Buddhism is a religious system whose followers seek liberation
from suffering through adherence to the teachings of the Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama. To Buddhists, sentient beings are trapped in
an eternal cycle of death and rebirth (samsara), characterized
by continual dissatisfaction or suffering (dukkha). Buddhism
provides a practical set of teachings (the dharma) designed to
help sentient beings achieve a state of freedom from dukkha.
Buddhism teaches that individuals reincarnate involuntarily and
repeatedly in the world of samsara, a cyclic process which ends
for an individual when they attain Nirvana (Theravada) or
Enlightenment (Mahayana), either in a human body or immediately
upon death in their last involuntary cycle of samsara. Mahayana
Buddhism holds, in addition, that the goal of Enlightenment is
not merely release from one's own personal suffering in samsara,
but also the release of all sentient beings, toward which an
enlightened being or Buddha is, by nature, committed to work
through compassionat