From:chibiabos - view profile
Date:Sat, Dec 9 2006 10:53 am

skyeyes <skye...@dakotacom.net> wrote:

Can an atheist be Buddhist?

Yes. The Dalai Lama is an atheist.

Buddhism is a non-theistic religion but is not necessarily atheistic.
Note that non-theist =! atheist.

In fact, many Buddhists recognize several gods, notably those of the
Hindu sects, and some Buddhists even recognize the emergent godhead of
the Buddha himself.

If the Dalai Lama says he is an atheist, I believe him, but he is not
all Buddhists.

-chib


V:

Yes, you are correct as above. I do not know about the DL though.

Also Pureland Buddhist seem to make Buddha a God as they chant the name
'Amitabha Buddha' to enter the pure land upon death.

But the Pureland schools has some disagreement in that some devotees
are 'self powered' while other Purelander's are 'other powered.'

The 'self powered' chant the name once to enter the pure land and the
'other powered' chant incessantly hoping to catch the Buddha at the
time of their death to whisk them to nirvana.

Again the problem boils down to hermeneutics

See:

http://jesusneverexisted.org/jne/forum/index.php?topic=133.0


Good Luck,


V (Male)

Agnostic Freethinker