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When interacting around and with Buddhist one needs to avoid all affection and do not overly touch anyone including family or close friends with you.

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http://www.gotpassport.org/2010/10/05/dos-and-donts-when-visiting-a-buddhist-temple-anywhere-in-the-world/

always keep your head below the buddha statues, images, monks and elders.

keep quiet around them they may be mediating or praying somewhere even though you might not see them.

take off your shoes when in or around the temple grounds.

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ladies will have themselves completely covered when going to the temple and with a scarf to cover themselves up.

Research their beliefs before visiting a area that is well known for buddhism.

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Approximately 470 million followers world wide

Approximately 1% of North Americans are Buddhists

Half (50%) of the world’s Buddhists live in one country, China. The largest Buddhist populations outside China are in Thailand (13%), Japan (9%), Burma (Myanmar) (8%), Sri Lanka (3%), Vietnam (3%), Cambodia (3%), South Korea (2%), India (2%) and Malaysia (1%).

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Methods that were taught and still practiced today are overcoming anger, ignorance, and jealousy and practice more love, compassion and wisdom.

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Buddhists believe that the root of our problems and suffering comes from a negative state of mind and happiness and good fortune come from positive states of mind.

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Buddhists heavily practice mediation - it is the heart of their life

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Two major branches of Buddhism are Theravada "The School of the Elders" and  Mahayana "The Great Vehicle."

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Buddhism is a nontheistic religion, which means independent from the belief or non-belief of God

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Buddhism was founded in the north-eastern part of India

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Traditions and history behind Magha Puja Day.

Magha Puja is also known as the Full Moon Day. It is a Buddhist festival that is celebrated by Buddhists in various nations on the third lunar month to commemorate four good things that happened in their history about 2,500 years ago. The main reasons why this festival is celebrated include:

Around 1,250 Buddhist monks met spontaneously without any prior planning

The 1,250 Buddhist were enlightened monks

Every one of them was ordained personally by the Buddha

All this happened on full moon, the first in March which is the month of Magha

In some instances, the Magha Puja Day is also referred to as Fourfold Assembly Day because of the four things that happened.

The initial large Buddhist gatherings were held only a few months after Buddhist enlightenment. The second one came after 45 years only three months prior to Buddha's death. The recent Magha Puja Day happened a time when Buddha called his disciple Ananda and informed him that his is going to die after a period of three months. Therefore, the festival is used to commemorate important teachings of the Buddha.

Buddhist gather at temple at dusk where they make merry, share flowers, incense and lit candles. They celebrate the day by lighting candles and moving in a circle three times around the temple's main hall in honor of the Three Jewels of Buddhism: the Buddha, Sangha and the Dharma.

#Buddhist holidays celebrated in year 2016: Wednesday Mar 23, 2016 - Magha Puja Day https://t.co/7vy1Sxhw4c

- Marian (@astrowikia) March 3, 2016

Those who are far away from Buddhist temples, celebrate the Day by keeping their houses clean in preparation of the holiday. Also, they are supposed to abstain from taking anything that is not given, sexual misconduct, telling lies, distilled and fermented intoxicants and abstain from taking the lives of living beings.

Magha Puja Day is a day where Buddhists are urged to meditate on the three Jewels and their role in the Buddhist religion. They should meditate about the Buddha Jewel which reminds them about his attainment of enlightenment, the Sangha Jewel which represents the community of Buddhist and the Dharma Jewel which represents the Buddha's own teachings.

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Buddhists Celebrate Magha Puja Day - World Religion News

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Traditions and history behind Magha Puja Day. Magha Puja is also known as the Full Moon Day. It is a Buddhist festival that is celebrated by Buddhists in various nations on the third lunar month to commemorate four good things that happened in their history about 2,500 years ago.

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Types of Buddhist Rituals

1. Going for Refuge

2. Offering homage or respect to the Buddha, to Buddhist teachers, teachings, or other important areas of Buddhist life.

3. Making offerings or practicing dana.

4. Confession of faults

5. Precept ceremonies

6. Calling on spiritual forces for support or protection

7. Blessings, aspirations, and Brahmavihara “prayers.”

8. Dedication of merit

9. Rites of Passage such as weddings and funerals

10. Initiations and ordinations

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Translation of Brahmajala Sutta, the first in the Tipitaka.

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Brahmajāla Sutta: The All-embracing Net of Views

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The bhikkhus replied: "When dawn had broken, Lord, after rising we assembled in the pavilion. As we sat here, the following conversation sprang up among us: 'It is wonderful and marvellous friends, how the Exalted One, he who knows and sees, the Worthy One, the perfectly enlightened Buddha, has so thoroughly penetrated the diversity in the dispositions of beings.

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The Tripitaka, meaning "three baskets," is one of the earliest compilations of Buddha's teachings.

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Buddhist monks wear "triple robes" that consist of an inner garment, upper robe, and outer robe.

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The eight spokes on the Dharma Wheel represent The Noble Eightfold Path

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Buddha's Four Noble Truths

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Siddhartha Gotama, also known as the Buddha