Is Buddhism a religion or philosophy?

Question

I am planning to live with Buddhist monks. But I am hesitant. I am not sure whether I shall be able to live with them without leaving my current religion.

I think, if Buddhism is a religion, I am bound to face hard times. Because, it will clash with my current religion.

If it is a philosophy, then I dare to attempt.

Is Buddhism a religion or philosophy?

Answer 1

There are two aspects to this question, a theoretical one and a practical one. I shall attempt to address each of these in turn.

The theoretical question regards whether Buddhism is to be considered a philosophy or a religion. This is a definitional question; it assumes that we already have rigorous delimitations of the notions of "religion" and "philosophy"; needless to say, we don't. There is a large literature on the subject with regard to Buddhism, which comes to no real conclusion; most people consider Buddhism a religion, but this depends on the assumed definition of "religion." So, at the end of the day, it is not a useful distinction.

The more practical question is whether Buddhism would conflict with your prior religious beliefs. Here, the answer is somewhat clearer: as Buddhism rejects the notion that there is anything eternal: any religion that posits an eternal God is going to be in conflict with Buddhism's main tenets. Furthermore, even if your religion posits a God that is not eternal, Buddhism rejects the notion of a creator God.

However: the fact that you are planning to live with Buddhist monks while knowing so little about Buddhism itself is worrisome. I'd strongly recommend you check out a good, single-volume introduction to Buddhism, such as Peter Harvey's An Introduction to Buddhism (published by Cambridge) or Rupert Gethin's Foundations of Buddhism (published by Opus) which will give you a good overview of Buddhist doctrine.

Answer 2

Is Buddhism a philosophy (love of wisdom), a systematic approach to analysing experience (subjective science), an ethical and logical framework, a theory and conclusion that can be tested?

Yes it is.

Does Buddhism challenge fragile beliefs held without empirical evidence such as notions of a vengeful creator god, a sense of self or soul?

Yes it does.

Is Buddhism a religion as undefined by Wikipedia, "an organized collection of belief systems, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to spirituality"

Probably.

respect for what is sacred,

Yes.

reverence for the gods,

Not particularly.

obligation, the bond between man and the gods

Absolutely not.

Latin religiō, ... *le-ligarean ... lego "read", "choose", "go over again" or "consider carefully"

Yes.

ligare "bind, connect", ... prefixed re-ligare, ... "to reconnect,"

Yes as far as a community. No as far as the ultimate goal is nibbana (nirvana) which means 'unbinding', release, detachment, blowing out.

Are you likely to find Buddhists argue with you even if you do not engage them in debates of theological speculation?

No, I do not think so.

Answer 3

What is religion?

There are many ways to define "what religion is", but several assertions of them may be used related to this case:

1. What is the purpose of religion, eventually?

   • The purpose of religion, eventually is to put us on happiness (whatever it is, may be different to others)

2. What is the consistency on a religion?

   • Religion promises happiness on after life (including current life)

3. Additional assertion

   • On most religions (not all that i know), related to this discussion, there are fixed assertion, that we must obey commands from God.

What is God?

There are many definitions of God, but in this case i will highlight God as the creator.

Further

There are two differences on definition "what religion is" in this case:

1. I regard religion as a wider range than spiritualism that adds commands that ascribed to God and should be executed by us.

   Basically the main purpose of religion that has imposed upon us, namely: the continuing expansion of awareness and carry out the commands of God with sincerity to reach long lasting happiness in harmony. Without obediement to God's commands, then there will be no happiness.

   • Whether meditation may be accepted or not on religion, but as long as it can be considered as part of the way to obey on God's commands, then it may be accepted as a cause for us to get into happiness.

2. Religion is the way that promote fulfillment for better life (happiness) in this current life and after life, with no relation to God's commands. And there is no relation to God as creator.

   • ... he renounced his promising future as prince in order to start a long quest for a higher purpose, nirvāṇa (Pali nibbāna), which entails the cessation of old age, sickness and death

   • ... gods do not play any significant cosmological role. For the Buddha, the universe has not been created by an all-knowing, all-powerful god that is the lord of the universe and father of all beings (M.I.326-7). ...

   IEP

   • Perhaps, this causes that buddhism is rather tolerance to any conflict regarding to "whether there is God or not", since "whether there is God or not" eventually we need happiness.

What is Philosophy?

There are various definition on philosophy. But essentially, in a short, philosophy is:

• Knowing as it is to lead us acting as it should be (relevantly), IOW
• Knowing something as it is to direct us acts as it should be (better adjustment)

In this definition, i don't assert philosophy as "rational investigation to the truth", but wider, because philosophy doesn't oblige rational investigation as the first priority, but philosophy obliges us to love wisdom, which oblige us not to use rational only (and mostly), but must be included implementation of wisdom.

Please refer to Distinguishing between philosophy and religion related to the meaning of philosophy in this post.

Conclusions:

Is buddhism a religion or philosophy?

• Buddhism may be considered as religion with no relation to God as creator, unless a religion must assert God as creator

• Also, Buddhism is philosophical since it leads us to realize something as it is, and help us to react (adjust) better and better.

• Whether Buddhism may be considered as religion or not, or may be considered as mysticism, but logical reasoning can be applied on Buddhism. This is why i consider Buddhism is not against philosophical.

We may adapt the goodness on anything, whether from any other beliefs or from any other religions, as long as it doesn't conflict with our main consistent principles:

• For example, I may adapt technical on meditation to improve my chanting to be more focus.

Don't be afraid to adopt wisdom from another sources. Do it wisely. Know your main consistent principles, and start make further adaptation properly that is in line with your main consistent principles.

Hopefully, we will see where the limit that we couldn't pass it.