Essay about Defining and Exploring Buddhism - 470 Words

Defining and Exploring Buddhism Buddhism is one of the major world religions, it is recognized in most countries as a religion, no-one has yet considered that maybe it is a philosophy. We define a religion as having six things, these are: belief in a God, a place of worship, Holy Scriptures or books, rules or guidelines, rites of passage and festivals or special days. So in order to determine Buddhism as a religion we must identify that it has all of these characteristics. However when I do this I find that in theory Buddhism doesnt qualify as a religion as they do not believe in any God and they do not have a place of worship, they do have a monastery but not all Buddhists will visit or live in†¦show more content†¦People would say that Buddhism is not a conventional religion with a clear God and rules but because people follow someones teachings and live by their guidelines it is a religion. Although the point of view in the previous paragraph is completely understandable and valid I disagree and so would many other people. I understand that Buddhism is recognised as a religion all over the world but that doesnt make it so, Buddhists may have shrines in their homes and monasteries but these shrines are for what the Buddha said and believed in they are not for the Buddha as a person they are for what he stands for. This is why the shrines have several symbols on them not just a picture or sculpture of the Buddha; they have flowers for impermanence, pictures of the dead as a sign of reverence and incense to pass on good thoughts and good karma. I agree that many people follow the Buddhas ideas and guidelines help them within their life, but that is all they are, guidelines, if someone was to become a Buddhist but they did not agree with one aspect of what the Buddha said they could just leave it out, or add their own bit in, it would not beShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of. 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