Buddhism isn’t really a religion, the way I understand it, it’s not trying to sell anything like religions do, it’s more of a philosophical system, with psychological exercises and disciplines that to this day have proven to be of profound positive mental health impact.
Then people went and built statues of Siddhartha Gautama, which he supposedly had asked not to happen. Then there’s the “fat Buddha” from China, who was actually someone who lived almost two millennia after, and is known there as “Budai”.
Those statues and idols have nothing to do with what Buddhism originally proposes, in a nutshell: there is suffering in this world and life, how can we be free of suffering?
There is a mysticism aspect that falls under the umbrella of Buddhism, too. Like if one is enlightened sufficiently, they can ascend to another life form after death, otherwise it’s reincarnation to try again. I think there’s more to it than that, but honestly haven’t delved too much into it because the philosophy is where the useful stuff is.
And ironically, an aspect of enlightenment is accepting that suffering is a part of life so that you don’t suffer more being upset that you have some suffering. Getting that one was like a switch for me and life has generally been much happier. Things don’t “ruin my day” anymore.
Just as Christianity is not a unified church, and is divided into Orthodox, Protestants, Catholics, evangelists, Baptists, and the bazillion of other denominations, Buddhism is very different ranging from extreme practices of Shingon sect, to a very practical philosophy of Dogen’s Zen Buddhism.
I don’t know that Jesus asked for a church to be founded either, or left behind any guidance on how to organize it or run it properly. If SG specifically said “don’t do this” then wow that’s even worse that they did. But it seems like much the same deal all around.
Buddhism isn’t really a religion, the way I understand it, it’s not trying to sell anything like religions do, it’s more of a philosophical system, with psychological exercises and disciplines that to this day have proven to be of profound positive mental health impact.
Then people went and built statues of Siddhartha Gautama, which he supposedly had asked not to happen. Then there’s the “fat Buddha” from China, who was actually someone who lived almost two millennia after, and is known there as “Budai”.
Those statues and idols have nothing to do with what Buddhism originally proposes, in a nutshell: there is suffering in this world and life, how can we be free of suffering?
There is a mysticism aspect that falls under the umbrella of Buddhism, too. Like if one is enlightened sufficiently, they can ascend to another life form after death, otherwise it’s reincarnation to try again. I think there’s more to it than that, but honestly haven’t delved too much into it because the philosophy is where the useful stuff is.
And ironically, an aspect of enlightenment is accepting that suffering is a part of life so that you don’t suffer more being upset that you have some suffering. Getting that one was like a switch for me and life has generally been much happier. Things don’t “ruin my day” anymore.
Just as Christianity is not a unified church, and is divided into Orthodox, Protestants, Catholics, evangelists, Baptists, and the bazillion of other denominations, Buddhism is very different ranging from extreme practices of Shingon sect, to a very practical philosophy of Dogen’s Zen Buddhism.
Buddhism is many things, and religion as well.
I don’t know that Jesus asked for a church to be founded either, or left behind any guidance on how to organize it or run it properly. If SG specifically said “don’t do this” then wow that’s even worse that they did. But it seems like much the same deal all around.