Is Buddhism a Religion or a Philosophy?
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To me Buddhism is a religion - do you agree?
Is Buddhism a religion or a philosophy?
Buddhist religious debate
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Buddhism religious beliefs and views
So what do you think: is Buddhism a religion or a philosophy?
Classic Buddhist religious debate
Is Buddhism a Religion or a Philosophy?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byBuddhism is a religion. Duh.
Noname says:
More a religion than a philosophy. Why ? Because religion aims at pointing to the truth whereas philosophy is based on words. Like Lao tsu would say: more words count less. Hold to the center.
Posted December 20, 2011
Shawn Pitchford says:
First do not confuse Hindu with Buddhism. Which for some reason unintelligent people seem to. Most of the answers below do so. If the word God or Gods is in your answer then you do not know what you are talking about. The ideas that Buddha talked about did not worry about the arguments for god or against. He only talked about enlightenment and ways to achieve it. For some reason when people say the word religion it brings about questions that ask what god or gods. Loadan below brings a good point and to answer the question you do have to look at the definitions of such words. Just like if I asked if Buddhism "was" (was being past tense such as at the beginning) then no it was not a religion. But if you ask "IS" Buddhism a religion then of course it is. However, if a person not knowing of Buddhism, spent their life attaining enlightenment and followed the lesson of Buddha without ever attaining the knowledge from the source, then one could argue that in essence that person is Buddhist. So I believe you have to ask the right question. Can Buddhism be a spiritual essence that a person can have without the label and dogma that people seem to want to apply to everything? Obviously Buddha was able to because Buddhism did not even exist yet. I ask the question can you be a Buddhist Christian? Buddhist Hindu? Buddhist whatever? Obviously you can subscribe to the philosophy of Buddhism, without being Buddhist. Just by asking the question implies that it at some circumstances is not. You cannot ask is Christianity, Islam, or Judea a religion or philosophy. A person can make anything a religion, and no doubt there are places in the world that practice Buddhism as a religion. So just for sake of answering the question, Yes, it is a religion, but in essence the question is a philosophical one.
Posted December 01, 2011
aburmesebuddhist says:
Buddhism is a real true religion. Buddhism is not ordinary religion. It is very different from other religions because Buddhism has not consist creator (God). Buddhism is the real true Scientific religion because It is consist causal relation, true systematically, universal truth, verification and logical arrangement. Especially True Buddhists is not blind Faith! One must have love and respect for one's own country,religion,literature,family,culture,nationality for all in the same way.They love and respect to their country,their religion,their literature,their family,their culture and their nationality.
There are different kinds of countries,races,thoughts,religions,such as Chinese/China,Indian/India,Burmese/Burma,English/England,Japanese/ Japan,American/U.S.A and Hindu,Buddhist,Christian,Muslim.But the essential factor is not races,religions,positions,etc.
Mental attitude,honesty,diligence,character,unity,patience,justice,optimi sm,forgiveness,love,mercy,sacrifice,humility,moral ethics,etc are more important above all. One must be able to one self analyze.Each and every one of us should follow and
live according to the teachings of one's own religion.The one who does not respect another's culture and religion does not respect his own.The one who respects another's culture and religion respects his own.
All the teachings concerning culture,thoughts,beliefs and practices are valuable in their own ways.The important factor is that the follower of the concerned religion must follow the teachings sincerely.Although I,my self a Buddhist,I obey the teachings and doctrine of Lord Buddha,I appreciate the teachings of other religions and the appreciation of other nationalities and their culture are all noble and valuable in their own way.
There can not be 100% similarities among religions,nationalities,any opinions,cultures,
philosophies,skin hues,mental attitudes,sex,language,polical,social origin,property,visions,of people in the World.There would be more beneficence from performance of seeing with love and sympathetic mind(with optimistic view) for a particular thing rather than bliming or extreme criticize(with a pessimistic view) in contrast to others.
The English culture is best for the English,while the Burmese culture is good for the Burmese.The Indian culture is also best for the Indian people,while the Chinese culture is good for the Chinese people.Likewise,Christians must obey the teachings of the Bible,Buddhists must obey the teaching of Buddhism,Hindus must obey the teachings of the Hinduism and Muslims must obey the teachings of Quran.
Please visit following these websites:
http://www.reversespins.com/teenageJesus.html
http://www.shiva.org/SHIVABALAYOGI-HisWords_JESUS_BUDDHA.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1569751692/reversespins-20
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0960285016/reversespins-20#reader_0960285016
I Believe that Buddhism is the best for human. The Lord Buddha is the Greatest teacher of human and Gods! If you want to more understand, you will practice yourself about teaching of Buddha and Buddha's Meditation systematically truly regularly.
