Brief Overview
There are approximately 150,000 active Buddhists in the UK.
Buddhism is based on the teachings of the Buddha Shakyamuni who lived in
Northern India about 2500 years ago. A Buddha is to be revered, not as a God,
but as an example of how we should all aspire to live our lives. The essence of
Buddha is within each of us and we can all attain our Buddhahood through
sincere practice of the Eight-Fold Noble Path, which includes virtuous conduct
such as compassion and generosity, meditation and the cultivation of wisdom.
Many Buddhists are believers in spiritual rebirth but this is understood as a
causal connection between lives rather than the transmigration or reincarnation
of an unchanging individual soul. For most Western Buddhists faith in the
efficacy of following the eight-fold path is more central than assent to
specific verbal formulations of religious belief.
One of the steps on the Eight-Fold Noble Path is the practice of ‘right
livelihood’ and this has promoted a tendency in western Buddhists to seek
employment within what are referred to as the ‘caring professions’.
They also support such initiatives within the community as Angulimala (the
Buddhist Prison chaplaincy service) and hospital chaplaincy. A significant
proportion of Buddhists are also actively engaged in movements promoting
justice and peace.
Although it is particularly strong in northern areas of the Indian subcontinent
and in some parts of South East Asia, Buddhism is a world wide religion. Many
Eastern Buddhist traditions started becoming established in the West during the
20th Century: the Theravadan tradition, originally mainly from India, Sri
Lanka, Burma and Thailand; the Tibetan tradition, which has a wide influence
through northern India, and China to Mongolia; and the Zen Buddhist tradition,
which originated in China, spread to Korea, Japan and Malaysia. |
