Sarah Conover has been a Buddhist practitioner for nearly three decades. She’s ready to answer your questions about the faith. What do you want to ask a Buddhist? Fill out the form below or submit your question online.
Do you consider Buddhism a religion? (Why and/or why not?)
A lot of Buddhist practitioners in the West don’t care to quibble about defining Buddhism as a religion or not. I can only speak as a modern Western Buddhist—I’m not sure traditionally Buddhist populations would find it a relevant debate.
Perhaps I’m a quibbler, but investigating what makes something a religious pursuit is, to me, an important topic. Some call themselves secular Buddhists, or will state they are spiritual rather than religious. In a pluralistic and sometimes secularized society, religion can have a bad rap—synonymous with mythology for many. Ajahn Brahm, a Buddhist monastic, answered the question is Buddhism a religion by saying: “Only for tax purposes.” He was joking of course, but the point is that a lot of Western practitioners are allergic to the word religion.
Like almost all questions that lure one into yes/no polarities, whether Buddhism is a religion whittles down to personal definitions. First and foremost, like all abstractions as broad as the term, religion, multiple definitions abound in every resource. Despite the etymology of words and their literal denotations, we are also stuck with their modern connotations. But if you look in any decent dictionary or encyclopedia, it’s not necessary to believe in a supreme power to be religious—that can be one of religion’s possible attributes, but not a fundamental requirement. A religion can be a system of faith and collection of beliefs; a religion can also be a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance. In my view, it’s the latter two definitions working in tandem that create a religious praxis.
Buddhism, like every truly religious praxis, is a rigorous system of teachings with a rich historical tradition created to radically transform our relationship to ourselves and the world: to crack our hearts open, to aim mortal blows at hubris, to keep us from wandering through our decades distracted by trivialities, and to help us find meaning and purpose in life. To be a practicing Buddhist (or Muslim, Christian, Hindu and so on) is to willingly tether oneself to one methodology and worldview to face the ontological stakes of a precious life.
It’s easy to love Buddhism on the surface—just look at titles from well-known Buddhist authors like Thich Nhat Hanh (Peace is Every Step) or His Holiness the Dalai Lama, (The Art of Happiness). Who wouldn’t want to align with those ideas? Fundamentally, however, Buddhism is not abstractions or slogans or ideals: If you’ve ever seen the terrifying figures in Tibetan Buddhist art and architecture that symbolize the obstacles and hindrances to the end of suffering, you’ll know that real knowledge of Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha, is not about accessorizing your spirituality when you’ve got a little free time in your schedule.
Thus, my answer to this question for dedicated practitioners—even for secular Buddhists (a new moniker in Western Buddhism), and even for atheistic Buddhists—is yes, Buddhism is a religion. Some of the aforementioned folks might take some offense and claim that they are emphatically not religious, and that Buddhism is a philosophy, or a system of ethics, or a phenomenology. I believe that an anti-religious stance is the result of modern conditions, among them: a very reasonable aversion to politicized religious fundamentalism that garners media and political clout; a very reasonable questioning of a belief in a supreme being in the face of evolution and physics; a global perspective on current events that deems religious pluralism the best option. I’m right with my fellow practitioners on these hesitations about calling myself religious.
However, for a dedicated practitioner, Buddhism, by my definition, is a religion because it is the pursuit of something one ascribes supreme importance to; it is a religion because it is a system of practice and faith (another term with multiple definitions and one that fits for my purposes that suggests a forward-leading stance) that the Eight Fold Path of the Buddha leads to the end of suffering.
Hi Sarah,
As always, thanks for your thoughtfulness.
I agree the word “religious” has some serious negative connotations in American culture today. And not without reason. I tend to shy away from it.
For instance, I recently attended a month long yoga class taught with a particular zeal that verged on fundamentalism. My practice, whether it be yoga, meditation, writing, relationships, etc., is to walk that line between faithful dedication and attachment–and it is indeed a practice. 🙂
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