If someone asks if your religion, and you answer Buddhism, is this correct?

Question

Because technically Buddhism isn't a religion.

Answer 1

Buddhism is not a religion, it's an education. The Buddha is not a supernatural being or creator, nor did he ever claim divinity. Anyone who jumps to conclusions and says that it's a religion obviously has no knowledge of the Buddha or his teachings.

Answer 2

If you are living according to Buddhist teachings and If you are believing in Buddhism more than any other religion,then you are a definitely a Buddhist.

It doesn't matter whether Buddhism is a religion or a philosophy.

Answer 3

Buddhism is both religion and philosophy.
One can practice Buddhism without any of the religion part - the Shambhala Institute is part of that trend.

But for me, the spiritual practices are important. I find The Dalai Lama to be about as holy as any person can get.

Answer 4

I am not sure why you would not consider Buddhism a religion.

It is not quite accurate to describe Buddhism as non-theist, albeit there are flavors of Buddhism that are more theist than others.

Some schools have clergy. There are denominations and schools and scriptures. What more do you want to have Buddhism fit the definition of religion?

Answer 5

Agnostic atheist who closely aligns himself with the Buddhist philosophy is what I usually say. There are certain divisions among Buddhism that do meet the parameters to be classified as a religion.

Answer 6

Kindness is a religion! Religion is a collection that is nominally designated "this" or "that." Is that Buddhist? The collection is a result that necessarily had a cause, or series of causes, that likewise, were named. Did they exist before they were named? Ha Ha! I don't know, Hazle. What do you really want to know? It is hard to figure out sometimes, what someone really wants to hear, and then have the courage to not tell them that because it can't really help them in the long run. All religions have as their basis some form of liberation from suffering through a set of beliefs, but only the buddhadharma posits true liberation through the correct understanding of the philosophical tenets asserted by the Conqueror, Shakyamuni Buddha. Does this make it a religion? Does believing it make one buddhist? I don't know! I don't think it matters initially. One should be kind, but are people kind? No. We are all quite selfish and oriented towards ourselves and our family and friends and to heck with everyone else, but on further analysis, we will find that we are interconnected - even the food we eat was grown, picked, slaughtered, trucked, put on a shelf and bought and sold, maybe even prepared by someone we don't know. In this way, many beings are kind to us in so many ways. We were educated by strangers, taught the alphabet, how to read, etc., by people we might scarcely remember. This goes on and on in every facet of our lives. The car we drive was made by people we don't know using materials collected for that purpose and so on, the schools, hospitals, and (for better or worse) the governements that establish law and enforce that law and allow societies to prosper, more or less, was done without any of our help and we benefit from it. So, what do we do? We have this human life that necessarily possesses this human mind that has come into existence and is named, Hazle, for instance. Is this body "Hazle?" Is this mental consciousness "Hazle?" On analysis, it is not "Hazle," an independent entity. Now, there is a lot of debate on what created "Hazle," was it your parents? Was it God? When did it begin? What causes mental consciousness? It is good to think about these things over and over, and familiarize yourself with these things because it can answer a lot of questions, of course, it can create a lot more questions, too! But, on the whole, I think it will lead you to a place of sincere appreciation for this human life and will help you to be a more kind person - not just to people you know, but to people you don't - which is necessarily more important. Kindness is a religion. Is it "yours?" Ha Ha. It is fun to think about.

Answer 7

Buddhism can be both a philosophy and religion. It depends on the practices. So the answers both yes and no.

Answer 8

If you wanted to become a world-class figure skater, you would learn to skate, find a coach, and practice, practice, practice. You would need to retrain your sense of movement and balance, in order to master skating. It would not matter if there was a God, and any creation stories would not be relevant to how well you learned to skate. No figure-skating coach is going to take it upon himself to teach you how to bake a cake, for instance ... only what applies to the goal, which is learning how to figure skate. Buddhism is a lot like figure skating. Buddhism says that everyone suffers, or is at least not free from unhappiness ... that we cause our own happiness and therefore we can stop being unhappy ... and that the practices of Buddhism will retrain our sense of ourselves, or moving through the world with balance ... psychologically and spiritually (as opposed to the physical training of figure skating). Since the ONLY one who can free you from suffering is yourself, God is not part of the teachings. Whenever any new student asks our teacher (one of the Dalai Lama's monks) if God exists, he replies, "Who knows? Whether or not God exists is not part of Buddhism" and he reminds us that Buddhism is about learning to free ourselves from our self-created suffering. Same thing goes for creation-stories ... these have absolutely nothing with the self-work of Buddhism. Buddha said nothing about either God or creation. Buddhism sure LOOKS like a religion, doesn't it? Actually, it's not.

Answer 9

It is correct. If you are a Buddhist.

Merriam-Webster's dictionary of the Englisn language:

Buddhism:

Main Entry: Bud·dhism
Function: noun
Date: 1801


Definition: A religion of eastern and central Asia growing out of the teaching of Gautama Buddha that suffering is inherent in life and that one can be liberated from it by mental and moral self-purification

Answer 10

But that is the practice the person follows. It doesn't matter, they are Buddhists and they follow Buddhism.