There are many different religions in the world. Each religion offers its own qualities of living to make life as enjoyable and fulfilled as possible. Each religion has different rules and values that a person must follow along with meditation or prayer. Each religion has different goals that one must reach in order to fully understand what the religion truly means. The goal of the Buddhist is to achieve a total state of nirvana. Literally it means, "blowing out". In nirvana, all "individual personality or ego ceases to exist and there is nothing to be reborn." (The Buddhist Tradition, 12) It may be the felling of nirvana that is attracting more and more people to this religion. Buddhism may not be known all over the world but it has spread greatly and now is the forth largest religion in the world with an estimated number of 350 million followers. Throughout this paper you will learn about the history of Buddhism, some of the meditation styles, and how it compares to the leading religion Christianity.
             The Buddhist tradition can be traced back to the year 536 BC, with the birth of Siddhartha Guatama. Siddhartha was the son of a wealthy respected land owner. The birth of Siddhartha was very odd, he was placed inside his mothers womb as a white elephant and then born out of her side ten months later. When Siddhartha was an infant a wise scholar noticed the 32 auspicious signs of the enlightened one. The 32 auspicious signs are special physical characteristics that are present on the body of an individual who will be a fully enlightened Buddha. His father was extremely fearful for his son so he had decided to keep him on the estates confined grounds to hopefully keep him protected.
             Although his father had tried to keep him safe from the outside world Siddhartha happened to escape on three occasions. He was very troubled with the images he had seen and was confused about his calling as a person. Siddhartha had later real...