Before reading “The American Encounter with Buddhism, 1844-1912: Victorian Culture and the Limits of Dissent” by Thomas A. Tweed, I had no experience of Buddhism, except for what I have seen. in cinema and the media. Viewing Buddhism through these different sources does not give an accurate illustration of what the religion actually is. Having little to no knowledge of the background of the religion makes reading this book both interesting and a bit difficult to read. In Buddhism, two groups define the religion. The first group is known as "The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism", the categories below are: life means suffering, the origin of suffering is attachment, the cessation of suffering is achievable and finally, the path to the cessation of suffering. The second group is the "Eightfold Path", which includes right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right attention and, finally, right concentration. Once I read and understood the different points, it made this literature easier to understand and made the reading smoother. Thomas Tweed raises some interesting points when it comes to Buddhism. He discusses how the spread of Buddhism was a difficult road to travel. You had to go through tribulations before being truly accepted into society. There are several main reasons why Buddhism has had a difficult history. One reason is that it was an Asian-influenced religion. At that time in America, people of Asian descent were not allowed to come to America. So when Buddhism was introduced to Americans, it was not popular with the majority of citizens. Another was the classification of Buddhism as a religion. Buddhism had this conflict of categorization as to whether it was a philosophy or a true religion. Many thought Buddhism was a philosophy because Buddhism is more of a way of life than a religion. However, for believers and followers of Buddhism, it was more than just a philosophy: it was their faith. The reason it was grouped with the rest of the different philosophies and not as a religion was because Buddhism was not similar to other religions. There is no “One Being” that we pray for, like Christianity or Protestantism. Buddhism is not about prayer but about meditation and self-discipline.