Buddhism Influencing the World's History

Over the years, religion has played a major role in the world's history. Learning about the religions will help you gain a better understanding of why it is important to the world's history and how it has influenced the modern world today. Like a river flowing down stream, Buddhism has introduced the modern world to many new ideas by influencing the world's history, and without them the modern world wouldn't flow. Buddhism is the fourth largest religion, and a very thriving religion according to the amount of adherents there are of Buddhist living around the world. The three major events that had an influence on the world's history were the understanding of suffering, the cultural and political impact of Buddhism in the modern world, and Buddhism art and literature.

One of the three major events was when the Buddha from his own experience added the idea of the cause of suffering. Suffering was a big part of this religion. Through suffering as the author from Wiki Answers said, "there are two different kinds of pain, the pain where a person can gain from it and the other pain where it lingers" (Buddha Influence World History). This cause of suffering is also one of the four noble truths which are how Buddhists live their life and achieve Nirvana. These noble truths I think don't have to be just for Buddhists, but can also be for other people no matter what religion you are because they are so important especially the second noble truth. The second noble truth states that desires are the cause of suffering. This includes craving and ignorance which are two main causes of suffering (Musing, Rachel). People suffer with their craving and ignorance, and do this in a variety of way (Musing, Rachel). They suffer with their craving for the pleasures of the senses and become unsatisfied and disappointed until they can replace their cravings with new ones, and they suffer with their ignorance when they can't see the world as it really is and live with illusion about life and fears, hopes, etc. (Musings, Rachel). Buddha can explain what suffering really is through the first noble truth that states that suffering exists and is universal. With this being said, suffering is what life is all about and create our suffering through our ignorance and craving of what we can't have in life. According to Rachel Musings, the cause of suffering is not limited to just craving for something, but can also be due to a person fighting with reality. For an example a person being sick and trying to fight a cold.