Buddhism seems to have arrived in America sometime in the 19th Century. Emerson and Thoreau were touched by it. According to Peter Matthiessen, the first Zen master known in America arrived in the 1890s, and shortly afterward, D. T. Suzuki began a long career of translating texts and writing about Buddhism. Buddha was son of Suddhodana a ruler of a district in modern day Nepal. Suddhodana raised Buddha to be a monarch one day.
Nothing is permanent.
There is pain and suffering in life. Suffering is caused by desire, craving or lust. Freedom from suffering comes when a person rids himself of all desires. Enlightened people do not cease to experience the pain of existence. The way out of suffering is through the 8-fold Path.