From: vampire_logos	Date: June 8th, 2005 05:44 pm (UTC)		(Link)
Buddhism is athiestic

Buddhism is atheistic.

Sorry, not true (within intelligible reason).

Theravada Buddhism was the “original” Buddhism from India and is still healthy and running strong in countries such as Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar.

In “Buddha’s” Buddhism, there were six sections of the “wheel of life” (sorry, I no longer remember the Sanskrit and Pali names of the wheel). These six sections describe the categories we can be reincarnated into. (Later versions of the wheel have eight sections). The “top” of the six sections was ‘gods’. Ironically, it is deemed better to be a human than a ‘god’ because ‘gods’ are removed from suffering to a large extent and can become complacent and therefore not pursue Nirvana, whereas humans can achieve Nirvana also and the suffering of our lives drives the point home. Nirvana is desirable because it is an escape from the presumably undesired samsara karmic “recycling”. Mahayana was a split-off schism of Theravada and has changing and varying forms, one of which is Zen. Zen does not emphasize Karmic samsara or Nirvana at all and never mentions the “wheel of life”.

But it should be noted that Buddhism without karma, reincarnation and the wheel of life which includes ‘god’s as one of its levels is like Christianity without The Fall and Redemption. Which means it probably shouldn’t be called Buddhism at all.


The Vampire
LOGOS

From: (Anonymous)	Date: September 23rd, 2005 08:25 pm (UTC)		(Link)
Buddhism is atheistic

I would call it closer to agnostic. I disagree with the other poster who said "Sorry, not true". Buddha would not comment on questions about Gods. He asked people to look at their own experience in order to be free of suffering. After Buddha died, Buddhism adopted many Gods, because people have an emotional need for gods, but not because they were part of the original teachings of Buddha. If you want to go into this more deeply, read "Buddhism without Beliefs", or send me an email - "tomcarr at yahoo dot com"

From: (Anonymous)	Date: May 3rd, 2006 04:00 pm (UTC)		(Link)
Re: Buddhism is atheistic

Your a douche bag, get a life. blow a dog.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: May 3rd, 2006 03:59 pm (UTC)		(Link)
GAH!

I like buddha...he is fat and weird. I like to eat too. SO COOL! Buddhism is goofy...all who follow are goofy too.. ya bald monk!

From: (Anonymous)	Date: September 16th, 2006 02:43 am (UTC)		(Link)
Re: GAH!

I disagree that Buddhism is inherently atheistic. Many Buddhists are atheistic, but others worship the Buddha himself and even honor the existence of the god(s) of the Hindu faith. I think that's called 'henotheism', but I can't be sure.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: December 29th, 2006 09:05 am (UTC)		(Link)
Buddha and God

In order to understand Buddha's teachings upon whether or not God exists you first have to learn what the Indian concept of God is. Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains believe in life before birth as well as life after death. Hindus and Jains describe God/soul as "atma", which means self. Indian religions are meditative, not prophetic, therefore unless you meditate, or if you are a Christian, Jew, etc., if you add meditation to your prayer life, you will not have a clue about what Indian religions really teach. You have to loose your subjectivity, which no academician can do, so the matter remains an academic mystery. Indian sages looked deep within and found Atma. Buddha never used the word atma, but he used other words, such as Tathata, the unborn-uncompounded-unmade, the immortal (amrta), and the Nirvana element. In addition in the Dhammapada Buddha defined Nirvana as the highest physical bliss (parama sukha). This is something for you to work on, namely, the physicality of Nirvana. If Nirvana were just a meditative state of mind Buddha would have said that Nirvana is the highest mental bliss, but Buddha used the word sukha, which means physical bliss, bliss that is felt by a body (kaya) of some kind, which leads to the Trikaya of Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, Nirmanskaya, as well as Adi=Buddha, Mula-Tathagata, et alia.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: February 9th, 2007 04:25 pm (UTC)		(Link)
Buddha and God

Buddha said Nirvana is the highest physical bliss: Nibbana parama sukha (Dhammaoada). The physicality of Nirvana is the Nirvana dhatu. Dhatu means element. Buddha taught that there are seven elements. Six of these elements, mamely earth, water, fire, air, akasha, and consciousness exist in a constant state of change, and because of this contact with them always ends in sorrow and grief. The Nirvana dhatu is the seventh element. The Nirvana dhatu is stable and contact with the Nirvana dhatu is eternal and blissful. The first six elements are natural or artha. Only the seventh element is paramartha or supernatural. The Nirvana dhatu is not God in the sense of the creator of souls and the world, but the Nirvana dhatu is God as above all other things (dhatus), what this means is that the Nirvana dhatu is Tathagata, Maha Purusha, Amrta. The Indian concept of God is entirely different from that of the Abrahamic faiths. It depends where you start. If you start with the Bible then none of the Indian religion believe in the Judeo-Christian God, therefore they must be atheists. Poppycock. Please note that Buddha did not say Nibbana parama priti, Nirvana if the highesmental blis. Nirvana is not just a state of mind, Nirvana is an element, it is objective, and I believe that the Nirvana element is God (Ishvara).