[Buddha-l] the existence of God in Buddhism

[Vicente Gonzalez]

IM> I wonder if anyone could comment on  the highlighted?

according Donald Lopez, some prestigious scholars of the past
like De La Vallee Poussin believed that Buddhism was an amount of
doctrines around the name of Buddha, arising across times in order to
redefine Hinduism in modern terms.
Then Buddhism would be a set of practices maintained by people who
called themselves Buddhist. In fact, it would be no more that a branch
of yoga or something similar. Today still there is some people
maintaining a similar approach (a mere psychotherapy, etc...).
Specially when they need a synthesis or assimilation with other
religion or a non-buddhist approach.

I doubt Nazis can be called a religious phenomenon. Nazis justified
the existence of their  plans in concordance with several gods,
although without presenting their goals to the masses as a religious
mission. In fact, a similar pattern is present today with monotheistic
religions in some countries of Islam and in the USA. In these actual
cases, the political actions of these countries are not religious
missions (not like crusades), although there is a religious
justification to bliss them (the fight against the evil, etc...).
It is a way to group the masses around the goals of their rulers.

There are many definitions of Religion in books and dictionaries but
none of them definitive. Although there is a common trend in all them
to explain how our common experience of Reality it's not enough for
the human being. 
Well, in fact we have conscience and it is not normal at all, because
when we look to the world, we check that conscience is not present in
the rest of the panorama, excepting in ourselves.
Or at least we believe that.


best regards,