to what is not and cannot be . seemed to be the root cause of his difficulties, and it separated him from his experience of the reality of what is.
. . Upon deep reflection, he discovered three basic mental failings which gave rise to this habitual clinging to suffering. These failings were ignorance, fear/anger, and greed.
. . But just knowing this did not free him from it. It had become a pernicious habit.
. . To remedy these failings, he found it necessary to cultivate 6 mental and spiritual strengths: generosity, joyful effort, patience, concentration, personal morality, and wisdom.
. . To help put this cultivation of mental and spiritual strength into practice, he picked 8 particular things to practice and 5 particular things to avoid.
. . The things to practice are: clear understanding, correct reasoning, appropriate expression, helpful action, beneficial livelihood, sufficient effort and focused concentration.
. . The things to avoid are: harming yourself or others, taking what is not given, sexual abuse, false expression and intoxicant abuse.
. . These are based solely on an understanding of human nature, how habits hold us, and how cause and effect work. They are not holy mandates nor is there any one waiting to punish anyone who strays, or reward those who practice carefully. The reward of living this way is that one's life experience is optimal, no matter the circumstances.
. . None of this is particularly novel. Buddhism has no monopoly on knowing how to lead a good life or gain insight. Since we all basically understand and agree on the fundamentals, what holds us back?
. . Knowing is not doing.
. . It is only in practice, paying attention and discerning what works from what doesn't work that these concepts become realization and awakening.
. . So what are the tools of this practice?
. . They are meditation, unconditional generosity and moderation.
. . Meditation is the tool which leads to insight and comprehension of the mind. It is just sitting and letting the mind become still and observant. As this is practiced, the ebb, flow and ending of thoughts and emotions will become apparent, as will the understanding that such are the function of mind, but they are not mind itself.
. . Unconditional generosity is not just being generous with possessions, but is also a generosity of spirit. By means of generosity, clinging to things is defeated and both friendliness and compassion are cultivated. Ultimately, this leads to joy and happiness.
. . And finally there is moderation. Moderation --in that the senses are neither cut off nor over-indulged, and moderation of our passions --so that grudges are not held and desires cannot hold us.
. . Of course, in the beginning, everyone gets it wrong. Buddhism is learned, not instinctive. But practice, paying attention, and discerning what works from what doesn't work, is a virtuous loop, and the guidelines that have been laid down will keep one from too grave an error in the meantime.
. . And that is Buddhism. You may have noticed there is nothing here that couldn't be practiced by a non-Buddhist. That is why I said Buddhism is better characterized as a wisdom tradition than as a religion. The practice of this path is a means by which one's life can be brought into focus and one can awaken into the full realization of the here and now.