Buddhism

the reason Buddhism rejects the existence of God is not an atheistic reason - that many things exist but God isn't one ofthem. The Budddhist position is rather a rejection of everything's existence. Budddhists believe that nothing really exists, including God ..

This Buddhist belief in the illuusion of existence is called sunyata in the Pali language. The main idea ,is that nothing has any existence on its own (anatta) because everyything is connected. Everything is dependent on everything else and so has no existence of its own. This is called dependent co-origination (pratityasamutpada). What it all comes down to is that nothing is really real. However, in our illuusions about the world, we think that things are real Sb we get attached tothem (tanha), and then when they die or are gone and we lose them, we suffer (dukka).

All this is very philosophical and psychological but not particularly religious. This is why some people don't consider Buddhism a religion but rather a philosophy. I think Buddhism is indeed a religion beecause it moves beyond its obscure metaphysics to a very practical salvation system characteristic of all religions. Salvation in Buddhism is called enlightenment (bodht), and the state of being enlightened is nirvana (nibana).

The Buddha, a prince named Siddhartha Gotama, taught about a way to end the suffering we

feel in life (having a founding spiritual teacher is also typical of a religion). He taught about a path to enlightenment that includes, as all religions do, both rituals and ethical teachings.

To me, the main difference beetween Buddhism and the Abrahammic faiths is its teachings about how to change the world. All religions

. want to healthe world of its sufferring. (Not all philosophies have such a goal and this is another way to know that Buddhism is a religion.) In the West, we seek to change the world directly, but in Buddhism, the change in the world comes about by first changing ourselves,

then bringing our enlightened, changed souls into the world as examples of peace and harmony.

Buddhism is divided, like Rooman Catholicism, into a priestthood (the sangha) and a laity. The Buddhist priesthood ismade up of Buddhist monks (bikkhu) and nuns (bikkunz). They lead celibate lives and are committed to ascetiicism and long hours of meditation and prayer.

In fact, Buddhism is a good model for the kind of religious ecumenism I've believed in all my life. Here's a religion that never knew of the Bible, yet generated its own ethical teachings identical to those of the Abrahamic faiths. Could this be proof that God speaks to each of us in ways our culture can translate?

The Buddha was mice asked if he was a god and he answered, "I am not a god. I am merely awake." May we all be awake to the many ways compassion sweeps us up into love and hope.

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