| Born in India 2.600 years ago Buddhism was only noted by the West over the past century and as its ideas spread a new form of Buddhism, the West Buddhism, is emerging leading people to ask what these old ideas can offer to the western men and women of the 21st century.
New Religion Emerges as Buddhism Travels West
Since 560 BC Buddhism, currently the faith of 400 million people, spread from India to Tibet, China, Southeast Asia and Japan, giving birth to new forms of Buddhism as it absorbed the local culture. But in the last century we are seeing a new move as Buddhism travels west. The so-called West Buddhism (or Western Buddhism) is taking shape as westerners abandon the prevailing ritual aspects of oriental Buddhism and shift the focus to its philosophical and ethical principles.
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Western Buddhists believe that the ideas of Buddha, its concepts of ethics, compassion, mindfulness and meditation, can offer answers to the crucial questions of modern life, relieving stress and creating harmony and health at a personal level. At a social level we see in the news the action of the so-called Engaged Buddhism, a term created by Thich Nhat Hanh and practiced by the Tibetan Dalai Lama and others. The Engaged Buddhism tries to apply the Buddhist insights to situations of social and political distress and considers the personal development a part of this process. Another point stressed by Western Buddhists is that it offers to individuals the option of an inner journey, and that it's not necessary to be a member of a church, or to have a guru or even to believe in a personal God.
The core ideas of Buddha can be found in The Gospel of Buddha. This book that introduced many westerners to Buddhism, was first published in 1894 and has sold about 3 million copies. The author, Paul Carus (1852--1919), a German American writer and a pioneer on the interfaith dialogue, collected from ancient records many accounts of Buddha's life and fashioned a coherent and gripping narrative similar to the Christian Gospel of Jesus.
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