Gautama lived 500 years before Christ. He grew up in three palaces and his father did not want him to see the real world. Gautama was sheilded from seeing the poor, sick and dieing.
Eventually, Gautama did go out and saw the dead, spoke with the sick and poor. He even decided to become a hermit and live as a hermit. For six years he sat under a fig tree meditating thinking about human suffering and the nature of the world.
Gautama became the "enlightened one" and went out to share his ideas with all those who would listen. His solution to human suffering went something like this: if we want to avoid human suffering we must start with our selves, because all human suffering comes from our own desires. Think of it this way, if you want a toy, you can satisfy your desire one of two ways. You can acquire that toy or stop wanting it. Either way you will be satisfied. If the appetite goes then so does the desire.
Gautamo also taught that a person who is the master of all that he wishes will no longer be reborn after his death. Only souls that cling to life are reborn in the cycle of never ending birth and death. Those who master their desires will enter into nirvana upon their death. Probably, why Kurt Cobain killed himself. Just one problem with the suicide thing, if you do it then you have not mastered your desire for death. It has mastered you.
Of course, most of you know by now this was, Bhudda.
Source: E.H. Gombrich, A Little History of The World.