The life story of the man who is referred to as Buddha is especially relevant to many Americans today, says Tenzin Kacho, a Tibetan Buddhist nun who lives in Colorado Springs and teaches at the Thubten Shedrup Ling Center for the Study of Buddhism and Tibetan Culture, which meets at Colorado College.
Born Prince Siddhartha Gautama in India in 563 B.C., Buddha was given great riches but was unhappy. So he left his father's palace and sought a more fulfilling life."In a way the Buddha's life is like our modern Western life, because as modern Americans we're able to attain many things that we wish for," Kacho says.
Buddha's biography was written several centuries after his death, so some details are in the realm of legend, said Buddhist David Gardiner, a Colorado College assistant religion professor.
Buddhists don't believe that Buddha was a god. Through study and meditation, Buddha attained "enlightenment," Kacho says.
The emphasis, though, is that people must find enlightenment themselves.
"Buddha said all I can do is teach you and show you the way. But you the student, the disciple, are the ones who have to take up the teachings. In other words, the Buddha can't just take our hand and lead us to freedom and enlightenment."
As with Christianity, there's a certain payoff to living a good life: Christians go to heaven; Buddhists in general believe in reincarnation and take a good karma into that next life.
There are many different schools of Buddhism -- "at least as many as Christianity if not more," Gardiner says -- with Zen and Tibetan Buddhism being the most popular in the United States. The schools generally don't differ in terms of doctrine, Gardiner says, but rather in attention to certain rituals and rules of conduct.
"For the lay people, those distinctions are almost irrelevant," Gardiner says.