* Buddhism can be summed up with the 4 noble truth and the middle way of life or the octuple way. This is buddhism itself, everything else is related to this. Is the "love god and your neighbour" of christianity, but we know christianty is very beyond that. In buddhism everything is very very internally consistent.
* There's no supreme god, immortal soul and after life in buddhism.
* There's no devil too. Our reality is not a kind of hell or lost paradise. It's just the reality (Nirvana) distorted by illusion (Avidya). But there's a kind of "force" (Mara is this personified force, it's the nearest of a devil in buddhism) who keeps the illusion running (samsara).
* Buddha never told WHY the reality is distorted. He said is a very complex reason, and it's not an important thing to know when you're trying to reach the enlightment. He compared to a man wounded by an arrow. In the present moment it's not importat to know who shoot the arrow and why, but the important is to remove the arrow and heal the injury.
* There are 3 major school of thoughts in buddhism (Theravada, Zen and Mahayna or Tibetan Buddhism). The schools of buddhism are not like the sects of christianity. They're are not opposed to each other but just different approaches. Theravada is the older view and are very focused on formal knowledge about Buddha. Zen is the most loose approach, they are more focused on the practical use of buddhism. Tibetan is the most mystical and detailed approach.
* Buddha was not a god. It was supposed to be a real person who lived in ancient India. His name was Siddharta Gautama.
* Buddha was never obese. Those fat statues represents Potai, a kind of chinese "Santa Claus" comparing to christianity.
* There's no Karma in budhism in a sense of "cause and effect". Karma in buddhism is the cyclical mental pattern every one of us possess. No matter how much we improve in knowledge and experience, we always have a recurring pattern of thinking and acting through this thinking, that's karma.
* There's no reencarnation in buddhism because there's no immortal soul. There are a concept better translated as rebirth. Rebirth occurs every moment, is the passing of a relative sense of identity from one moment to another. The most mystical approach about it is when we die our karma will give origin to another being. But this karma is an impersonal impulse, Buddha compared to the very "thing" what is passed when you transfer a flame through one candle to another. In a more detailed approach, buddhism says when we die, our karma is released from the dead body and wanders about 49 days (literal time specified only in Tibetan) called Bardo. In the Bardo most of our identity is lost and only people who improved their karma can have a level of control in this period. This period is said to be a very unpleasant moment, like a nightmare state. What is remained as identity suffers with a great sense of lonelyness. The pain is so strong that the only remedy to that is what was experienced before as love from a mother. So this incorporeal karma will look for an embryo\fetus (specified to be the transition between an embryo to a fetus) in a mother's womb to attach with it. So it's like a software ("karma in bardo") craving for a hardware (early intrawomb fetus).
* One can have the view of no rebirths after death at all, only rebirths in one lifetime (Theravada tends to this approach. Zen could say it's not important). In this view, the karma through two existences is a very impersonal force, like the genes passing one life to another.
* The main short term goal of buddhism is to achieve a better karma, so you can have a better rebirth (even while alive). When you rebirth in more equilibrated states, you can reach the final rebirth to a state beyond definition called enlightment or Nirvana. Nirvana is a kind of singularity in the process of improving rebirth. Nirvana can only be obtained through (perfect ?) equilibrium of mind. So you must dwell between all opposite extremes (like pleasure and pain, for example).
# Questions ?
