Do not accept anything by mere tradition ... Do not accept anything just because it accords with your scriptures ... Do not accept anything merely because it agrees with your pre-conceived notions ... But when you know for yourselves - these things are moral, these things are blameless, these things are praised by the wise, these things, when performed and undertaken, conduce to well-being and happiness - then do you live acting accordingly. -- Buddha

The Buddhist philosophy is based on the teachings of the great Gautama Buddha. Buddhism is a branch of Eastern philosophy. Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563-483 BC) was also called Shâkyamuni (the Sage of the Shakya Clan), the Gautama Buddha (the "Enlightened One," from budh, "to wake up"), and the Tathâgata (the "Thus Come"). He was born to a royal Shatriya family. Since his birth, Siddhartha was kept away from all evils. There was a prophecy during his birth, which said that Siddhartha would either become a world conqueror, or he would "conquer" the world by renouncing it and becoming a Buddha. About age thirty, Siddhartha finally did experience evils, by encountering a sick man, an old man, a dead man, and a wandering ascetic, he determined immediately to renounce the world and seek enlightenment like the ascetic. This violated Siddhartha`s duty as a householder.

To attain enlightenment, he sat under a tree with the determination not to arise until he had achieved it. The tree became the Bodhi ("Enlightenment") Tree; for under it Siddhartha, resisting the attacks and temptations of Mâra, the king of the demons, became the Buddha, the one who "Woke Up." The Buddha proceeded to Sarnath, near Benares, and delivered his first sermon in a place called the Deer Park. That set the "Wheel of the Law," the Dharmacakra, in motion.

The sermon consisted of the Four Noble (Ârya) Truths:

1. The Truth of Suffering, or Misery (Duhkhasatya), that life is suffering, including birth, disease, old age, and death;
2. The Truth of the Cause (Samudayasatya), that suffering is caused by desire and by ignorance, which ultimately depend on each other. This is the doctrine of Dependent Origination.
3. The Truth of Cessation (Nirodhasatya), that suffering can be ended if its causes, desire and ignorance, are removed; and
4. The Truth of the Way (Mârgasatya), which is the Middle Way, between the extremes of asceticism and indulgence, or the Eightfold Way, which is
1. Right Knowledge (or Views), samyagdr.s.t.i,
2. Right Resolve, samyaksan.kalpa,
3. Right Speech, samyagvâk,
4. Right Conduct (or Action), samyakkarma,
5. Right Livelihood, samyagjîva,
6. Right Effort, samyagvyâyâma,
7. Right Mindfulness, samyaksmr.ti, and
8. Right Meditation (or Concentration), samyaksamâdhi

Buddhism and its philosophy:
Practice and Enlightenment then lead one to Nirvâna ("Extinction"), which the Buddha refused to positively characterize. Do we even exist when we achieve Nirvâna? The Buddha denied that we exist, denied that we do not exist, denied that we both exist and do not exist, and denied that we neither exist nor do not exist. This kind of answer is called the Fourfold Negation and becomes a fundamental Buddhist philosophical principle to deal with attempts to characterize Nirvâna or ultimate reality: we cannot either affirm or deny anything about them.

Buddhism rejects atheism, theism, monism, and dualism alike. The Buddha criticized all concepts of metaphysical being and non-being. Buddhist scriptures are called the Tripit.aka, or the "Three Baskets," consisting of the Sutrapit.aka, the Buddha`s sermons, the Vinayapit.aka, the monastic rules, and the Abhidharmapit.aka, early philosophical treatises. The Buddha himself spoke the Prakrit Mâgadhî, but the oldest version of the Tripit.aka that is extant was committed to writing in Sri Lanka using the Prakrit Pâli, which had become a literary language. These texts are called the "Pâli Canon." The version of the Tripit.aka that exists in Chinese used to be regarded as derived from the Pâli Canon, but they are now both seen as based on older versions. The swastika is often associated with Buddhism in East Asia. In a place like Japan it is often found on maps marking the location of Buddhist temples. The symbol and the name, however, both come from India.

Doctrines of Buddhist Philosophy:
All forms of Buddhism maintain these basic doctrines and fundamentals of the Buddhist philosophy:

1. Momentariness: Nothing exists for any length of time. There is no substance or duration to things. Each moment is an entirely new existence, which is succeeded by an entirely new existence. The only connection between one thing and the next is that one causes the next.

2. Relative Existence or No Self-Nature: Nothing has an essence, nature, or character by itself. Things in isolation are shűnya, "empty." The nature of things only exists in relation to everything else that exists. Existence as we know it is thus completely relative and conditioned by everything else. Only Nirvân.a would be unconditioned, although we cannot know what it is like.

3. No-Atman (soul): There is no Self (âtman) in Buddhism, either as an essence or as a substance. What we call our self is a collection of things, the "aggregates" (skandhas): 1) the body, or "form," 2) feelings, 3) ideas, 4) impressions, & 5) momentary consciousness. There is no enduring thing present in the aggregates.

