[Buddha-l] the existence of God in Buddhism

[curt]

The statement that Buddhism "does not allow for the existence of God" is 
certainly wrong. First of all it is worded wrongly - the question is 
whether or not Buddhism "allows for" Divine Beings. The given wording 
presupposes that one must choose between "God" singular and "no God".

But more importantly, Buddhism quite clearly does "allow for" Divine 
Beings. Specifically:

(1) The traditional story of the Buddha's enlightenment involves, at 
it's climax, three main characters - two of whom are Supernatural 
entities. These are Mara the Deceiver, and the Earth Goddess. The other 
main character is, of course, the Buddha.

(2) The Buddha is also traditionally supposed to have called upon 
various Gods, such as Baka Brahma, in order to teach them.

(3) One of the pivotal figures in the early spread of Buddhism was Asoka 
- whose favorite epithet for himself was "Beloved of the Gods."

(4) In both Korea and Japan (as well as many other Buddhist countries) 
Buddhist temples often include shrines to various traditional Gods.

- Curt


Ilana Maymind wrote:
> Emilio Gentile in a newly published /Politics as Religion/, (Princeton 
> University Press, 2006) in his discussion related to the term "secular 
> religion" (used interchangeably with "political religion" or "secular 
> religion") states the following: " If, for example, your definition of 
> a religion is premised on the existence of a supernatural divinity, 
> then you would be justified in denying that a belief system that 
> considers a secular entity to be sacred could be a religious 
> phenomenon.  However, if we accept this definition, we would be 
> obliged *to deny that Buddhism is a religious phenomenon, because it 
> does not allow for the existence of God,* whereas the Nazi political 
> religion could be considered a religious phenomenon, because it did 
> not deny the existence of god, even though it dressed that god up in 
> its own ideology" (3).
>  
> I wonder if anyone could comment on the highlighted?
>  
> Thank you
>  
> Ilana Maymind
> Generated through Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7.3
>  
> A great truth wants to be criticized, not idolized
> Nietzsche
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