I respect to everyone. Thank you very much for your reading my topic and your time.
Posted September 13, 2011
Michey says:
It is a religion but to some extend it is a philosophy. It really is hard to separate them.
Posted December 25, 2010
_Joan_ says:
I think that "religion" is in the heart of the one who is practicing it. When a person devotes themselves to a belief and commits to living their life in submission to a set of teachings, then that is their religion, regardless of whether it involves belief in the supernatural or not. The devotion to their practice that Buddhists follow in every area of their lives in their pursuit of enlightenment makes it a religion.
Posted November 21, 2009
zfk says:
It is a religion with some interesting philosophical and psychological aspects. What gives it away is the reliance on revelation for knowledge of the core teachings - the three knowledges that the Buddga attained on the night he was enlightened. Obviously this is not revelation from God but it is still a supernatural source. Then there is the substance of that knowledge, which is entirely supernatural: the law of kamma, insight into the rebirth of beings in other (supernatural) planes of existence, and the Four Noble Truths (although these are arguably the least supernatural). The Pali Cannon makes it clear that the Buddha and early Sangha believed in many dieties, and also in supernatural powers being obtained by those on the path. In terms of practice, the Theravada and maybe Zen schools are the least religious if by that you mean devotional. Although Zen is clearly the odd one out, by the time you get to the Mahayana a lot of sects are as plainly religios as you can get, even involving worship of a Buddha and Boddhisattvas understood to be very god like beings. It is easy to see why this level of religiosity has been criticised as a degeneration of the historical Buddha's teaching - in the Pali Cannon he is always referred to as just a man who has reached the end of the path, not someone divine.
I have an interest in Buddhism but I am an atheist. I think the challenge for people like me is whether Buddism still makes sense and has something valuable to offer without the law of kamma, rebirth, and dare I say it, Nibbana. What is left is fundamentally an analysis of existence in terms of the three characteristics of dukkha, no-self and impermanence, and a set of practices aimed at dampening down the dukkha, without there being a final, totally dukkha-free state of Nibanna. If those practices don't reduce suffering in this very life then what value are they?
Posted May 03, 2009
kizerkid says:
Buddhism is Religion. If we define "Religion" as the quotes..the knowledge or something that we can trust and will make our live better.
Posted March 02, 2009
cara Nova says:
I say a religion - because to me the definition of religion is anything people embrace to try to grow spiritually. Which will naturally be different in different cultures. Anything that makes us more aware of our spirit is a GOOD thing. When people become more aware of spirit, and less focused on material things, then whatever venue they choose to explore that process in is VALID.
Posted October 10, 2008
Margo_Arrowsmith says:
The people who say it isn't a religion are usually atheists who are more Christian centric than many Christians. Yes, there are philosophies within that can be practiced secularly, such as detachment, but you can't believe in reincarnation and pretend to be atheist, which is the claim.
Huston Smith has it was one of the 6 most practiced religions as does many theology departments.
Its a religion.
Posted October 06, 2008
spirituality says:
Buddhism is a religion. What else is it? There is a revered figure. There are rituals. There are hierarchies. There are doctrines.
Posted October 06, 2008
Buddhism is essentially a philosophy.
Kshitij says:
It is way to live a life.
Posted December 25, 2011
Johnny says:
I say that Buddhism is a more like a Philosophy because Buddha was nothing but a Normal Man who was fully awake & became enlighten. He just want to help everyone to be come enlighten like him with his teachings because Buddha said that everyone can become a Buddha. This prove that Buddhism is more like a Philosophy because this Equality believe doesn't exist in any religions around the world. In all other religions, No one can be greater or equal to God(s).
Buddhism does believe gods, just not the same way as other religions believe. Buddhism believes that Gods doesn't have the power to save us, but only ourselves can save us because Gods are still in the "Circle of Reincarnation" just like us. The only way to get out of the "Circle of Reincarnation" is to believe in yourself, the Buddha, and his teachings..
Posted September 06, 2011
Emma says:
religion brings tonnes of crap to this world and i think buddhism is the only "religion" that has no fundamentalists who want to cause shit. Buddhists are atheists, they have no god or greater being. They aspire to be the best they can be: enlightenment = what we should all strive to. not to please some "omnipotent" "almighty" being but to better ourselves. fo sho.
Posted December 15, 2010
Mai says:
it is a philosophy
Posted December 14, 2010
laodan says:
There is a widespread confusion that needs to be cleared in order to make sense in any discussion relating to religion and philosophy.
