It is often said, especially by Buddhists, that Buddhism is “atheistic” or “non-theistic”.
Often this is said in order to promote Buddhism as a sensible religious or spiritual alternative to the monotheistic religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam with which many Westerners have become disillusioned.
However, the real position is considerably more complex. The Buddhist "take" on God is, literally, outside the square.
For those who are interested, I have written an article entitled "God in Buddhism" which has been upoaded onto the Unitarian Ministries website.
The historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, also had much to say about meditation and mindfulness. One of his reported sayings is, "When the mind wanders, observe it as it is."
I clicked on link, it's not there, and I don't see a search option. Maybe post it here?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jen. Link fixed.
DeleteThanks Ian, good one. God in Buddhism does seem to come down to pantheism, especially re the Tillich quote on God as the ground and power of being. Re the similarities mentioned there between the Buddha and the Christ stories--I was discussing this with someone just the other day. I wrote: " The Christ story is an archetypal gestalt and you can find such commonalities in the Buddha and Mohammed story as well, for example. Going from human to god. We are all engaged in this. In Sheradon Bryce's channeling, this is called an 'evolving story line.' Ladders, metaphors, catalysts, triggers, archetypes. The Christ story is not a singular event confined to a singular time and place. Can be understood on many levels, saviour/victim, self/God realization etc. These various versions--Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, Krishna--are all going on in simultaneous time, creating a paradigm shift."
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