Did Buddha claims to be God himself?

Question

If no is the answer then why you worship buddha as God?for info,I'm a muslim.

to;mercer devil,so meaning to say that I also should follow your people style and worship muhammad as god,hoping he will show me the right path to God's heaven?

Answer 1

there are sects of buddhism that worship buddha as a god. they're wrong though. buddha had so many teachings and after he died... people started thinking of him as godlike even though he said he wasnt and there were no gods. they have other gods such as tarah. i think she's a peace goddess. not sure though... but there are some sects of buddhism that have gods that are prayed to.

Answer 2

No, Buddha did not claim to be God, or an angel, or anything else. In fact, Buddha didn't talk about God or metaphysics at all. The only thing Buddha claimed to be was *awake.*

There is absolutely no conflict between Buddhism and any other major religion of the world, at least from the Buddhist perspective. It is entirely possible--and probably salutary--for a person to be a Buddhist and a Christian, or a Buddhist and a Jew, or a Buddhist and a Muslim. It is even possible to be both a Buddhist and an atheist.

Look at the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, and the Eightfold Path of Buddhism, and you don't see anything about God or Heaven or Hell, or about worship or prayer. What you see is simply a set of guidelines for how to live without doing violence to one's self or others. That's all. It has been said that Buddhism is not so much a religion as it is a psychology and a strategy for living.

I am a Buddhist, and I do not "worship" Buddha. I simply try to follow his teachings, which are nothing more or less than a set of prescriptions for how to live one's daily life without needless suffering. Buddhism does not compete with other religions, nor does it condemn those who follow another path.

Answer 3

No he's not a God. He lives and taught people his teachings. People worship buddha, is to pay homage and honor to him and remember his teachings. Rather than seeing him as a god, Buddhists see him as the teacher.
One of his teachings would be that you shouldn't believe in whatever he says, nor you should believe in him. But if you've followed and found that his teachings are good and true, then you're already his disciple
That is why you see him as a poor man in rags. He doesn't want himself to be embracing in wealth and richness or fame, when he has so much supporters. Rather, he died a poor man but well loved for his philosophies and teaching.
You figure.
In reply to craig: Buddhist teaches you about karma, what you do, will have a retribution. If you think this is a downfall, why is there peace in countries that is predominantly buddhist?

Answer 4

Buddha is not God, but more like Muhammad. In Buddhism there is no God, only enlightenment or one-ness with the universe. Buddha was the one who discovered the path to enlightenment, and so people pray to the enlightened Buddha to help them find the path as well.


No. You can just pray to Allah since Islam has a God. Praying to Muhammad would be an insult to Allah. I'm a Christian, by the way.

Answer 5

Buddha did not claim to be god. Buddhist don't worship the Buddha as god.

Answer 6

God hides because if He showed himself standing over your shoulder all the time, you would always do the right thing out of fear of what the punishment might be if you did the wrong thing. God hides to make sure you do the right thing with your own judgment rather than doing the right thing because He's standing there watching, and you're afraid of the punishment. An example of this may be, when parents go out of town and they leave a teenager at home, they trust them to not get in trouble. The parents might put hidden cameras around the house so the kid knows they aren't right there watching them and therefore has to make his own decisions. God hides pretty much to test us. To see if we do the right thing on our own. I know this may have been hard to understand but it was a great question. God is always with you, just try opening your eyes a little more. I hope this helped. (:

Answer 7

As per avalaibale record, Buddha did not say anything about God, in fact he refused to say anything about God. All his teachings revloved aroud human and soul.

He definitely was not like Mohammed. This is absolutely meaningless to compare Prophet Mohammed PBUH and Buddha. Prophet Mohammed was much like Prophet Moses.

Disclaimer: My above comments are purely based on availabe and well known information about Buddha. I am not sure what exactly is teaching of Buddha.

Answer 8

We do not worship Buddha. We keep him in front of us as a way to remind ourselves of what we strive to be.....Enlightened.

