Does it even matter? Moral of the story: Belief that there is God or belief that there is no God are both equally useless, one has to … 12 easy tips. While the concept of a Creator God is absent in Buddha Dhamma (Buddhism), some beings fit into some conventional ideas on satan, angels, and demons, such as … To conclude then, As stated at the beginning of the article, in Buddhism, there is room for all types of views on the idea of God. This seems the basic claim of any happy person. In explaining why he remained unresponsive to the four questions, Buddha used the parable of the poisoned arrow. Buddha's disciples once again were back to confusion. When Buddhists bow to the Buddha they are not worshipping a god but paying respect to the Buddha’s example and teachings. In many parts of Asia, lay people for centuries were taught very little about the dharma except to keep the Precepts and give alms to monks, and people "filled in the blanks" with local folk beliefs and bits of other Vedic traditions. Submit Your Topic for “What the Teachers Say”, The Scientific Buddhist — Submit a Topic Idea. There is no point in praying to them because they rarely interact with humans and aren't interested in your prayers or offerings. Monk Thanissaro Bhikkhu, a trained translator of the Buddha’s words, certainly has. So, while the Buddha never explicitly said "There is no God," it's not incorrect to say that God-belief is not supported by the Buddha's teaching. The Buddhist path embraces everyone, regardless of any belief in God — or not. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! The Buddha replied: “Suppose Malunkyaputra that a man has been wounded by a poisoned arrow and his friends and family are about to call a doctor. Gautama was born in 563 BCE in what is now Nepal. At times, He did remain silent on this topic. The Venerable S Dhammika also categorically denies that Buddhism believes in a God for many reasons, including that it is based on fear and appealing to more traditional arguments such as lack of evidence. What did Lord Buddha really have to say about God? In the Samyutta Nikaya he explains he knows much more than he is revealing, through the parable of a handful of leaves: “…Then the Blessed One took up a few simsapa leaves in his hand and addressed the monks thus: “What do you think, Monks, which is more numerous: these few leaves that I have taken up in my hand or those in the grove overhead?”, “Venerable sir, the leaves that the Blessed One has taken up in his hand are few, but those in the grove overhead are numerous.”, As Dr. Alexander Berzin writes, there were fourteen such metaphysical questions on which the Buddha maintained silence when he was asked about them, again neither confirming or denying them which included most of those asked by Malunkyaputra. But before going on with that, we should note that Buddha was not an agnostic (one who does not know). What Does Buddha Dhamma Say about Creator, Satan, Angels, and Demons? In others, he seems to deny the soul. If you wanted to have many children (or vice versa) you would make offerings to a fertility deity, for example. Was he kinder, more forgiving, more self-sacrificing than Buddha?Was he wiser, did he meet death with more perfect calmness, than Socrates?Was he more patient, more charitable, than Epictetus?Was he a greater philosopher, a deeper thinker, than Epicurus?In what respect was he the superior of Zoroaster? Buddha Weekly does not recommend or endorse any information that may be mentioned on this website. Of these, Lama Thubten Yeshe wrote, "Tantric meditational deities should not be confused with what different mythologies and religions might mean when they speak of gods and goddesses. The Buddha was trying to show that language was not equipped to deal with a reality that lay beyond concepts and reason.” [14]. [Note: We’re speaking about Buddhism generally; there are some schools, however, which have stricter ideas on divinities, beyond the scope of this story.]. Citations included. “Wait!” he says. Moral of the story: Belief that there is God or belief that there is no God are both equally useless, one has to … So while he did not specifically say there is no creator god, in Buddhism, there is nothing for a creator god to do. However, there is also a middle ground approach that has not been considered yet. Love many subjects, bilingual third year uni student.” On Twitter>>. In the evening a third man came and he asked, "Does God exist?" In reading through all the many sermons of the Buddha, it seems that he adjusted his teachings to the needs and capacities of his listeners. All information on this site, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material contained on this website are for informational purposes only. The Buddha clearly taught that all phenomena are "created" by means of cause and effect determined by natural law. Buddha knowing that man to be an atheist said with firm voice as if he is in firm conviction "Yes, there is God". Awhile back I wrote a blog post called "Determining the Dharma," which addressed a line from the Vimalakirti Sutra -- determine the dharma according to the dharma. Whether your concept of God is an all-powerful, all-knowing “capital G” God, or a less defined concept of universal consciousness, or a nature deity, or the more practical “meditational deity” — Buddhism welcomes all of these equally. Buddhism neither confirms nor denies the idea of God and different interpretations of Buddhist scripture and philosophy can give a diverse and rich variety of views and ideas about God as hopefully shown successfully in this article. Some even go so far as to say that the