Buddhism has been regarded by many as a religion whereby the followers worshipped a Buddha-God. This is infact not true. Buddha himself asked man to question authority and not to accept religion in blind faith without investigating and questioning within reason the truth about the systems of beliefs.

Shakyamuni Buddha was infact born as a man who was known as Siddharta Gautama. Son of a King and a Brahmin, Siddharta lived in Northern India about 2500 years ago. As a young man, Siddharta was well educated and highly intelligent, born into a life of good fortune. However despite his comforts, Siddharta saw the suffering of mankind, striken by poverty, sickness and old age. Determine to find the root of suffering, Siddharta vowed to his best friend Govinda that he would not wake from meditation until he found the root of all suffering.

Under a Bodhi tree, Siddharta meditated until he woke as an Enlightened man. From then on, he was known as Buddha Shakyamuni, who not only found the root of suffering but the solution to end suffering. As an elightened man, Siddharta became known as Buddha which means the Awakened one. This is the reason why Buddhism is not named after Siddharta because he emphasised the importance of dharma as opposed to religious worship.

Shakyamuni Buddha achieved a perfect understanding of nature and the structure of reality. He began teaching this to others, naming his teaching as Dharma.

Buddha discovered that all sentient beings have the potential to see the ultimate reality, thus break free from the cycle of samsara or suffering. The reason why not all of us can see reality as it really is, is because of the conditioning of the mind.

Buddha taught many meditational methods that calm the wandering thoughts so that the mind can see the world without being deluded and disillusioned by thoughts and conditioning.

He also taught that life forms have an indestructable source that is connected to all source which is the reason why he taught us to love each other. By generating loving kindness and compassion, we are not only benefiting our loved ones, but we are also benefiting ourselves. This is because we are all connected and related, having a karmic connection in past and future lives. And by doing good, we are also given the opportunity to remove our collected negative karma. Because Buddha says that each of us have the potential to understand the nature of reality, we will eventually return to this ultimate reality, breaking free from the cycles of suffering.

While Buddhism is extremely concerned with the Enlightened One, "Buddha"; It is more importantly about the search for ultimate truth.

The false perception that all that we perceive with our existing senses are the beginning and ending of all truths; that it constitutes the whole truth is caused by our deluded mind. This false perception of truths causes us to desire and strive for materialistic objects, making us in the long run more miserable and unhappy. When we discover that after all the work and energy we have put in getting these things, the things we most long for are imparmanent. Imparmanent is not to say that it does not last but that it is always changing. We find that our lives are always changing and that we have no control over it. Even the things that we strive for which are not materialistic objects like relationships with loved ones are subject to change; Like when loved ones grow old and die.

Buddha himself although an enlightened man also aged and died. But when Buddha died, he was liberated from suffering forever. This is the Ultimate reality. Buddha is our liberator who points to the direction of enligtenment so that each of us can also be liberated from suffering.