Buddhism

First I'm mixed up about how to spell Buddhism.  I know, pathetic.  The 'h' seems to float, does it go after the B, after the u, no, it's after the dd.  Yeah, I'll retain that about 5 minutes.  Then I discover that Buddhism is not a uniform belief system, there are different kinds of Buddhism!  (I'd take credit for spelling it right 3 times in a row but I'm copying and pasting.) They are: The Therevada that emphasizes personal salvation through your own efforts and is the oldest of the disciplines; The Mahayana, whose adherents' goal is to become Buddhas themselves - their tradition includes the bodisatva, one who delays nirvana in order to help others.  I have on occasion been able to impress people because I can pronounce this, but I'm just a Steely Dan fan. Then there's The Vajrayana who are mostly Mahayana-esque but they include magic and deities in their religion. All this is of course hugely simplified.  Buddhism is complicated.  And has 350 million followers.  Who can probably spell it.

Source:  World Book Encyclopedia.  That's right.  Still one of the best resources in the biz.

Buddhism Books