This page shows a brief introduction to Buddhism and I hope we can come to discuss the form Buddhism assumed in Japan and in the different Asian countries. Neverthless, as usual, one should be careful about the material collected over the Web. For instance, I was puzzled about this sentence: "Buddhism began in India where a scholar named Siddhatta Gotama (known as Buddha) wrote a religious doctrine that focused on being spiritual with one self as opposed to worshipping a god." First, the idea of Siddharta Gautama as a scholar is a bit bizarre. Not that the Buddha was unlearned, but well, that's not how I would describe him. Then, the historical Buddha did not write any religious doctrine. He gave oral teachings that later were put into writting form by his disciples.

I won't go in detail about this page, but just another puzzling sentence: "Thus only humans and Hindu Gods can go on to teach Buddhism in their new life." hmmm.. and even this one sounds peculiar: "Buddhism is also different from other religions in that one can go to hell for a short period of time after death. This can be used as a punishment, so you can do well to go to heaven for the rest of your next life."