What are the main belief systems? - Buddhism

Buddhism is a rather different religion, it's not like any of the religions we have gone through, for a start it is not an Abrahamic religion, it is a Dharmic religion meaning it has an Indian origin and it has a philosophical tendency rather than a blind faith one. (The word Dharma from where Dharmic comes from means natural law or reality.) Buddha himself believed in gods but he did not base his teachings on these but on the explanation of suffering and ways of attaining freedom from it. This is why it is said that Buddhism is non-theistic.

Buddhism is a non-theistic religion while Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are monotheistic. In Buddhism, there is no belief in a specific god, instead it is based more on trying to understand the ultimate truth. Buddhism started at around the fifth century BCE and it is based on teachings of Guatama Siddhattha also known as Buddha. He was son to a king and was born in Lumbini, Nepal; he was predestined by a wise man to be either a great king or a holy man depending if he ever got to see life outside his palace. At the age of 13, he realized he was unhappy with his life and had 4 visits outside his palace. This is when he came across the "four sights" and realized that life was not as he had seen it, there was a lot of suffering and poverty. He continued to live in his palace with a very troubled thought and intermittent depression. At the age of 29 he decided to leave his palace, wife and son in order to seek an end to suffering. For many years he meditated and tried different methods to end his depression and discover the ultimate truth. At the age of 35 after having meditated for 6 years, he sat down under a tree and decided to meditate until he was fully enlightened. Here he attained Bodhi or awakening and discovered the four noble truths thus the secret to complete internal peace and happiness. In order to get to Nirvana (the perfect peace of mind free from craving, anger and other afflictive states.) he taught the eight-fold noble path to enlightenment.

-Right understanding
-Right thoughts
-Right Speech
-Right conduct
-Right livelihood
-Right effort-Right mindfulness
-Right concentration

For more detail on the eight-fold path click here.

Buddhism as any other religion has developed many branches. Including two main branches Mahayana and Theravada. Buddhism is mostly concentrated in Asia although Buddhism is now followed in many other places as well. There are about 350 million followers situating Buddhism as the fourth largest religion behind Christianity, Islam and Hinduism.