Shakyamuni Buddha did not claim to be a god and neither did he want to be remembered as one. He always taught that he was a man and nothing more.

Buddhists do not worship any gods. We believe that happiness is within us and that we should not look outside of ourselves for happiness. The only one that can bring us to enlightenment is ourself.

Answer 9

I can understand the confused view of many non-Buddhists that the Buddha is worshipped since there is usually at least one representation of the Buddha in a Buddhist home; one prostrates before the image of the Buddha; and offering bowls are placed before the Buddha each morning and removed at night (with a distinct meaning of each depending on the tradition followed). The image of the Buddha is to remind us of His teachings, we prostrate before the image to offer respect to His teachings and to instill humility within us, and the offerings are presented as a representation of what we should offer to other living beings. Obviously, it would be foolish on a Buddhist's part that these are for the benefit of a statue.

Buddhism is non-theistic. While most Buddhists deny the existence in a supreme being there is no evidence in the sutras stating emphatically there is no universal creator. Buddhism does not say there is or is not a supreme being (God). Buddhism, as opposed to many religions, is what some would consider "agnostic" in its structure. There may be God or there may be no God (one of the Fourteen Unanswered Questions in Mahayana Buddhism see ("Majjhima Nikaya" : Sutta 72, The Aggivaccagotta Sutta from http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.072.than.html ). The existence or non-existence of a supreme originator (God) is unimportant to Buddhists. That in and of itself doesn't matter. What matters is where we are at the present moment—the Now and how we treat others—that ultimately matters. The Buddha we tend to identify and venerate (not worship) is the Buddha Shakyamuni. For more information regarding this concept of a universal creator please see http://www.nirvanasutra.org.uk/buddhaandgod1.htm .

Do some misinformed Buddhists believe they are praying to the Buddha as though He was a God? Obviously such is the case. But every belief system (Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, etc., be they secular, political, or religious) has misguided practitioners who misconstrue the teachings presented within their belief system and even use them for violent personal gain. That is unfortunate but true--we see the consequences both in history and in present day events.

I was interested in reading Craig B's response above. He wrote: " I'm a Christian and I find this is the failure with Buddhism. Buddhists - what do you do with people practicing Buddhism that are murders, rapists, thieves and destroyers of property and life? Please answer in truth for the answer is the lie of Buddhism."

Craig, what would you do with practicing Christians who commit the same vile acts you described? We do not have to refer to the Crusades or the Inquisition for examples. You may wish to review the history and present similar events perpetrated by Christians. I would remind you that the same acts you described were and are still perpetrated by followers of Jesus Who taught the precepts of peace, love, and forgiveness. Look at what recently occurred in Bosnia ( http://www.onwar.com/aced/chrono/c1900s/yr90/fbosnia1992.htm ) where Christians killed Muslims. Some claim it was a political civil war, others termed it "ethnic cleansing", but it seems to have been fought primarily along the lines of one's religious belief. Please do not condemn any belief based upon the acts of a relative few.

There is a teaching that after Siddhartha Gautama obtained enlightenment and became the Buddha, He was recognized by an individual as being exceptional. "Legend has it that a wandering ascetic encountered the Buddha shortly after his enlightenment and, seeing the how profoundly serene and contented the Buddha appeared to be, the ascetic asked him: 'Are you a God?' The Buddha replied 'No.' Then the ascetic asked him: 'Are you a man?' The Buddha replied 'No.' Finally the ascetic said, 'Well, if you're not a God, and you're not a man, what are you?' and the Buddha answered 'I am awake.'" (from http://www.hsuyun.org/Dharma/zbohy/Literature/essays/ydsA/desirefire.html ). The Buddha denied deification and cautioned His followers from making Him one.

I apologize for the length but hope this is of some help.

May all be at peace.

John

Answer 10

what makes you think that Buddhists worship the Buddha as a God?