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You point out several supposed benefits of God and then ask how the godless fare without these benefits. I would first challenge the virtue of the benefits mentioned:
In religions with God, the believer or devotee can call on God for help during distress
Unless you believe God directly intervenes, for which there is no evidence whatsoever, calling on God ...
18
Unfortunately, this is one of the first questions people ask, especially if they are coming from a theistic background. As a result, many who require the belief of a 'God' as a precondition, turn away from Buddhism without even practicing and finding out for oneself. Likewise, many atheists also get turned off when they hear about hells/heavens/rebirth in ...
15
For most people God is a dualistic concept. Meaning, for a typical person the unspoken assumption is: "I am here and God is over there". So when I think about God, when I speak to God -- I inevitably imagine some power outside of myself. It is in this power that I place hope for good life and for salvation; it is this power that I blame for unfairness etc. ...
12
As mentioned in another thread by @catpnosis, in MN 100: Sangarava Sutta:
“kiṃ nu kho, bho gotama, atthi devā”ti?
"How is it then, good Gotama; are there divine beings?"
“ṭhānaso metaṃ, bhāradvāja, viditaṃ yadidaṃ — adhidevā”ti.
"With reason it is known by me, Bhāradvāja, that there are higher divinities."
The question is, what do you ...
12
Most Buddhists believe in some form of "higher" being; brahmas, devas, etc. It is not an orthodox Buddhist practice to pray to these deities, but people are people. Ordinary Buddhists from most, if not all, traditions, tend to succumb to the allure of prayer and supplication; most monasteries are now called "temples", monks are often called "priests", ...
11
First, some canonical background:
According to the Acintita Sutta, speculating on the origin of the cosmos or similar topics will lead one to confusion i.e. it cannot be understood.
According to the Cula-Malunkyavada Sutta in the Parable of the Poisoned Arrow, the speculation of the origin of cosmos or suffering or similar topics is not useful, because the ...
11
I'll answer in two parts-- what sort of looks like a god in Buddhism and which of those are female.
Early Buddhism didn't see gods as important to solving their fundamental problem of ending suffering. Gods were seen as a possible destination for our reincarnation. Gods didn't provide any help to us humans, they were too busy enjoying themselves (devas) or ...
10
"Monks, I will teach you the All. Listen & pay close attention. I will
speak."
"As you say, lord," the monks responded.
The Blessed One said, "What is the All? Simply the eye & forms, ear &
sounds, nose & aromas, tongue & flavors, body & tactile sensations,
intellect & ideas. This, monks, is called the All. [1] ...
9
However, in Theravada Buddhism, there exists no such emotional support from any deity.
Yes this is the same problem i experienced.Having come from a back ground of devout Christianity i was very used to being soothed by praying.Theravada Buddhism seemed to be almost indifferent about this subject.And i had to go through a period of a hybrid religion,where i ...
9
How you should consider what do to depends on your situation. Have you converted to Buddhism? Do you believe in an all powerful God? If you haven't converted to Buddhism and still believe in a God and are just adopting Buddhist practices because you find that they give you wellbeing I wouldn't worry about it too much. But if you are trying to work out the ...
9
The Dona Sutta might be helpful:
On one occasion the Blessed One was traveling along the road between
Ukkattha and Setabya, and Dona the brahman was also traveling along
the road between Ukkattha and Setabya. Dona the brahman saw, in the
Blessed One's footprints, wheels with 1,000 spokes, together with rims
and hubs, complete in all their features....
7
For Buddhism, If you define God as someone who created the world, God does not exist.
But if you define the God as someone who is superior to other beings, then god exist.
However, such a god exists only for a period of time, then one day the god will go down to another level (I mean rebirth) as an angel or human.
The Lord Buddha is not a God.
In ...
7
God's plan implies a working towards some goal, or a rhyme or reason at least. Karma implies no such thing; it simply describes an orderliness to the mental aspect of reality, in the same way that physics does for the physical aspect. Karma is in fact to be abandoned, or risen above, in the end, to the extent that one performs neither wholesome nor ...
7
You see friend, it's a sad state of affairs. Even the Buddhists of this site reject your respect of our teacher on the grounds that your faith is wrong in their eyes. And if your faith is "wrong", your respect must be misplaced, is that what we are saying? What a shame!
You are not asking for much - not asking to accept your faith, not asking for ...
