Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama , who was born around 563 BC, and died around 483 BC. He was born in Lambini, which is around modern day Nepal. He was the son of a chief, and as such was very well off. It is rumored that he had as many as 3 palaces, and had everything that he materially needed. As he grew older, he saw and old man, and began to be sad, because he knew that everyone would eventually grow old. He then went on visits and found a corpse, and ascetic, a diseased man, and a crippled man. Buddhists normally refer to these sights as the four visions, and they caused Siddharta to desire to live a monastic life. Siddharta went to a monastery and studied under the monks, but soon surpassed his teachers, and went on a journey with some of his closest friends. Siddharta tried to deprive himself of bodily goods, but eventually decided that he needed to find a middle way, a ground between self indulgence (gluttony), and self mortification(starvation). Siddharta was enlightened at the age of 35, and after this time he began to be called Buddha, or "Awakened One." For the rest of his days after this, Buddha traveled around Asia preaching his message to people from all different classes.

Some fundamental parts of Buddhas teachings are the Four Noble Truths.The First Noble Truth is that Life is Suffering, and that we suffer because neither we nor the world we live in is perfect. Since we are not perfect, that means that we must suffer. The Second Noble Truth is that the Origin of Suffering is Attachment. The idea behind this is that suffering comes from our attachment to things, whether they are physical objects or just ideas that we hold. Buddhism says that these attachments to idea and things are what causes us to suffer, and that since in life you are attached to things, than you must suffer. The Third Noble Truth is that the Cessation of Suffering is Attainable. Buddha teaches that to stop suffering, we must achieve nirosha, or the unmaking of sensual craving and conceptual attachment. The Fourth Noble Truth is that of the Eightfold Path, which says that ending eternal craving has to do with following the Eightfold Path.

The Eightfold Path involves, as the name suggests, 8 things you should do. The first of these is Right View, which means that you need to be able to see and understand things as they really are, not as they appear. The next step in the path is Right Intention, which means a commitment to ethical and medical self improvement. Right intention has to do with wanting to achieve the end to suffering, and doing what you can to do it. The next is Right Speech, which means to abstain from false, slanderous, and harsh speech, as well as abstaining from idle chatter and gossip. The next step on the Eightfold Path is Right Action, or abstaining from theft murder and sexual excesses. This goes along well with the next step in the Eightfold Path, which is Right Livelihood. Right Livelihood has to do with earning ones wages in a righteous way, and this means that you should earn your wages while maintaining right speech and right actions. The next step is Right Effort, which is a four step process. It has to do with preventing unhealthy states, getting rid of unhealthy states, encouraging wholesome states, and striving to keep wholesome states. The second to last step on the eightfold path is Right Mindfulness, which is the controlled and perfected faculty of cognition. This means being able to clearly perceive things without being carried away by impressions. The last part of the eightfold path is Right Concentration, which is the development of a mental force that occurs in natural consciousness, or in other words, developing a thoughtful and strong conscience. The Eightfold Path is a primary teaching of Buddhism, and is where Buddha shows how to escape the human condition of suffering.

The Five Precepts are another place where Buddha makes it clear on the right way to live. They all have to do with abstaining from things. The first is that I should abstain from harming living beings. The second is that I should abstain from taking things not freely given, or in other words, stealing. The third is about abstaining from sexual misconduct. The fourth has to do with false speech, or lying, and the last one has to do with not taking intoxicating drinks or drugs. The Five Precepts seem to root Buddhism in the real world. The five precepts is also how Buddha tells his followers to deal with the temptations of drugs and alchohol, and gives them a ten commandment style list of rules.

Sources: Waley, Arthur. "Buddhism". Harper and Row Publishers, New York Novemeber, 1965
http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism