is that true Buddhism doesnt believe in a god? then when they pray to who they pray? what is Buddha?

Question

why the buddhism down their kneels to Buddha and have statues of him and pray to him? if he is not God?

is the buddhism atheist? how come? when the buddhists pray then they pray to who?

Answer 1

Buddhists when practicing Loving-kindness Meditation aren't praying to anyone; but are cultivating unconditional loving-kindness, compassion, understanding, insight and wisdom.

Some Buddhists do have a statue of The Buddha
as they meditate; however Buddhists do not pray to The Buddha like, as a Christian would pray to their god - Buddhists merely show respect; are grateful for The Buddha's teachings. When asked if The Buddha was a god - he said: "No - I am a man, teaching one thing: suffering and the end suffering. *Suffering is caused from selfish attachments and selfish cravings/desires: The Buddha showed that through mindfully practicing The Noble Eightfold Path one has the innate capacity to end his/her suffering to attain Ultimate Happiness.

Buddhism does not believe in a creator god:
http://web.singnet.com.sg/~alankhoo/God-idea.htm

*When the word Prayer is used in Buddhism it is always referring to a type of Meditation called:

*Loving-kindness (Loving-friendliness) Meditation*

Loving-kindness Meditation is practiced by Buddhists before practicing Mindfulness (or Vipassana) Meditation.

Below is an Example of Loving-kindness Meditation for you to View:

Note: Loving-kindness Meditation begins with oneself - for one can not demonstrate
loving-kindness toward others, until he/she learns to demonstrate loving-kindness to oneself; similiar to Christian reasoning that says in the Bible Scriptures Love thy Neighbor 'as' you love yourself; for the Buddhist - the intent of this meditative practice is the cultivattion of unconditional love (without selfish attachments), kindness, compassion, patience, & understanding toward others in life.

Example of Loving-kindness Meditation:

1. *May I be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to me. May no difficulties come to me. May no problems come to me. May I always meet with success. May I also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.

2. *May my parents and be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May no difficulties come to them. May no problems come to them. May they always meet with success.
May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.

3. *May my relatives be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May no difficulties come to them. May no problems come to them. May they always meet with success.
May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.

4. *May my teachers be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May no difficulties come to them. May no problems come to them. May they always meet with success.
May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.

5. *May my friends be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May no difficulties come to them. May no problems come to them. May they always meet with success.
May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.

6. *May all indifferent persons be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May no difficulties come to them. May no problems come to them. May they always meet with success.
May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.

7. *May my enemies be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May no difficulties come to them. May no problems come to them. May they always meet with success.
May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.

8. *May all living beings be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May no difficulties come to them. May no problems come to them. May they always meet with success.
May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life.

The practice of Universal Loving-Kindness is usually recommended before bedtime and just after arising in the morning. Unconditional
Love(compassion & loving-kindness) is Very Patient. *Buddhism defines Patience as the ability to remain internally and externally calm and undisturbed in the face of harm and difficulties in life. Through the Cultivation of Loving-kindness one becomes more patient, compassionate, loving, friendly and open toward everybody, friend or foe, human or otherwise.

*Metta to all.

Answer 2

I am not a buddist or religious in any sence, but I am a very spiritual person. Buddhism is not so much a religion as it is a philosophy of a balanced life. From my reaserch, they pray to Budda since he was the one that achieved that balance and peace of the universe we were created from.
There was a Great Being that split it self into many pieces and became everyone, us and everyone we know. All of us!!!
Including all animals. We are the God we so divinely adore.
But this is imposible for most people to comprehed. Each of us is God force It self. We just have not evolved spiritualy yet to accept the fact that we are all one Being. If you were God, would you seat somewhere, while your children are suffering and just comfort them mentaly while judging everyone and deciding who does what and goes where? NO... I would not.
I would be right here trying in this limited body of mine to do all I can to change and help at least one soul on this earth we call home until we go back to our real home. IF I HAD TO CHOOSE A BELIFE OR A RELIGION IT WOULD BE BUDDHISM because our will is Gods will. We choose and no one else. As for the awful people we all know and deal with daily, there is something called karma that their soul is aware of and will repay it back to other souls when the time comes. In one life a master in another a servant. In one sinner in another a saint. That is human destiny. We all have done it. Some of us remember some of it. I can recall a lot of my past lives. Conciously. Some say that is awsome. At times it feels like a curse . And in the end the Universe unfolds exactly as it should.
This is my truth. So be it.
Annu

Answer 3

In original Buddhism, the subject about God's existence would not be a point of discussion. In essence, however, they're neither Atheist nor Agnostics -- God isn't just the subject of their religion, if Buddhism could be considered as a religion in itself. There is, in fact, a saying in Buddhism which says, "If you meet Buddha on the road, kill him." The subject of Buddhism isn't religion; it's Enlightenment. Buddhist prayer is a part of later development which was incorporated from its contact with different cultures of the lands where it's now mostly found. Hence, like Christianity, it has different sects with differing philosophical stance -- with two main branches such as the Mahayana and the Theravada. If you'd pay a visit to India, China, Korea and Japan, you'd find the influence exerted upon it by the cultures of the countries where they're now. Buddhism is a pacifist religion. But in China, you wouldn't even imagine that what is considered as the "Father of all Martial Arts system" would originate from a Buddhist school -- the Shaolin Temple. Shaolin is a sect of the Mahayana Buddhism.

Answer 4

Buddhism is a very "all of the above" type of faith, and you can find Buddhists who fit into all of the Western conceptual categories with respect to God: theist, atheist, agnostic, animist, pantheist, Manachaean heretic, Sun-worshipper, Devil-worshiper, etc. Oh, and hey, I forgot a very important category: confused.

But there is one thing that is rountinely misunderstood about Buddhism in the West: You can honor and value someone, and you can "pray" to someone, without thinking that who or what you're treating that way is your Creator. The entire mental fixiation on a Creator is an artifact of the Judeo-Xtian world-view. Left to your own devices, without a lot of recieved mythology, how would you arrive at that idea? You might just as well, from the evidence, decide that we crawled out of the primordial ooze at some point, on the strength of something like "evolution" or the "mutual co-production" of Buddhist literature.

The Buddha is not our Creator. He is the author of our Path to Enlightenment. Period. End of Yahway-esque projections, please.

In Hawaii, the largest Japanese Buddhist sect literally obtained permission from its head temple in Japan to use the word "God" in referring to Amida Buddha in English, because the Japanese missionaries were being driven nuts by local Hawaiians who insisted on using that word. But they were very careful to state that what was meant by that word was an immanent Reality, and not a Creator-God.

And in general, this is understood. The Buddha is not the Creator of the world. After all, look at it. What bona fide Enlightened Being would come up with such a mess? The world has been created by the beginningless ignorance of the beings that inhabit it, and the Buddha has come to deliver us from the dreadful fate of being stuck in it.

Therefore, please practice precious Buddhadharma, and attain Enlightenment in this very life.

Namu Amida Butsu
Xing Ping
http://blog.myspace.com/res6zeam

Answer 5

true buddhism doesnt god pray pray buddha

Answer 6

Buddhists see Buddha as an enlightened human being, and see him as an example to follow. They believe that the Divine is within and the statues of Buddha are really a focus that they use to direct their prayers to the Divine within.

Answer 7

There are several forms of Buddhism. The strictest form acknowledges the possibility that gods exist, but teaches that it is counterproductive to worship them, since that just locks you into the cycle of samsara. Instead, one is to transcend matters like "gods". This is a very difficult path for most people to follow. More popular forms of Buddhism posit the existence of "boddhisatvas", people who have, themselves, attained enlightenment but have not passed out of the universe. Instead, these "boddhisatvas" remain in order to help others along the way.

Answer 8

You hear that sometimes. But actually, there are many gods involved. They just aren't ultimate authority and contemporary teachers do not concentrate on them. What they are doing is meditating to keep their mentality in a calm state. Buddhism teaches that the obstacle to happiness is the clinging to temporary pleasures or aversion to temporary threats.

Answer 9

there are all kinds of buddhists. some are theists, some are not. the buddha is often just a focus for meditation, not an object of worship.

Answer 10

Buddha taught us to cultivate, to understand yourself. Not to pray to him.

To understand buddhas teaching 1st you need to know what to do and what not to do.

Know the 4 noble truth of unsatisfactory in life.The solution to the unsatisfactory.

Answer 11

yes they believe in a superior being, its just that budda was a prophet similar to muhammad ! they pray to the same god the whole world prays to.