o take root. Buddha preached a religion devoid of authority. He challanged individuals to take responsibility for their own lives. "be lamps unto yourselves," "work out your own salvation with diligance". He preached a religion devoid of ritual. He ridiculed the Brahmanic rites as 'superstitious petitions to ineffectual gods', and unimportant in the grand scheme of things, irrelevant to the process of ego-reduction. Buddha preached a religion without explanations. He doesn't attempt to explain the world in all it's mystical functions, whether it's eternal or not, infinite or not. he 'maintains a noble silence' in this regard. Buddhism is without tradition. Buddhists do not celebrate the birth of buddha, and adorn foliage with decrative lights, while singing songs and exchanging gifts with family. In American culture, almost every holiday has some kind of christian or catholic root, in our day to day lives, we don't consider that most things we celebrate are supposed to reflect our 'faith in christ.' I think most people tend to think of these holidays as a free pass from work, or an excuse to get presents, drink green beer, eat candy, etc. Very few celebrate these 'holidays' as what they were. Most celebrate them as what they've become. Buddhism doesn't offer the frilly appeals of traditions, which in my opinion only serves to strengthen it as a whole, and redirects attention to the substance of the religion. Buddhism is a religion of self-effort. There is no grace, or glorified anything. He believed that each individual must tread the path (to the end of suffering) him or herself, through determiniation, and effort to achieve the ultimate goal, where as in christianity, there is talk of being 'graced by god', and in Hinduism they believed the cycle of samsara to be unending, which the Buddha thought to be like a neverending sentence of 'hard labor'. "there is a path to the end of suffering" he said, "tread it." Lastly, Buddhism...
