Is Buddhism a religion

Is Buddhism a Religion? Is Buddhism a religion? Well, to answer that we must first think about the concept of religion, a concept that has continued to change throughout time. It once pointed to a personal orientation. Now it tends to have the meaning of a “sociological entity” or a “historical phenomenon”. We might say that a person is „religious‟, meaning they are devout, or pious. Or we might have a more specific concept of religion as a particular set of beliefs or values; the religion of Christianity, or Islam. Terms such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, tended to be coined once a given tradition or set of practices moved beyond the boundaries of the culture in which they were born. This makes sense if you think about it. Consider a world where human beings are the only living organisms to inhabit Earth. Would we instinctively call ourselves humans? Only if we became aware of other forms of living organisms would we develop that way of thinking. Similarly, if you were the only person in the world, and no other living organism, would you identify yourself as single entity separate from one you didn‟t know existed? Probably not. Only until you became aware of another human would you consider naming yourself as a separate being. The concept of Christianity as a distinct religion became established once European settlers became aware of other religious faiths. The early followers of Christ didn‟t consider themselves Christians, they had no idea they were a part of a newly emerging religion (The same is probably true of all religions, except maybe Scientology). The Bible doesn‟t even have a concept or term for „religion‟. In fact, many cultures had no concept of religion or anything equivalent in the language. These include Ancient Egypt, Greek and Latin, Hindu, Aztecs, Ancient India, China, and Japan. Their practices were just simply their way of living. It wasn‟t until the early nineteenth century that names were given to describe and distinguish the world‟s religions. We need to have ideas and concepts that fit our pluralistic world to help us understand it. But sometimes the terms we apply to concepts don‟t fully grasp the entirety of what it is we are trying to capture in words. For example, the term Hinduism, it is very loose and misleading; it suggests that there was a single religious tradition at the time of Buddha, when in fact there were hundreds of different religious sects and teachers, all arguing for something slightly different. This is just one example of the limitations of language. In addition to the ambiguity of words, everybody looks at the world from a certain perspective; we all have our own world views. These views are influenced by a variety of things such as ones upbringing, culture and so on. Since each of us has had different experiences and upbringings, each of our worldviews and perspectives are unique. Simply put, there are as many different potential views of the world as there are observers of it. Our worldviews affect our ideas about pretty much everything. Much like a story can be perceived in many ways, so can our ideas about reality, religion and Buddhism. You can extract from them what you seek to. For this reason we cannot expect the world to fit neatly into the categories we put things in, nor can we expect peoples perceptions of them to be unified. We are constantly faced with exceptions to our perpetual attempts at taxonomy of the world. A classic example: the duck-billed platypus. In fact, Buddhism has many characteristics that are atypical of what we normally consider a religion. The term Buddhism was a western invention and the more we learn about it the less comfortable scholars feel about calling it a religion. A poll conducted on About.com asked the question “Do you think that non-theistic belief systems like Buddhism should qualify as religions or are they more like philosophies?” 39% responded with “They are a bit of both, so categorizing them as either is fine.” 29% said “They are religions, even if they have a strong philosophical component.” 26% said “They are philosophies because they lack the prerequisites for a religion, like belief in God.” The remaining 4% said “I don‟t know/Don‟t care” So, is Buddhism a religion? It looks like yes and no. I‟ll explain why no. First and foremost, Buddhists are considered agnostic; they don‟t claim any system of knowledge about god. They admit they are unable to know whether god exists. And as was mentioned earlier, you will not find an equivalent term for religion in the early texts of Buddhism. Unlike most of the worlds religions, Buddha never claimed to have spoken to God; there are no revelations. Nor did he claim to be a savior or promise salvation. He was simply an enlightened being and a teacher. He did have followers but they were encouraged to question him and to question everything. There was no „blind faith‟. He wanted his followers to see for themselves, he stressed the importance of openmindedness and free thought. My conclusion is that Buddhism is a religion to those who approach it as such. And Buddhism is not a religion if you approach it as a philosophy. Unlike Christianity, Buddhists take responsibility for their own actions. If a crisis occurs, Christians might say “it is gods will”, Buddhists might say “it is your karma”. Karma can be thought of as either some magical justice system, or as a logical cause and effect system. I think once you believe in those things that defy logic then you have crossed the line from philosophy to religion. I went to a Thai-Buddhist Wat in Kissimmee to see the „relics‟ and was blessed by monks. The people at the Wat definitely took a religious approach to Buddhism. Here is how it might have developed into a religion for some people. To make concepts more easily understood to common folk the Buddha would use analogies. Some people take these stories in the literal understanding, even though they might not be able to be explained rationally. Stories were passed on by disciples who might not have stressed that the stories aren‟t 100% truth, but what is important is the moral of the story. This might have given superstitious implications to certain concepts. For example, the idea of reincarnation as the transmigration of the soul, it is a misperception resulting from people not knowing how to read the sacred writings. Think about what was said earlier about karma. Karma should not be confused with fate, although it sometimes is. Karma should be understood as the continuous chain reaction of cause and effect. This is the philosophical approach. But often these ideas are taken out of context and this is how a few good words from the Buddha can branch off into the many different ideas of what Buddhism is. The “knower”, or student, interprets these things in accordance with their worldview, just as one might interpret art. Just as ideas of Karma can differ so can what it means to be enlightened, the same is true with just about everything. There are just so many things that can be perceived differently, that is why it is so hard to classify every possible varied interpretation with one single term. It is my opinion that this problem is what accounts for most of the world‟s problems and that when people spend time arguing over the literal meanings they tend to miss the point by ignoring the big picture. I have been able to witness several different approaches to Buddhism that one can take, not just during my visit to the Wat. I also attend monthly Buddhist meet-ups where locals interested in Buddhism get together and talk about various things, including why they are at the meeting and what Buddhism means to them. Everybody had their own unique response. The Catholic-turned-Buddhist organizer, Mark, seems to take a spiritual approach. He believes in reincarnation, and karma in the more magical sense. I personally see karma in the more logical, cause-and-effect sense and view Buddhism as philosophy that can teach me much about the self. I believe in the recycling of matter, the scientific view of reincarnation. Dhammika from Sri Lanka, Buddhist-born, sees it as a way of life; he takes a more traditional eastern approach. Another guy sees Buddhism as a spiritual explanation of quantum physics. Although we might have different ideas of the various concepts, sharing our perceptions of Buddhism and all it encompasses allows us to learn from each other and expand what is meant by the term “Buddhism” and what it means to be “Buddhist”. Works Cited About.com http://atheism.about.com/gi/pages/poll.htm?linkback=http%3A%2F%2Fatheism.a bout.com%2Flibrary%2Fpolls%2Fblpoll_rel0029.htm&poll_id=5069074071&pol l=2&submit1=Submit+Vote Buddhanet.net http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/reincarnation.htm http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/budrelig.pdf WebCT.ucf.edu Discussion Board Reading Notes