4. No-God: There is no Brahman or any other such ultimate enduring substance or nature to reality. Nirvân.a thus cannot be characterized as realizing Self, Brahman, or God. This philosophy is in complete contrast with the philosophy of Indian thinkers who believed that the Universe or God is the super power, who handles this whole world. This is especially the case in connection with the Pali scriptures. Yet some Mahayana sutras envision the Buddha as the "god above the gods", as a primal, eternal, sustaining essence within all beings and phenomena, while some tantras paint a portrait of the Buddha on a cosmological scale and in cosmogonic terms as the emanator of all universes. in many passages in the Tripitaka Gautama Buddha spoke about gods and gave specific examples of individuals who were reborn as a god, or gods who were reborn as humans. Buddhist cosmology recognizes various levels and types of gods, but none of these gods is considered the creator of the world or of the human race. Gautama Buddha is mentioned as an Avatar of Vishnu in the Puranic texts of Hinduism. In the Bhagavata Purana he is twenty fourth of twenty five avatars, prefiguring a forthcoming final incarnation. A number of Hindu traditions portray Buddha as the most recent of ten principal avatars, known as the "Dasavatara" (Ten Incarnations of God). The oldest school of philosophy in Buddhism as preached by the Buddha is known as Theravada Buddhism or Hinayana Buddhism. Adherents of Theravada Buddhism do not perform puja to deities of the Buddha. In addition the adherents of Theravada Buddhism also do not believe in the Bodhisattvas.

There is a belief that at the time of Buddha`s arrival many of the Brahmins in India were abusing the Vedic system for their own selfish purposes, and were especially involved in needless animal sacrifices, and that as a result Buddha appeared as an avatar to readdress the balance.

5. Dependent Origination: Everything has a cause. A momentary existence occurs as it does because of a previous momentary existence, but the cause itself is also momentary. Dependent Origination combines the doctrines of momentariness and relative existence and is why in the Second Noble Truth desire and ignorance cause each other. That relationship can be expanded:

1. Ignorance (avidyâ), causes
2. Impressions (samakâras), which cause
3. consciousness (vijńâna), which causes
4. mind-body (nâmarűpa), which causes
5. the sense organs (s.ad.âyatana), which cause
6. contact with objects (sparsha), which cause
7. experience (vedanâ), which causes
8. desire (tr.s.n.â), which causes
9. clinging (upâdâna), which causes
10. the will to be born (bhâva), which causes
11. rebirth (jâti), which causes
12. suffering (jarâmaran.a), which in turn causes
13. ignorance (avidyâ).

Thus, Nirvana is the removal of all causes of existence. Our understanding of Dependent Origination enables us to adjust to the world and thus live a happy and normal life.

6. Karma: Because there is no substance or duration in Buddhism, the Buddhist view of karma is different from that in Hinduism or Jainism. Karma is only causation, without the mediation of any substance (apűrva, causal body, etc.). Reincarnation thus consists in our being caused by something in the past, and our karma is simply the effect now of past actions.

Developments of Buddhist philosophy:
He who is the All-knowing One, the One who has Well-gone, awakened, the King of Righteousness, the One who has Thus Gone, Universal Goodness, the Blessed One, the Conqueror of the Demon Mara, the Conqueror of the [Three] Worlds, the Victorious One, the Possessor of the Six Supernatural Knowledges, the Possessor of the Ten Strengths, the Speaker of Non-dualism, the Guide, the Lord of Sages, the Auspicious One, the Teacher, the Sage and the Sage of the Sakya Clan -- that one is the Lion of the Sakya clan, He who has accomplished all goals, the Son of Suddhodana, Gautama, the Kinsman of Scholars and the Son of Mayadevi.

Early Buddhism focused basically on what doctrines to accept and which ones to reject. Only the Madhyamaka School, the school of thought and its subsidiaries, has preserved all the critical rejections of all views. It is Also known as Sunyavada) is a Buddhist Mahayana tradition popularized by Nagarjuna, one of the Buddhist philosophers. It values only knowledge, which is useful for attaining enlightenment. Buddhism was diverted into many schools and sects only after Buddhists began attempting to make explicit the implicit philosophy of the Buddha and the early Suttas. After the death of the Buddha, attempts were made to gather his teachings and transmit them in a commonly agreed form, first orally, then also in writing known as The Tripitaka. After the 2nd century CE, additional teachings began to be added to the list of important Buddhist texts. Many of these altered and refined Buddhist philosophy.

There still are certain questions in these philosophies, which have not yet been answered. If there is no self, then what is it that attains enlightenment or Nirvân.a? It is not I, for I am already gone in an instant; and if it is not I, then who is it? Also, why do I, instead of someone else, deserve the karma of some past existence?

Some philosophers believe that Buddhism as a whole is a practical philosophy rather than a religion. It is "practical" in that it has a specific method of application known as the Noble Eightfold Path (from which notions of divinity are entirely absent) of a particular set of philosophical principles (the Four Noble Truths). Some philosophers say that Buddhism does not have doctrines in the same sense as other religions; the Buddha himself taught that a person should accept a teaching only if one`s own experience verifies it and it is praised by the wise. The schools of Indian logic recognize a certain set of valid justifications for knowledge, or Pramana, while Buddhism recognizes a smaller set. Both accept perception and inference.