Buddhism

 The book I read was titled, Buddhism.  Upon selecting the book and reading a short description of the book I expected to be reading an informative, but ultimately boring book about the history of the Buddhist religion.  I was pleasantly surprised when I quickly became sucked into the book.  The book itself goes in depth about the three major types of Buddhism, Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana, and the beliefs and history behind them.  It also covers the religion's political, social, and spiritual influence and history throughout multiple countries, cultures, and continents.  The book went into enough depth where I actually learned a lot, but not to detailed where it became unnecessarily boring (The pictures helped).  The things I learned from this book give me a much greater understanding of the meaning of Buddhist practices and traditions.  This book has taught me more than I thought I would be able to learn from just one book.  It has introduced many different possible research topics for me as well.  One possible research topic is the development, changes, and interpretation of the religion throughout multiple cultures.  Another could be about how the religion is practiced today in western society.  There are arguments over the religion being picked apart and the true meaning of Buddhism not truly being understood.  Others argue that some interpretations of the religion involve universal Asian practices and are not essential to being a true Buddhist.