Siddartha Gautama bases his ideas on those he had read in sanskrit, but there are two main innovations over Hindu traditions I would personally state.

1. Theological: Primarily, he suggests reincarnation can be avoided through personal effort in following the four noble truths.
2. Ethical: Primarily, he says compassion for others is necessary, practiced as the eightfold path

The wikipedia is pretty good on these topics, but I have to say, it totally changes every couple of years now, even the sanskrit terms change. Don't let anyone tell you they understand it perfectly and will teach you everything, lol, because then someone else will pop up and teach you something different.

If reproduction makes illusionary egos pop out of the Pure source of nirvana, shouldnt we all be focusing on reaching nirvana instead of starting families? — Gregory

That's what Schopenhauer thought. I also tend to think so, but do not think you will get to any relief like Nirvana. The best you can hope for is preventing a future person from suffering. Even if you believed in some metaphysical state like Nirvana, the amount of people who supposedly get there is very limited.

In connection to your starting families question, there's different answers from different Buddhist traditions. Theravada says that ultimately it's better to be a monastic than a lay person. However, in the Mahayana this changes. In fact, the Vimalakirti Sutra is a Mahayana scripture where the key character, Vimalakirti, is a married lay Buddhist man with a family. The scripture belittles the idea that only monastics who are celibate can be the most advanced spiritually.

Also, in regards to life is suffering. My Buddhist studies professor always taught that the original term "dukkha" translates better to "unease." No matter how good someone has it, they will always have a sense of unease at times, especially towards the end of life and then very especially so if they live without the teachings of Buddhism. According to a lot of early Buddhist schools that come from the Abhidharma branch, such as the Theravada, a way to escape attachment to things is by seeing the true nature of reality. For many Abhidharma Buddhists the true nature of reality is the dharmas. The dharmas are atomic constituents that come in a physical form as well as a mental form. So, physical objects are only physical dharmas while sentient creatures are physical and mental dharmas.

If this conversation is interesting to you, I can tell you more. :up:

Buddha was a true radical. In what is a conspicuous departure from other theological traditions that lure us with the promise of eternal life, the Buddha begins with the assumption that we do live forever, our souls continuously reincarnating in samsara, suffering in every life so lived, and then, offering us, as release from this torture, total annihilation - nirvana. It seems he was an antinatalist at heart; you really can't go anywhere else with his philosophy.

The Buddha's upside down worldview is astonishing to say the least.