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God in Buddhism
Buddhism is generally viewed as a religion without a Supreme Being in the
sense of a Creator God. This is especially the case in connection with the Pali
scriptures. Yet some Mahayana sutras envision the Buddha as the "god above the
gods", as a primal, eternal, sustaining essence within all beings and phenomena,
while some tantras paint a portrait of the Buddha on a cosmological scale and in
cosmogonic terms as the emanator of all universes. To the extent that the Buddha
is seen in this way as the indestructible Ground of all, even as the progenitor
of all persons and phenomena, he can be equated to a mystical notion of Godhead.
Gautama Buddha (as portrayed in the Pali scriptures/ the agamas) set an
important trend in nontheism in Buddhism in the sense of denying the existence
of an omnipotent Creator God[1]. Nevertheless, in many passages in the Tripitaka
Gautama Buddha spoke about gods and gave specific examples of individuals who
were reborn as a god, or gods who were reborn as humans. Buddhist cosmology
recognizes various levels and types of gods, but none of these gods is
considered the creator of the world or of the human race[2].
In Mahayana Buddhism there is far less reticence on the part of the Buddha to
speak of metaphysical matters (including the all-pervasiveness of Buddha's
"body" throughout the universe - see trikaya). A distinction therefore needs to
be drawn between the teachings ascribed to the Buddha in the Pāli Canon or the
Āgamas, which do not speak affirmatively of an omnipotent Creator God, and the
more explicitly mystical ideas attributed to the Buddha in some Mahayana sutras
and Tantras, where expression is given to an apparent Ultimate Ground of all
things - the immanent, omniscient, and transcendent Reality of the Awakened Mind
or the boundless sphere of the "Buddha Nature" (buddha-dhatu or Tathagatagarbha;
see, for example, the Mahaparinirvana Sutra and the Kunjed Gyalpo Tantra).
In both the Pali suttas and the Mahayana sutras, the Buddha does teach the
existence of "gods" (devas). These are not, however, "God" but merely heavenly
beings who temporarily dwell in celestial worlds of great happiness. Such beings
are not eternal in that incarnational form and are subject to death and eventual
rebirth into lower realms of existence[3].
While Buddhism does not deny the existence of supernatural beings (e.g., the
devas, of which many are discussed in Buddhist scripture), it does not ascribe
power for creation, salvation or judgment to them. Like humans, they are
regarded as having the power to affect worldly events and so some Buddhist
schools associate with them via ritual. All supernatural beings, as living
entities, are a part of the six-part reincarnation cycle.
Certain Buddhists (particularly in the modern West) hold to an interpretation of
Buddhism that admits nothing of either the supernatural or divinity. In
non-theistic views, realms and gods are viewed with a liberal dose of metaphor,
as tools to understand aspects of Mind, and indeed this is supported by some
sutras such as the Lankavatara Sutra.
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Four Noble Truths
Noble Eightfold Path
Bodhi
Refuge in the Three Jewels
Sila
Samadhi,
Vipassana, and Buddhist meditation
Prajñā
Wisdom
Early
Buddhism
Rise of Mahayana Buddhism
Emergence of
the Vajrayāna
Decline of Buddhism in India and
Central Asia
Southern Buddhism
Eastern Buddhism
Northern Buddhism
Buddhist
Texts
Hinduism and Buddhism
Similarities between Hinduism and
Buddhism
Buddhism and Eastern Teaching
God in
Buddhism
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