And if you believe in a Law of Nature that governs how life works, you would recognise that it has to be omnipresent and omnipotent. Box 1353 |Nampa, ID 83653 USA1-800-803-8093, Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddhas Teaching (Broadway Books, 1998) 6, Rodney Smith, Stepping Out of Self Deception (Shambhala Publications, 2010) 6, Keith Yandell and Harold Netland, Buddhism: A Christian Exploration and Appraisal (IVP Academic, 2009) 183, Stephen Asma, Buddha for Beginners (For Beginners LLC, 2008) 110, Houston Smith and Philip Novak Buddhism: A Concise Introduction (HarperCollins Publishers, 2003) 56-57, Houston Smith and Philip Novak Buddhism: A Concise Introduction (HarperCollins Publishers, 2003) 53, The Dalai Lama, The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teaching of Jesus (Wisdom Publications, 1996) 82 (referenced in Buddhism: A Christian Exploration and Appraisal by Keith Yandell and Harold Netland, 183-184), Houston Smith and Philip Novak Buddhism: A Concise Introduction (HarperCollins Publishers, 2003) 4, Keith Yandell and Harold Netland, Buddhism: A Christian Exploration and Appraisal (IVP Academic, 2009) 21, Houston Smith and Philip Novak Buddhism: A Concise Introduction (HarperCollins Publishers, 2003) 54, Rodney Smith, Stepping Out of Self Deception (Shambhala Publications, 2010) 25, Stephen Asma, Buddha for Beginners (For Beginners LLC, 2008) 60, Houston Smith and Philip Novak Buddhism: A Concise Introduction (HarperCollins Publishers, 2003) 53-54, The Teaching of Buddha (Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai, 1966) 13-14, 22-23, If you have any issues, please call the office at 385-246-1048 or email us at, Responding to Andrew Tate on Islam and Christianity. I have just uploaded more than a dozen of SGI President Ikedas Peace Proposals from the SGI Website which attest to the magnanimous spirit of our mentor in faith. I believe that Buddhism is a more profound, complete, practical and inclusive philosophy than belief in an Abrahamic God. As the sutra states Since hatred and jealousy abound during his lifetime, how much worse will it be after his passing. In other words, there is no single point of creation and destruction for the universe. This is its only aim and object. Nichiren Daishonin bestowed upon us all the Gohonzon of the Three Great Secret Laws, the wish-granting jewel which is the only means by which we can advance in eradicating the miserable karma of humankind. This really should be sent to the magazine Buddhism Today. I understand theoretically that the concept of a God outside of ourselves, or chanting as if the Gohonzon is outside of ourselves is incorrect, (as in the Gosho On Attaining Buddhahood describes) but in my heart, I just dont get it. We believe that each human being is precious and I want to see myself in the mirror of the Gohonzon. Sharing! It is in this power that I place hope for good life and for salvation; it is this power that I blame for unfairness etc. Instead, people are supposed to simply have faitha position they wouldnt consciously adopt with just about any other issue. Can the supreme court decision to abolish affirmative action be reversed at any time? The Buddha, like modern sociologists and psychologists, believed that religious ideas and especially the god idea have their origin in From the perspective of Buddhism, such a being displays all the marks of conditioning, hence cannot be eternal or absolute. Sounds reasonable, could you point me to a source? Hi Louis, thank you for your kind comments. Even though Buddhists believe in a cycle of rebirths, they hold that with nirvana, moksha can be achieved as well, meaning one can escape this life cycle forever. Nothing happen for no reason, A really fantastic thought on Karma! Be the first to share what you think! The earliest legends of Buddhas life have the gods rejoicing at Buddhas enlightenment.10Houston Smith and Philip Novak Buddhism: A Concise Introduction (HarperCollins Publishers, 2003) 4 Some versions even have them involved in making sure Buddha was exposed to events of suffering so that he would come to enlightenment.11Ibid, 6 Many accounts also have an evil spirit present at Buddhas moment of enlightenment trying to tempt and distract him away from the truth, to no avail.12ibid, 9-12 Travel to any majority Buddhist country in Asia, and one will find no shortage of idols, altars, and spirit houses attesting to a worldview that includes the existence of such temporal deities. A million years ago we climbed out of the trees and we are still killing each other over minor differences. Buddhists Prayer in the dictionary sense is not a formal part of Buddhism, since it is understood there is no powerful "other" to which prayers are directed. When I was introduced to Buddhism, I felt that my prayers had been answered by learning about Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. Perhaps it's an artifact of my upbringing that makes me find this argumentative. At best, it's just clutter. I am awake, was the "Since Human beings have a limited life and limited capabilities it is better to optimise their uses " -- this was the thinking of the Buddha. I would equate it to a loving parent sometimes letting their child learn from his own mistakes, but then at other times mercifully intervening to gently guide them away from those decisions that would only have the most catastrophic results. Nor is it possible to accommodate the concept of a divine Creation 9The Dalai Lama, The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teaching of Jesus (Wisdom Publications, 1996) 82 (referenced in Buddhism: A Christian Exploration and Appraisal by Keith Yandell and Harold