First about religion. The etymology of the word religion originates in the Latin word "religare", which means "to tie, to bind". This implies that religion acts as a societal glue. But if religion acts as a societal glue it must necessarily be connected to political power.... Now if we observe religion from the viewpoint of the long history it is abundantly clear that religion arose as a tool of early kingdoms in their quest to preserve their power over their subjects. But why in the world was it so? The answer lays in the early kings' observation that the physical force of their armies was insufficient to guarantee their continued control over their subjects. Armies were moving on foot and once in a corner of the kingdom to quell an insurgency they were unable to move timely to another corner to quell another. Successful kings were those who observed that they needed to glue the psyche of their subjects into obedience to maintain their power...
About philosophies. The etymology of the word philosophy originates from the Greek word "philosophia" (philo-loving and sophia-skill-wisdom) which translates as "search for a general understanding of reality".
So how do religion and philosophy relate to each other?
Logic implies that philosophy comes first. Religion is, indeed, the accession of one philosophy to the status of imposed system of belief within a given society. In other words one specific philosophic system, among many others, is being catapulted in a position of "power belief" by the rulers of a given society and with time that particular philosophic system will be internalized in the minds of the subjects of that society as being the unique and absolute truth.
Back to Buddhism we have to observe the different nature of its different strands.
- I can't speak of Buddhism in India, for, my knowledge of that country is limited.
- Tibetan Buddhism is undoubtedly a religion. Dalai Lama is the title of head of the political institutions while Punchen Lama is the title of spiritual leader.
- Chinese Buddhism is more of a philosophic system that occasionally was adopted by a given dynasty but never gained "power belief" status.
- Zen Buddhism is a transplant of Chinese Buddhism.
The "best religion of the world" idea came about as an extension of the Western dualistic good-bad ideological presentation of the conflict between the political arm of Tibetan Buddhism and China where the Dalai (political head) is wrongly being attributed the mantle of spiritual leader for the sake of the ideological argumentation.
Posted January 10, 2010
Thisaru says:
Actually Lord Buddha didn't tell anyone to make his teaching a religion with the time it came up as a religion. And it has a big knowledge of modern science too. as the conclusion i think we could consider it as a religion as well as a philosophy.
Posted December 25, 2009
Layne says:
its totally a philpsophy !!!!!!
Posted November 07, 2009
DNH says:
Buddhists do not believe in God. Buddha is not a God. He was just a human being that was "enlightened" and shared his knowledge.
Posted July 23, 2009
kizerkid says:
Buddhism is Philosophy. If we define "Philosophy" is something reasonable. One of the main concept of Buddhism is to find causes and results.
Posted March 02, 2009
Amyji says:
My Thai Buddhist husband says there is no god. Buddha was a teacher and Buddhists are followers of those teachings. I tend to believe that there is an intelligent Creator. And I also believe that people warp the original intention behind a movement, be it political or religious. There are many superstitions and religious beliefs in Buddhism. In Thailand you'll see many people donning amulets to ward off bad luck and perfectly intelligent, educated Thais consulting fortune tellers for auspicious times to conduct important affairs. You'll encounter beliefs that have nothing to do with the Buddha's teachings whether you're in Tibet, Burma, Japan, Thailand or Nepal.
Posted February 28, 2009
cryptid says:
It is basically both. The teachings are primarily philosophical, however the followers follow it in a religious way.
Posted December 10, 2008
spirituality says:
The most interesting part of Buddhism is it's philosophy. Also: there is no belief in God in Buddhism - even though many Buddhists in Asia do believe in gods.
Posted October 06, 2008
Buddhist philosophy
An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy (Cambridge Introductions to Philosophy)
Amazon Price: $26.54 (as of 02/14/2012)
Great introduction into the philosophy of Buddhism.
Buddhist religion
Buddhism For Dummies
Amazon Price: $6.31 (as of 02/14/2012)
Great introduction into Buddhism: history and current practice.
Buddhism is a religion - some links
Buddhism As A Religion
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The religion of Buddhism
The religion of Buddhism0 points
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Buddha's world: Buddhist philosophy explored
Quotes and articles on essential aspects of Buddhi more...1 point
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What do you think of this debate about Buddhism?
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Vallygems1
Dec 24, 2011 @ 5:08 am | delete
- Great debate but have to agree that it is both a religion and a philosophy
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Michey
Dec 25, 2010 @ 9:48 pm | delete
- Very good debate, I think it is both. We cannot separate one to another.
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MarkUpshaw
Dec 19, 2010 @ 6:37 pm | delete
- It is clearly a religion. Great lens.
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Apr 1, 2010 @ 1:06 pm | delete
- This lens is awesome. I love it. I am going to tell my editors on my Thai News website to write something about this lens and probably feature it.
I will comment here again once we do.
Great Work
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_Joan_
Nov 21, 2009 @ 8:52 am | delete
- Great question to discuss!
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