Buddhism is one of the most widely practiced and highly respected religions in the world today. Conceived in the 5th or 6th century it is based on the life and teaching's of prince Siddhartha Guatama who later in life would be known as "the Buddha" or as he referred to himself "one who is awake". Buddha's approach is set out in three sections, or a trinity if you will, these are samadhi (meditation), sila (morality) and panna (wisdom). Much like Christianity, Buddhism has diverged into three different forms or churches, Mahayana, Theravada, and Vajrayana (as opposed to Roman Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox), they all follow the same principle's but Mahayana and Vagrayana are the more colourful containing more dancing, movement, art and singing.

Buddhism contains it own creed, code, and ceremony. It's creed involves the 'four noble truths'. They are (1) Everyone's life contains dukkha (suffering), "suffering" in Buddhism refers not only to physical pain, aging, sickness, and death, and to emotional pain like fear, loss, jealousy, disappointment, and unrequited love. Suffering, in the Buddhist sense, is a pervasive condition. No

There are a lot of comparisons to be made between Buddhism and Christianity. On the surface both Jesus' and Buddha's lives were similar, as Jesus was Jewish and Buddha was raised as a Hindu, and they were both dissatisfied with the religious options available to them and their countrymen and both set about doing something to change it. Thus, 'you could say both Budda and Jesus were religious reformers' .

Both contain similarities in their doctrine, Christianity has The Ten Commandments while Buddhism contains The Ten Fetters of Existence, both these principles are a set of guidelines to help us achieve "the ultimate". For Christians this means admittance to heaven, for Buddhist's enlightenment. Additionally, both endorse a passive approach to confrontation or "turning the other cheek" believing that it is better to concede defeat than to resort to violence to solve a problem or disagreement.

Meditation is the key to Buddhist ceremony. Buddhist's practice meditation in different ways, 'according to the teaching of Budda, they are to be adapted to the psychic deposition of each individual'. There are two different methods of meditation - the absorption method which directs the mind to a single object and the analytical method which concentrates on the awareness of mindfulness.

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