Buddism

philosophy or religion?

Buddhism was started by a hindu prince by the name of sidhartha guatama. he was so fed up by all the suffering in the world that he went around and tried to come up with a solution. eventually he sat under a tree and meditated and felt enlightend. he then realized that to end suffering is to end all desire and went around preaching his beliefs and stuff just like jesus did and he was the original buddha. but he told his followers that he was not to be worshipped as a god at all. but sure enough, when he died a few hundred years later buddha statues were build, buddhism spread to china, etc and it became a religion and there are people who worship the buddha as a god. but is this right, i mean the original buddha (enlightened one) even said not to worship buddha and yet people do. should people tell buddhists that believe the buddha to be a god that it really isnt?
Voted for by cosmosis.
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- bobrocks
  December 20, 2005
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  *sigh*
  As a devout Buddhist of the Therevada sect, we still believe the Buddha was merely a man, just like the people of Islam believe that Muhammed was merely a man who was the prophet of Allah. The Tipitaka ("three baskets" in Pali, the language Samassabuddha spoke) specifically states in several places that there is no such thing as luck, divine intervention, or god. While I can't technically say these people aren't Buddhists, I can say they are severely misguided, as the "greater vehicle" (the mahayana sects) tend to believe in these things which the Buddha (sometimes, as above, referred to as "samassabuddha", or "fully enlightened one") expressed as being false. In short, no.
- TheRedPen
  April 9, 2007
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  ok then
  In Buddha's own words it is both it is a way of life.as many here say the four noble truths is a way of life,it is the road to enlightenment.in buddhism you better you self but not just for you but for the world
- tatersalad
  April 10
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  I'm a buddhist!!
  Alot of buddhist do not consider buddha a god because buddhisim is a way of life NOT a religion!! I have a buddha tattoo on my hand, but that doesn't mean that I consider him a god.
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Way of Life

Buddism is a way of life. The 4 noble truths are very realistic and actually make a lot of sense when you think about them. For anyone who doesn't know the 4 noble truths and are interested in looking at them, just go to google.com and search for them. The reason I say it is more of a way of life (philosophy) than an actual religion is because it's how we should live. As in the 8 fold path... right speech, right actions, etc. I've done a very indepth study in Buddhism and although I'm not a believer in it, it makes a lot of sense to me. If we didn't desire more, we wouldn't suffer.

Now, as far as what Cosmosis said in his philosophy about Buddha not being a God... that's true. However, I'd like to contridict this. In Buddhism, there is that all present force called Om (or Ohm). It may be considered a god. Although there isn't a heaven, there is a Nirvana. This part of Buddhism is more than just a way of life and could actually make Buddhism more of a religion rather than just a philosophy.

Voted for by Sharcu.

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We worship Buddha as a great teacher who lead us to a right way of life

Well , I'm buddist and I'm agree with Sharcu about the 4 noble truths are very realistic and Buddhism is more than just a way of life and could actually make Buddhism more of a religion rather than just a philosophy.

I can say that I'm not really a religion girl but I'm still know about Buddhism well [ or at least i think i am ]. Buddha or sidhartha guatama told his followers he was not to be worshipped as a god at all as we know he was a great teacher but there is still a lot of buddist who worship Buddha as GOD.. Let's say there are almost buddist worship buddha as GOD and believe in buddha is GOD. There is so many story of buddhism's GOD in china and they say that buddha was the last human version of God so if this was true that means Buddha's God too. But we can't really know about that , so let understand as buddha was a great teacher of buddhism as buddhist are still worhip him as a great teacher who lead us to a right way of life.

Voted for by Cheeky paper.

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cosmosis
December 28, 2005
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just a question, does buddhism have a belief in an afterlife of anysort? im just curious.
Cheeky paper
December 29, 2005
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Yeah , we believe in an afterlife too , we believe there is a heaven and hell ..
bobrocks
December 30, 2005
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There's a whole lot of ways the soul can look to the afterlife in Buddhism. The part of Buddhism that makes it a religion is the eventual release from the life/death cycle to become "Not-born, not-compounded, not-made, etc.". This, to me, is what seperates religion from philosophy: an eventual release from life/lives to become something above that which is knowable to us. Furthermore, Buddhism was corrupted severely when it got to China and Japan and so forth. The only outpost in the world that still practices Therevada ("strict doctrine of the elders") is Sri Lanka. There's a few exceptions as far as a few people being in other places, but not too many.
Cheeky paper
December 30, 2005
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Seems like you study a lot about Buddhism or you are buddist?
bobrocks
December 31, 2005
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I am a Buddhist of the Therevada sect. I study it because it's my religion. I know it seems kind of elitist to denounce other sects as corrupted, but I truly believe that. Any sect of Buddhism that has god is corrupted, nothing less.