Is Buddhism an Atheistic Religion?

Buddhism has a reputation of being an atheistic religion. But is this true?

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Thumbnail art by @hotcyder

This video was made possible through the support
of Grant 61928 from the John Templeton Foundation
managed by The Queen’s University of Belfast. The
opinions expressed in this publication are those of
the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views
of the John Templeton Foundation or The Queen’s
University of Belfast.

00:00 Intro: Theravada, Mahayana, Secular Buddhism
3:14 Buddhist Cosmology and Devas
7:25 Can the devas help us? (Theravada perspective)
13:46 Bodhissatvas and Mahayana Buddhism
15:26 Tibetan Buddhism
16:19 Buddhist Modernism
19:48 Secular Buddhism
24:47 Conclusion

[seniraranasinghe]

As a life long Buddhist my understanding is
>Buddhism enters a new country/society.
>people “Cool, cool, cool…… Can we keep these gods around as well.”
>”sure, ig”
>People “Yay”

[midoriya-shonen]

I remember being taught a lot of these misconceptions during high school, and it was a luxury that we even had a course to teach us about religions and traditions at all. Thank you for the lesson!

[RO-ocbk]

As a Japanese (so I might be biased, mind you), I think the original Buddhism thought was similar to "I can neither prove nor disprove the gods' existence (or, their influence on our lives), so leave it for the time being. we have too many things to mind."

[swagmundfreud]

I remember I had a discussion with a Buddhist monk in Japan, who happened to speak English, and I told him that one thing I liked about Buddhism was how the Buddha was just a man, and he looked at me and said very simply, with a bit of a laugh, 'The Buddha was NOT just a man'.

[maimee]

As a Thai person who is raised in a country where Theravada Buddhism is the official religion, viewing anti-ritualism as purely a Western invention seems not entirely accurate.

Over here, just within Theravada Buddhism, we make distinctions of two kinds of temples and two kinds of monks that practice in them: city and forest. The city temples focus more on rituals and things to do with the community of believers, while the forest temples focuses more on individual practice. Generally, forest temples and their monks are viewed with more respect and is seen as closer to true Buddhist practice.

Some specific Nikaya in the city is actually viewed with derision. One of them allowing you to buy land in the heaven for your afterlife. Peak commercialization of Buddhism. And perhaps undeniably something untrue to any respectable Buddhist text.

Maybe when the foreigners came, they get to see all the different Nikayas and so gets to choose what they think is best to follow. And what is best, if not to treat it as Philosophy and to reject all parts incompatible with science.

[officialmycrazyamericanfat]

People always called me crazy for refusing to have premarital eye contact. Well who's crazy now?

[DaveLopez]

Today I am having Religion For Brunch.

[jtdwvvx]

Buddhism, Hinduism and other Eastern religions are deeply intertwined. The prevalence of Hindu-derived deity worship in various parts of Buddhist Asia is because of the Hindu influence. Phra Phrom (Thai depiction of Brahma) as featured in the video at 10:52 cannot be tied to Buddhism but more broadly to the general Dharmic/Indic culture that exists in Thailand. Thai people also popularly worship Ganesha, a deity that does not exist in Buddhist cosmology and Thai people also visit Hindu temples in Thailand. Some of the largest Ganesha statues outside of India are located in Thailand. Phra Phrom in Thai-style is also worshipped by ethnic Chinese across Southeast Asia and southern China. In Hong Kong, there is a famous Phra Phrom statue that is frequented by Chinese people. In Japan, there are Japanese versions of Ganesha, Shiva and Skanda and in Sri Lanka, you will find Buddhist people worshipping local folk gods as well as Hindu gods inside some Buddhist temples like Seema Malaka. The same thing applies to other Buddhist groups in Asia.

So correlating it to Buddhism is incorrect because some of these devas don't even exist in Buddhism. The reason people worship them in Asia is because of the pre-existing Hindu influence and the general overlap that Eastern religions share with one another. Thailand was previously a Hindu nation, these Hindu practices were simply carried over after Theravada Buddhism was brought to the country from Sri Lanka. There is no restriction to how people must practice Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Shintoism etc. so people mix them together.

