The Buddhism is a religion that has a founder, called the Buddha, which means "awakened". To his followers, the awakening is the key.

Figure of Buddha

Buddhists believe that human beings live like in a dream, which you have to leave in order to understand the meaning of life, to understand this is to do what they call a "join", a knowledge that flows into the awakening and liberation that called nirvana.

Therefore, the nirvana is the goal of Buddhism: achieve it is escaping the wheel of rebirth and understanding the Supreme and absolute reality, beyond the thought and language. Buddha's who, having succeeded in awakening, set an example for others, teaching this way.

Buddha lived in northern India 2500 years; belonged to a family of warriors and rulers and his name was Gautama Sidharta, also called Sakyamuni, which means "Sage of the sakya clan". It is said that, as was not satisfied with the fact that in the world there is sickness, pain, injustice and death, decided to seek a way to escape all these sufferings.

The 29-year-old left his home and his family, and began to live as an ascetic in the forest, meditating and fasting until it was skin and bones. But I realized through this life of privation could not what I was looking for.Proposed, so that one would have to follow the middle path, away from the extremes.

The 36-year-old, sitting under a tree in Bodhgaya, near Benares, came through meditation to awaken, to enlightenment, that would have led to understand the true nature of things, and began to preach.

Pronounced his first speech, the sermon of Benares, in the deer park at Sarnath near Benares. They say the Buddhists who set in motion the wheel of dharma, teaching the way so everyone get rid of suffering and reach the awakening that flows into the nirvana. Thedharma is the principle by which the world works, Buddha understood and explained and that appears reflected in the sacred books of Buddhism, with a different meaning from that of Hinduism.

After more than 40 years as a traveling preacher throughout northern India, created a small community of followers. Died at the age of 80 years.

With his death, it was established Buddhism in its three key components: Buddha, for example; the dharma, as way of life; and the sanga, which is the community of Buddhists and that appears as a reference and support.

And what they call the three refuges. The most common Buddhist prayer says: "take refuge in the Buddha, take refuge in dharma, take refuge in the Sanghai".

This image refers to the period of the life of the Buddha where he spent as an ascetic in the Woods, when did not achieve its purpose.Example of incorrect behavior, since it assumes an extremism that goes against the grain of the middle path.

The fasts so drastic is not a correct activity because the person harms herself. Excessive asceticism would make vulnerable the right livelihood of the noble eightfold path that appears in the sermon of Benares.

The wheel refers to the episode from the life of Buddha when he pronounced the sermon of Benares in the Deer Park in Sarnath, with the Buddha set in motion the wheel of dharma.