Buddhism and God and Religious Experience
Buddhism is an atheistic tradition, it does not believe in a Creator God who is the maker of heaven and earth and sits in judgement of our deeds. Buddhist scriptures frequently make reference to "gods" and "goddesses" °© these are to be understood either symbolically or literally. In the case of a literal understanding, the Buddhist conception of the universe is that it is full of many types of beings who exist in forms appropriate to their type and level of consciousness.
The
Buddha felt that metaphysical speculation as to the origin of the world,
who created it, why, etc. is unhelpful and unproductive. Buddhism is concerned
with the individual state of consciousness and the way in which they live
or conduct their life at this moment, rather than with metaphysical speculation.
The Buddha gave the simile of someone who has an arrow in his or her eye
°© the point is to remove it, not to speculate as to what wood it is made
of or who shot it. There is not a Buddhist Creation story as such.
Religious Experience
The whole of Buddhism stemmed for the religious experience of its founder, the Buddha. The claim is that his experience of Enlightenment or Bodi is not unique, but that all human beings can attain it. This is the purpose of Buddhism, as a path to lead to the direct experience of wisdom. The path can be divided into three areas, ethical practice, meditation, and the attempt to comprehend and understand life, Sila, Samadhi and Prajna, or ethical lifestyle and behaviour, meditation and understanding.
The Buddha set out the path by which an individual can achieve Bodi. This path is summarised as the eight spoked wheel or the Dharmachakra. It is a path with eight aspects or limbs. c.f. the Eightfold Path
To
test yourself on this section