[CaptPostmod]

I went through a big Buddhist phase in my 20s (about 20 years ago). I remember being consistently baffled and flustered at all the secular, western, caucasian practitioners and groups who would insist that Buddhism was just a mental practice even while they were kneeling on zafutons in front of icons and effigies and chanting what one could describe as prayers.

[pathumwijayasooriya]

I'm from Sri Lanka and according to the teachings taught here, Bodhisattvas are not beings that deliberately postpone their enlightenment to help others!
They are on a path from one rebirth to the next in order for them to finally reach enlightenment. They may help people along the way in these rebirths and since they are beings of compassion and kindness they do so without hesitation. Theravada buddhists generally do not worship any sort of bodhisattva's.
The general notion we have about the devas is that the idea of Devas were introduced in order for the teachings of the Buddha to be better understood by the people who lived during that time who were brought up in a Jina or Hindu religious background.
Buddhist traditions are common in Sri Lanka, ranging from watering trees, to building statues etc. However, more or less people here are aware that the core of Buddhism does not involve all the traditions. Traditions were introduced as means of longevity of the religion, political manipulation and blind faith.
Buddhism in its true form is quite simple yet profound. What we learn here in Sri Lanka is that your whole life revolves around your mind which is quite untethered in most people. In order to tether it to yourself or ground it of sorts, we practice meditation to try and calm the mind. Our pursuit of enlightenment does not involve and Devas or supernatural beings.

[perorenchino]

A small correction, here at the begining the two priests were talking about the attributeless bramhan not the four headed god bramha. Those two things are different.

[RonJohn]

Western/Secular Buddhism sounds a lot like Unitarian Universalism, which strips away the superstitious/religious parts of Christianity.

[mattamiller]

I mostly come to Youtube for educational content. And there's a lot of great stuff out there, we're kind of living through a golden age of this type of content. But this channel is still heads and shoulders above the rest. Just great, interesting, deeply informative content week after week after week. Love it.

[nikosuokko]

I have always wished to have a video like this to share with others
I have studied all of this, but my spiritual beliefs have been hard to share to others, most won't have the time and interest to sit down with me for 3 hours as I explain all of this
This was amazingly done. On point, pure information, and not 3 hours long
From the bottom of my Buddhist heart, I thank you!

[GaryNac]

You can say that many Buddhists believed in gods and it didn't necessarily entirely reject the supernatural or anything like that however those things were not the things which were meant to be focused on.I think this is a fairly simple way to sum it all up.

[davidhowe]

To me, the bodhisattvas in Mahayana Buddhism seem quite similar to the saints in Christianity.

[tongbai]

In Thailandd we think of deva as more of an angle than a god, but some Buddhists do worship Hindu Gods

[visionary]

The complexity of Buddhist cosmology, with realms and layered heavens, serves as a powerful metaphor as much as a literal belief system. For some, these devas are guiding symbols for psychological states, while for others, they are very real presences in their spiritual lives. And the beauty of Buddhism is that it doesn’t force a one-size-fits-all approach. Whether devas are seen as external or internal, Buddhism ultimately centers on self-awareness and insight over external worship.

[weeshooen]

I'm amazed by knowledge of the Buddhist texts, cosmology and devas! Thank you for this wonderful video! Well done!

[youremakingprogress]

My first real encounter with Buddhism was attending guided meditations led by a (white, USan) friend who said that Buddhism was more of a philosophy than a religion, and that it would be more accurate to say that one practices Buddhism, rather than saying that one is a Buddhist. I later watched a series of videos on Buddhism on the YouTube channel Linfamy (highly recommend, but this comment is not sponsored) that described all kinds of supernatural beliefs in Buddhism, and I was a bit confused. This breakdown here of the different ways Buddhism is practiced by different cultures and the different approaches to Buddhism made everything make more sense. Thank you!