While the original teachings of the Buddha do not make reference to a deity, to rituals, or
to an
unseen world such as heaven or hell; the Mahayana version of Buddhism popular in China,
Korea, and
Japan do. In order to determine a point of view on Buddhism, whether it is a religion or a
philosophy;
one would first need to determine what defines religion and philosophy.
The PowerPoint presentation supplied to us shows that “Western religions, put emphasis
on faith,
revelation, and rituals to find the truth about existence, philosophy, in the West, relies on
human reason
and intellect.” It also goes to explain that Western religions are more God-oriented while
Eastern
religions are ethics oriented which is now more clearly seen as we’ve gone through first
Hinduism and
now Buddhism. While I can see how one could see Buddhism as being both a religion and
a philosophy I
always have, and still do see it as a religion. After all, this is a World Religion’s class and
not a
Philosophy class, right?
When it comes to religion, I don’t feel that there’s one set in stone definition that can
easily sum
it up. Personally, I have always felt that religion was a person’s own individual beliefs
which can also in
turn be a group of people’s shared beliefs. Fisher states that, “Buddhism is not a religion of
God.
Buddhism is a religion of wisdom, enlightenment and compassion. Like the worshippers of