6
Chogyam Trungpa spoke about theistic vs. non-theistic perspective:
For most people, God is a dualistic concept. Meaning, for a typical person the unspoken assumption is: "I am here and God is over there". So when I think about God, when I speak to God -- I inevitably imagine some power outside of myself. It is in this power that I place hope for good life ...
6
Which Buddhism?
In Theravada, the gods are less important, and if they exist, are subject to all the same problems we are, being mortal, petty, flawed, etc.
In Mayahayana, the Buddhas have a lot of the qualities you mentioned. But a Christian might also object to the Mayahana goal which is to become a god (if a god is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent). ...
6
For completeness, there isn't one Buddhism, there are many Buddhisms. The other questions already address the Buddhisms with either no god or no interesting and relevant gods.
By a process of fascinating evolution, Buddhism evolved from early Buddhism, which arguable didn't care or want take a stand on gods or their lack there of, to one that said Gods ...
6
Maha Brahma is a realm, and not “A GOD”. Any living being (including each of us) has been in all realms in this beginningless sansara. We have been at the highest (except the five pure abodes in rupa loka which can be accessed only by Anagamis or Non-Returners). One time the Buddha pointed to a bunch of ants on the ground and told bhikkhus that each of those ...
6
The God you speak of, is known as the Great Brahma or Mahabrahma, the first being to appear in the Mahabrahma plane, when the world expands again. Also, take a look at the 31 planes of existence.
The story you're looking for is in DN1:
"There comes a time, bhikkhus, when after the lapse of a long period this world contracts (disintegrates). While the ...
5
(Vajrayana) Buddhism is an non-theistic teaching. All deities, yidams etc. are understood to be expressions of one's own nature, one's own mind. At the same time, it is clearly understood that "one's own" mind is not really "one's own" -- because there is no such independent entity as "I", the mind does not have boundaries between outer and inner. From this ...
5
I always use "angel" to refer to devas, and "god" to refer to brahmas; though the terms have a different connotation in Judeo-Christian tradition, the relationship the terms have with each other is similar, since devas are really just angelic, whereas brahmas are in a sense godlike.
5
The Buddha used to remain silent, when Hindu Brahmins used to ask him about his views on God. He used to give the example of a man carrying a lamp and walking along a village road in the night, trying to reach another village. Human knowledge is like that, he used to say, it can show you the path as you travel along, but it cannot give you the knowledge of ...
5
Just think of the flip side of it @Akila… If the patient is a devout Buddhist.. still almost all will say "may god bless you" at the time of leaving. Will they ever say "Namo Buddhaya" when arriving, or at the time of leaving? I doubt it. It is because very few know that we Buddhists say 'Namo Buddhaya' whenever we meet or depart. At the time when the ...
5
Attaining Nirvana is not about labeling one self as Buddhist. To attain Nirvana you should follow the path to Nirvana. Any body following this path will reach the destination regardless of what they call themselfs. So you can call yourself a Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jain, Jew, etc. to start with but what matters to realise Nirvana is the threefold ...
answered Sep 3 '17 at 16:07
Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena
36.7k3 gold badges24 silver badges76 bronze badges
5
Buddhism is agnostic: it makes no claims about the existence (or non-existence) of any god. The Buddhas (for there were several aside from the eponymous Gautama) were merely those who are sufficiently awake to see the human condition, and to prescribe the remedy for what ails us all. Don't make more of it than you need to.
Of course, there are those who see ...
4
It's safest to leave them in the Pali or Sanskrit.
Angels sounds very Christian. It creates a "don't think about polar bears" situation to hear these Christian words. If you try not to think about polar bears, all you can think about is polar bears. If you hear the word Angel and try not think about guys with wings that do Gods bidding and sometimes rebel ...
4
Usually a Buddhist isn't completely only a Theravadin and does use mantrayana methods to generate merit and ask for assistance from various deities which exist only to serve.
There is no one to turn to in Theravada though (and in actuality) because there isn't really anyone that can absolve "our own" karma, Buddha or deity--otherwise the all-compassionate ...
4
Admittedly, I'm a beginner myself. However, it is my understanding that the Buddha took no position as to the existence/non-existence of a God who created everything we see, on the grounds that there is no way of knowing - at least within this life - for certain whether such a being exists. Instead, the Buddha tried to re-focus people on what they could do ...
4
My scientific education tells me that:
The world is as it is and behaves as it does (and is observed by people).
People (scientists) observe that behaviour and then invent rules which describe (or define) the behaviour.
Note that:
Those rules are not necessarily "pre-determined" (instead they're invented by people to describe the behaviour-of-the-world ...
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