Buddhism

Buddhism is a religious system whose followers seek liberation from suffering through adherence to the teachings of the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama. To Buddhists, sentient beings are trapped in an eternal cycle of death and rebirth (samsara), characterized by continual dissatisfaction or suffering (dukkha). Buddhism provides a practical set of teachings (the dharma) designed to help sentient beings achieve a state of freedom from dukkha. Buddhism teaches that individuals reincarnate involuntarily and repeatedly in the world of samsara, a cyclic process which ends for an individual when they attain Nirvana (Theravada) or Enlightenment (Mahayana), either in a human body or immediately upon death in their last involuntary cycle of samsara. Mahayana Buddhism holds, in addition, that the goal of Enlightenment is not merely release from one's own personal suffering in samsara, but also the release of all sentient beings, toward which an enlightened being or Buddha is, by nature, committed to work through compassionate action. To this end, a Buddha may voluntarily reincarnate to help release all sentient beings from samsara.