Netland, 183-184). So, back to my original question, why dont Nichiren Buddhists believe in God? Buddhist Human knowledge is like that, he used to say, it can show you the path as you travel along, but it cannot give you the knowledge of the whole Universe, just as the small lamp cannot remove the entire darkness of the Night. Grappling and disarming - when and why (or why not)? Upon seeing the plight of the poor and the aged, he concluded that human life meant suffering. As Buddha stories go, Siddhartha Gautama, also revered as the Buddha, was the first person to attain this level of enlightenment. The second, samudaya, states that all suffering stems from desire or tanha. You cannot pray to it or relate to it as if you were one thing and it was another thing. The hope of the Buddhist is to abandon any desire and indeed to lose his very self and for this reality to simply be. Buddhists do not accept that these places are eternal. forgive the part of mind in you Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. Leave your life in God's or the Fates' hands for too long, say atheists, and soon it's out of yours. The gods may exist in the same tentative and qualified sense that anything can be said to exist in the Buddhist worldview, but the gods cannot help you. Meaning, for a typical person the unspoken assumption is: "I am here and God is over there". ", true? Since Buddhism is nontheistic -- meaning gods aren't necessary -- do Buddhists pray? Most religions assert that there is more to life than the matter we see around us. Something obviously. Thank you Ronnie for this interesting perspective on grace and karma. He used to give the example of a man carrying a lamp and walking along a village road in the night, trying to reach another village. "Why Don't Atheists Believe in Gods?" Nevertheless, the three marks of existence points to the fact that 'personality' cannot exist in the ultimate reality. And then sometime in the Mahayana phase, Buddhas gained a Pure Land, superhuman powers equatable to a god, and with the Amitabha, infinite life, not merely stupendously long life. https://www.learnreligions.com/why-atheists-dont-believe-in-gods-248065 (accessed July 1, 2023). These ideas are highly controversial among the Buddhist schools that do not hold to them. Sheriff Grady Judd is briefing the media regarding the arrests of twelve people in a family-run drug trafficking operation in Winter Haven called Operation Family Affair. For the rest of Buddhism, a good argument could be made that Karma is as sort of god like the one that atheists are disbelieving. The former is common across Tibet, China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and Mongolia while the latter is common across Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, and Laos. Karma can tell if you did an act intentionally or accidentally. The answer to that is generally yes. PS. He suggested to his students that they could develop the same siddhis and see for themselves that this is no god. So the concept of a God, as opposed to the of a pantheon of Buddhist deities that appear in the multiplicity of Buddhist Sutras that Shakyamuni (Gautama) scrutinised over countless lifetimes, can be viewed from different perspectives, which are dependent of our placement of deities in the universal scheme of things. What is the term for a thing instantiated by saying it? Buddhists are of the opinion that human life is one of suffering and that a few things, like physical labor, meditation, and good behavior help to achieve enlightenment or nirvana. Thus buddhist does not believe in a creator. Thank you for putting into words on how I feel about this issue. And the answer is, no, but yes, and it depends. While some might try to equate Nirvana with God, this is a profound misunderstanding. I can relate to much of what you say and have been to some similar places in my daimoku. Jonas Bystrm observe the world around you. My parents had a lot of power over my life, but I can still be my own master - can't see that the two are necessarily connected. of forgiveness followed It was a great trip. Why do CRT TVs need a HSYNC pulse in signal. By a process of fascinating evolution, Buddhism evolved from early Buddhism, which arguable didn't care or want take a stand on gods or their lack there of, to one that said Gods existed, but made a hairsplitting distinction that they were long lived, but mortal and didn't create the world. Do Buddhists Believe in God, Heaven and Hell? - Buddhism Info In some cultures, like Ancient Greece and Rome, the gods are nearly indistinguishable from human beings. Also, your answer could be a little more more precise. Sorry for the long break between posts at the moment, my IT guru is movingthis blog to a posh new platform with a new-look design and I have been busy with that. the universe is not your home. "I" is a label, a nominal designation that only exists relatively to other things. Anyway, I have indeed gotten so many benefits, so I continue despite my doubts or delusions, but f I could experience the Buddha within on a continuous basis, how glorious that would be. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. The Buddha used to remain silent, when Hindu Brahmins used to ask him about his views on God. In this most crucial sense, Buddhists do not believe in God as Christians would define and use that word. I have been using the term God interchangeably with what you call the mystical law for years now in the USA just so that people can get onto the page with me rather than rejecting what I have to say as Godless. I can say much more, but Ill leave at that for now. I prompt an AI into generating something; who created it: me, the AI, or the AI's author? So, like I said in this answer, "Could we go as far as to say that Buddhist path culminates in the first-hand knowledge of God? Their perceptions are as clear or as foggy as the fruits of their practice has availed them. Why Islam and not Hinduism? so yet a further step appears. The idea is that there is not any distinct person that is you. Nothing exists that is separate from everything else or that persists over time. Ronald Cowen Can you tell me what kind of siddhis you have and have you also achieved all the jhana? Again, may I offer you my deepest appreciation for all your sincere efforts to bring about a situation where we can freely discuss these things. Do Buddhists in general also believe there is no supreme being, or do they settle on that there is no intervening The Buddha's teaching isn't about belief. intellect & ideas. The Buddha also said that all conditioned things are not permanent. There are several reasons for this. From this non-dualistic perspective, my power and the power of Absolute is the same power, my will and the will of Absolute is the same will, and my spontaneity and the spontaneity of Absolute is the same spontaneity. Despite traveling and meditating for years, he remained largely unsatisfied and finally settled on something we today call the Middle Path. ", The Blessed One said, "What is the All? In addition, there is supposed to be some sort of spiritual or supernatural realm behind it all, and that our "true selves" are spiritual, not material. Was the phrase "The world is yours" used as an actual Pan American advertisement? Two of my teachers emphasized such "master consciousness". In short, you could argue that God is the Mystic Law, but with a beard on. Insert records of user Selected Object without knowing object first. The thing that really differs between god and myoho; the mystic law is that we are the controllers of it. Ultimately, these two, in practice and philosophy are polar opposites. If the creator needs no creator then why can't the universe need no creator as well? What do gun control advocates mean when they say "Owning a gun makes you more likely to be a victim of a violent crime."? Reasons Why Atheists Don't Believe in Gods - Learn Cline, Austin. Buddhism is the religion of Nirvana. Because at the very core of Nichiren Buddhism and at the heart of the mantra Nam Myoho Renge Kyo is the small matter of the Mystic Law of Cause and Effect. In most religions, gods are the source of all morality, meting out a set of divine laws that we mere mortals are supposed to follow if we do not wish to either be miserable here on Earth or in the afterlife. As long as you keep looking up to some higher power, how can you be the master of your life? For completeness, there isn't one Buddhism, there are many Buddhisms. We greatly appreciate your consideration! Buddhism Fine examples of the philosophical connectivity which supports the views I have expressed here, include dialogues, such as those between Lou Marinoff and Daisaku Ikeda that have been presented in The Inner Philosopher ISBN: 978-1-887917-09-4 This question is in need of some editing. Thanks Bernie once again for your thoughtful contribution and lets chant even more earnestly that the lotus flower of wisdom and compassion will bloom from the quagmire of obscenity that you eloquently describe. Now assume that there is a Supreme Creator God. Or he could be unhappy with his creation and punish them. Instead Buddhism seemed to promise freedom, individuality and self-expression. Why? We don't believe in a god because we believe in humanity. Christian prayer was about asking for salvation from an omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresentFather. Im presently experiencing the three obstacles and four devils scenario for the last month but I chant every day to turn my winter into spring! Best wishes, David, We had yet another wonderful discussion meeting this morning in which everybody gave sincere and convincing testimony of the actual proof gained from this supreme practice. What is the Buddhist idea of heaven? Nirvana is not personal, is not in any sense a creator, and is not capable of action.7Keith Yandell and Harold Netland, Buddhism: A Christian Exploration and Appraisal (IVP Academic, 2009) 183 As one scholar notes, If absence of a personal creator God is atheism, Buddhism is atheistic.8Houston Smith and Philip Novak Buddhism: A Concise Introduction (HarperCollins Publishers, 2003) 53 The Dalai Lama elaborates further: The entire Buddhist worldview is based on a philosophical standpoint in which the central thought is the principle of interdependence, how all things and events come into being purely as a result of interactions between causes and conditions. If we are following the Buddha's teaching correctly then we neither believe do not believe in a creator god. For most people God is a dualistic concept. It would be too long to explain the subtleties here. Well, we are all seeing the manifest effect of all these causes right now and for that reason we must redouble our efforts. In reality, though, many horrors have been and continue to be perpetrated in the name of God or a specific religion or spiritual practice. Buddhism is sometimes called an "atheistic" religion, although some of us prefer "non-theistic"--meaning that believing in a God or gods really isn't the point. The connection to God is what God wants from all of us so he can fill your heart with peace. Buddhists do. One can't say "the universe needs to have a creator because something had to create it" because they would also have to say "The creator needs to have a creator because something had to create the creator".