Buddha said so, too. Yes, there is a God. Of the ten major avatars of Vishnu, Vaishnavites believe Gautama Buddha to be the ninth and most recent incarnation.. Buddha's portrayal in Hinduism varies. Budding professor of religion. It seems we need to affirm the existence of the unknown in order to justify investigating it. But there is an account given by Him on the genesis of the "Creator" and this should settle the issue. The Pali scriptures say the Buddha was only concerned about one primary matter, which was/is the complete cessation/freedom from suffering (dukkha) or the unshakeable freedom of mind (refer to MN 22, MN 29, MN 30, etc). Buddha lived in a time totally different from our own — a time in which belief in Gods and divine interventions was incredibly natural and universal. The reason why the Buddha does not talk much about God, especially in Pali Sutta, is simply that belief in God is not necessary to achieve enlightenment. I mean, do you really know what the Buddha said on the matter? So, a Buddhist can believe in, and even worship a God, should they wish but enlightenment can only be achieved by one’s own effort, it is completely up to the individual. [11]. Make no assumptions about what things "mean" in any other context. Buddhists believe that nothing is … Gautam Buddha - Does God exist - Once upon a time, Gautam Buddha was visiting a village. Every task that God does in the Abrahamic religions was assigned to various systems of natural law by the Buddha. So, what did Buddha actually say about divine beings? The tantric deities of Vajrayana are something else again. The koan, “‘What?’ is the sound of one hand clapping” argues that we are always in contact with the unknown, or are at least in those times we recognize it with a “what?”. He said "there is no GOD". And he said, "Yes, absolutely yes." NOTE: Feature is the point-of-view of the author. However, atheism is also perfectly compatible with Buddhism too, and some Buddhist thinkers reject the concept of a creator based on Buddhist philosophy and doctrine. What did Lord Buddha really have to say about God? Now, Buddha's attendant, Ananda, was very much puzzled: "In the morning he said no, in the afternoon he said yes, in the evening he did not answer at all. Buddha closed his eyes and remained utterly silent. Yes, there is a "complex pantheon of Brahmanic gods" (quoting another blogger) in the Pali texts. [1]Karen Armstrong ‘A History of God’ (William Heinemann Ltd: the UK, 1993. Please feel free to excerpt stories with full credit and a link to. The second reason the Buddha did not believe in a god is because there does not seem to be any evidence to support this idea. So, what did Buddha actually say about divine beings? Budding professor of religion. Many contemporary Buddhists make prayer part of their practice. The man stopped and asked, ~~~ My friend, what are you? It is not the same as phenomenal things. At https://www.thoughtco.com/atheism-and-devotion-in-buddhism-449718 [Accessed 20th September 2018], [6]Dalai Lama ‘The Relevance of Religion in Modern Times’ at https://www.dalailama.com/messages/religious-harmony-1/the-relevance-of-religion-in-modern-times [Accessed 20th September 2018], [7]Bhikkhu Bodhi ‘In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon’ (Wisdom Publications: USA, 2005). Suttas mentioned: Aṅguttara Nikāya 5.43 Saṃyutta Nikāya 42.6 The two greatest spiritual teachers to ever walk this earth were Buddha and Christ. Buddhism has a lot more to say on labels and imputing concepts than it does about gods and deities — and “religion” is clearly a problematic label. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! But next day someone came and asked the same question now Buddha replied "YES, there is GOD". "Did the Buddha say 'There is no God,' directly? In the same way, Buddha replied, to Malunkyaputra’s questions, his job isn’t to answer these metaphysical questions. God has no function, no role to play, either as an original source or as an instigator of current events. But it's certainly the case that there are all kinds of god-like creatures and beings called devas populating the early scriptures of Buddhism. There are many views on this topic. Born Siddhartha Gautama, his teachings serve as the foundation of the Buddhist religion. Gautam Buddha - Does God exist - Once upon a time, Gautam Buddha was visiting a village. GOD Exist and he … In the afternoon another man came and he asked, "Does God exist?" 169 and 177, [3Eknath Easwaran (trans) ‘The Dhammapada’ (Nilgiri Press: California, United States, 2008) P.189, [4]Eknath Easwaran (trans) ‘The Dhammapada’ (Nilgiri Press: California, United States, 2008) PP. Too many questions: the parable of the handful of leaves, Bramajala Sutta, the impermance of all, including gods, Buddha: neither accepted nor rejected God, Scientific Buddhists and Athiest Buddhists, All Rights Reserved. There are some who would say that Buddha did not teach reincarnation but instead spoke of rebirth. (Compare Job 28:20, 21, 28; Psalm 111:10.) In fact, such misunderstanding did occur even in the Buddha’s life-time. The Buddha mentions Brahma explicitly in the ‘Brahmajala Sutta’ and assigns him many characteristics that people would normally ascribe to ‘God’ as believers know him today: “And then, monks, that being who first arose there thinks: “I am Brahma, the Great Brahma, the Conqueror, the Unconquered, the All-Seeing, the All-Powerful, the Lord, the Maker and Creator, Ruler, Appointer and Orderer, Father of All That Have Been and Shall Be. “Why should we place Christ at the top and summit of the human race? 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