Quote Originally Posted by amsterdam
can someone who knows for sure please tell me if buddhism is a religon or a philosophy?i know there has been some controversy over this.

Not even buddha "knows for sure", because it's neither or either, whatever you decide to make it in your life. I personally consider it a religion because it deals with the highest states of reality and events after death. some may only follow it as a moral code of conduct (philosophy), while others may wish to follow it to the piont of spiritual enlightenment and perfection to reach a high state of being, including after death (more religion-like). When Sidhartha (the buddha) set out the path of buddhism, he was very adament that it is not a scripture to be followed down the the word under punishment of such-and-such, it's a guide to life which one can follow as far as they wish. he said something around the lines of;

"believe nothing because it agree's with your scriptures, because the majority believe in it, because someone tells you, even from the buddha, unless it makes sense with your own morality and logic"
mrdevious Reviewed by mrdevious on . A few things on Buddhism I could use some clarification on... I've read about buddhism a lot in the past year, but I'm still not totally clear of their views on the after life and devine (I do know they don't have a god). anywhoo, the way things work is that ignorance and craving are the cause of suffering, which is the cause of continuous rebirth. When one reaches enlightenment, you're freed of suffering, ignorance, craving, and apparently have the "final extinction" at which point the cycle of rebirth is stopped. Now my first question is, why Rating: 5