Are there gods in Buddhism? Many people are under the mistaken impression that practices of the philosophy worship Buddha. While he did come up with the philosophy they don’t actually worship him.

They believe that EVERYTHING is god…

This is because they claim everything comes from one energy source…and that one energy source is responsible for the creation and existence of everything. According to them everything is part of that energy and therefore is “god”.

What do “gods” in Buddhism mean?

It certainly doesn’t mean an All Supreme God like in Christianity…it simply describes anything that comes from that energy—which of course is everything. According to their teachings, there can’t be a separate God because everything is connected.

So how do they believe the world was created?

Do they believe in evolution or the big bang theory?

Buddha’s response

He said that trying to answer this question is pointless because the main point of the philosophy is how to end suffering by becoming enlightened–not understand the origins of the world. Since answering this question did not further the quest for enlightenment it was pointless to even attempt to tackle it.

So to wrap it up…

There are gods in Buddhism…EVERYTHING.

Is Buddhism TRUE OR NOT? Discover the answer by clicking here…

So what are the beliefs of Buddhism? Many people today are interested in this topic and for good reason because…

Buddhism is a VERY misunderstood religion

First misconception: they DO NOT Worship Buddha. Yes he is the one that came up with the premise of the religion, but they don’t go into temples and worship statues of him as many believe.

This is actually a philosophy about life and how to deal with suffering.

Who founded Buddhism and why?

The 1^st answer is obvious—Buddha. Why did he do it? He wanted to learn the cause of suffering and how to end it, and after many long hours of meditation he came to his conclusions…which is what the philosophy that bears his name was ultimately founded on.

So what are the major ideas of Buddhism?

Put simply, all life is suffering, suffering is caused by desire or attachment and therefore way to give up suffering is to give up desire.

Sounds logical–right?

Think about it…the only real way that anything can affect you is if you want one outcome or the other. The only reason you suffer after the team you play on loses a sporting event is if you care about the outcome.

If you stop caring you will stop suffering. This begs the obvious question…

How do you stop caring?

This is the hard part. The term is known as “enlightenment”…and this is where you realize that nothing means anything because everything comes from one energy source.

Dualism doesn’t exist according to this philosophy

Good and bad don’t really exist because they are both one and the same. A “good” event isn’t really good—it just depends on the perspective of the person describing it. A “tall” building isn’t really tall…again it depends on the perspective of the one describing it.

A 500 foot building might be “tall” when compared with a 250 foot building…but it would be “short” compared to the Sears Tower. Is it tall or short? Neither…it just depends on the perspective of the person viewing it.

According to the philosophy we give dualistic meanings to make sense of the world

If everything comes from the same thing than there really is no difference between the 2 except in our minds. Therefore there is no reason to prefer one outcome over another because it really doesn’t matter…and if you don’t care one way or another you get to stop suffering. This whole process is known as enlightenment and is one of the more important beliefs of Buddhism.

How do you achieve enlightenment?

That’s the hard part…you might know you need to stop caring but you really don’t get to achieve enlightenment until you “live it” day to day and experience it firsthand.

The way to do this is usually through a lot of years of meditation (perhaps many lifetimes) until eventually you feel connected to the one energy and you can stop suffering. Once you get to this point you get to live out the rest of your years in “nirvana” and then stop returning to earth through reincarnation because…nothing else needs to be accomplished.

What’s nirvana?

It’s the state you live in when you realize that nothing means anything, you’ve given up attachment and officially ended suffering.

You also stop seeing yourself as a separate individual from everybody else and you realize that ultimately everybody is “one” because they all have a common origin. At this point you basically get to live out the rest of your life in a state of bliss because nothing matters…and therefore
“bad” things can’t happen.

So you’ve achieved nirvana and get to stop returning to earth…now what?

Many people want to know the answer to this…what do Buddhism believe happens when a person dies? That is a point of dissension and there is no common agreement among followers of the philosophy.

Some say you “merge” with the “cosmic consciousness” or “one energy” (whichever you prefer) and basically lose your “separate identity”…others claim you simply cease to exist altogether. This point isn’t one of the main teachings so I won’t spend a lot of time on it.

Buddha himself didn’t put a lot of emphasis on death after nirvana, claiming it didn’t aid in the achievement of nirvana so speculation was essentially pointless. The main premise of Buddhism is how to end suffering which is what nirvana does.

To sum up…

Buddhism is all about ending suffering…period. The way to do that is through enlightenment, and when you achieve that you get to live in nirvana the remainder of your life.

According to Buddhists it takes most people a lot of lifetimes to achieve this state, but the whole goal of each reincarnation is to get closer to that final goal of enlightenment and ending suffering.

Now you know the main beliefs of Buddhism…but is it the right philosophy? Is it grounded in fact? How does it compare to Christianity and the other major world religions?

Is Buddhism TRUE OR NOT? Discover the answer by clicking here…