Buddhism and the quest for entlightenment - Le Bouddhisme et la recherche de la connaissance

My thesis is made up of three major parts. In the first part I will briefly summarize the history of Buddhism from its birth in India and I will explain its three great divisions, the traditions Theravāda, Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna. In the second part, I will explain who Buddha is, how he was born and how he reached the Nirvana after an intense period of concentration sitting under the Bodhi tree.
In the second chapter I will more specifically talk about mediation: the beneficial effects on people’s soul and body, its obstacles and friends, the karma that determines our actions and how we shall meditate in order to reach knowledge. In the same chapter I will explain how mediation and physical exercise have been conjugated into martial arts, the famous Kung Fu Shàolín, and how this has been resumed in the most ancient Chinese literature, with the adventures of the monkey Sūn Wùkōng.
In the third and last chapter I will finally describe the development of Buddhism in the West, its transformations, and the EBU, the European Buddhist Union.