In a literal historical sense, Christianity has been the most destructive religion on the planet, with more wars in their name of its leader, sometimes on both sides of the battlefield, than any other religion. Perhaps Jihadist Islam is catching up with this, but it still has not succeeded. Buddhism, 500 years older than Christianity, has very few examples of wars in the name of its leader, with Buddha stopping one very big one in his own lifetime by peaceful, calm, and rational discourse with the two leader kings, and King Asoka disbanding his entire army after he becomes a Buddhist.
Buddha is portrayed with a serene smile that shows the attainment of Nirvana, an inner peace that the world cannot shake. The muscle relaxation required to reach this serene smile cannot be faked by a tense smile that covers sorrow, but it does come from dissolving the three poisons of the mind in meditation, both in the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.
Being a Buddhist does not automatically make this enlightenment happen, but I have found that just listening to the Dharma and understanding it brings a measure of peace, and if you meditate for even two years with a decent meditation teacher that you will have flashes of "the unborn, the unchanging, and undying" and its peace. The third noble truth is sometimes stated as "Nirvana is the highest pleasure". I do find it interesting how much attention is given to the first noble truth that sorrow exists and how less attention is given to the third noble truth, the promise of the Buddha, that all sorrow can end within the bliss of Nirvana. It is this promise that Buddhism is based upon, in all its forms, in all its sects, which really differ on only some fairly exotic points and which use different meditation methods, and which still have the Eightfold Path within them. All of them essentially agreeing on the exact place where sorrow can end.
