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meditation session with a "eureka!" and went on to gain followers and preach about middle path (not too much, not too little), the nature of suffering, and how to relieve it.

Buddhism credits suffering to the mind, and outlines its three causes: avoidance (wanting to get away from something; fear, anger and laziness fit here), attachment (wanting to get closer to something; desire and clinginess fit here), and ignorance (lacking knowledge; immaturity and impulsiveness fit here). These three things, in turn, are centered around the biggest problem: belief in the 'self' or 'sense of "I"' as an actual legitimate thing to protect and appease.

The Buddha says there is no actual "self" - it is a persistent illusion, and dropping it, among other concepts, can lead to revolutionary realizations about living and suffering.

Buddhism seeks to explain why desire to obtain a thing isn't sated by obtaining the thing, and at its core, treats karma not at something attached to the soul (the Buddha preached 'anatman' or 'no soul'), but a predictable system of cause and effect. Enlightenment (and the cessation of suffering) involves full understanding of karma and the absence of the soul.

The eightfold path, which is a guide to attaining enlightenment, shows Buddhism's followers how to minimize suffering not only for themselves, but for other beings, as living things are not fully (only conceptually) separate from one another. Speaking of concepts, Buddhism encourages its followers to let go of attachment to conceptions about the world, which are only useful to a point, and can get in the way of enjoying life and growing enlightened.

Jainism

Jainism is almost anal-retentive in the attention it pays to practicing nonviolence and preventing negative karma. It doesn't support the idea of a conscious creator, but rather, a complex universe guided by specific laws, including karma - that is, the pattern of cause and effect, and the tendency of its results to attach themselves to an eternal soul.

The tradition is dated back to about 900 BCE, but may go back further, and claims everything on Earth to be teeming with life. Negative karma is created, and harm is done, even in eating, walking, digesting, breathing - that is, living. Millenia before the discovery of germs, Jains developed a belief in "nigodas:" tiny living things which are too small to see, but are everywhere. Even harm done to nigodas creates negative karma.

The goal of Jainism is to discover the true nature of the soul and

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