The religious group of Buddhism has a lot of differences then other religious groups. Buddhism “is an 800 year old religion and a way of life dedicated to manifesting the endowed purpose of every human being to realize enlightenment”( Shinran Shonin, BASIC BELIEFS, PRACTICES AND EXPERIENCES). One thing that I learnt that stood out about the differences of Buddhism is that they are not concerned about labels. Buddhists don’t worship an idol, but do sometimes pay respect to images of Buddha. All though not in worship nor to ask favors, but more of a gratitude for their teaching. Some basic concepts of Buddhist teaching are the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. Two differences between Buddhism and other religions are god and the concept of hell. Buddhism do not believe Buddha is a God, they say it’s more like a teacher student relationship. Buddhist concept of hell is way different than other religions. They believe in realms and Hell is the worst of the three undesirable realms, not that Hell is a place of eternal damnation.

Buddhism is still new in American culture but you still see Buddhist, just not as common as other countries. The biggest thing that they have contributed to American culture is the politeness and caring not for themselves but for other human beings. They have brought to the American culture that wealth is not the way to happiness. Actually, if you look at a lot of Buddhist countries, they are poor looking because they believe that wealth is not the way of happiness.

There is a lot of prejudice and discrimination against Buddhist, epically in an America. The biggest reason is because Buddhism is still small to America. Although it is the fourth-largest religion in America (Jane Lampman, The Christian Science Monitor), people still discriminate against them. One of the biggest discriminations within the Buddhist