When you think of Buddha, of Buddhism, you often think of a large, bald, obese man with a big smile on his face. The Buddha has many faces in different religions. The face you see is that of the Laughing Budai which is the Chinese interpretation of the Buddha. It is a common misconception among Americans to associate that face with the face of Buddhism, but the father of Buddhism is Siddhartha Gautama. Buddhism was able to morph with religions in Asia, as you can see with the Chinese; this has helped keep the religion alive over the centuries. After watching the video “Buddhism; The Great Wheel of Being", I learned the roots of Buddhism. The video describes Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, as a man who lives in the lap of luxury, without ever wanting anything. One day Buddha came out of his royal palace and visualized the whole suffering of the world. After seeing so much suffering, death and illness, Buddha felt pain and guilt for the way he lived. He knew that this would not be the way to his salvation. Buddha then struck for his redemption he went to the opposite extreme of extreme luxury, even that of nothingness. He took part in penance or self-mortification, a voluntary self-punishment for his salvation Hinduism.Buddha transformed the religion of Hinduism, took some beliefs of Hinduism and excluded the living into extreme indulgence or self-mortification as the way to salvation, and developed a middle path to salvation. This is how Buddhism became a religion. It is hard to believe that Buddha could be so wise after living in complete luxury. I guess this is why the name Buddha means "awakened" (Estella Films. 1995). Buddha thought of a way to heal the world and the individual. In today's society there are not many people who practice Buddhism, and if we did we probably wouldn't have the wars we have today. Buddhism is the practice of peace. As an awakened one, Buddha developed the doctrine of the four noble truths to lead to salvation. It could be considered a four-phase program. The first truth is the truth of suffering. It could be a man dying from an illness. The second truth is the origin of suffering. In this case it would be the illness that caused the man's death, or the anxiety linked to the fact of dying.