ABSTRACT
Buddhism is a collection of doctrines which contains the widest field of human thought yet attained by man. No other religion has its range of metaphysics, philosophy, mysticism, psychology, religious practice, mind-development, culture and art. Historically, it stems from the spiritual achievement of one man in North-East India, on a date, of remarkably little consequence to the practising Buddhist, in the fifth-sixth century BC. Its fundamental premise, alone to be accepted 'on faith', is that the Enlightenment claimed by the Buddha is achievable by all men, and here on earth.
