>I have been trying to think about Buddhism, Scientology and Gaia religions. They do not focus on a God but rather the eternal inner spirit and reincarnation. The best so far I have come up with is “Spiritual” or “Letsism” . Letsism is an unspecified belief in an undetermined transcended reality. Or even “Dianetics” a Set of ideals and practices regarding the relationship between mind and body. Not sure yet. This is a quote from a Quora answer to What is the term for those who believe in God, but not in religion? and it got me curious. I know this has been asked before in a couple of different ways, but what is Buddhism? https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/11042/17739 tells us that >Buddhism is a nontheistic religion or philosophy (Sanskrit: dharma; Pali: dhamma) that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to Gautama Buddha, commonly known as the Buddha ("the awakened one"). > >[...] > >The foundations of Buddhist tradition and practice are the Three Jewels: > > - The Buddha – One who attains enlightenment by oneself, then teaches others to become enlightened; > > - The Dharma – the theory and practice taught by a self-enlightened Buddha; and > > - The Sangha – the community who attained enlightenment following the teachings of Buddha. The answer also points out that Buddhist traditions can incorporate >**Devotional practices** – non-theistic objects of devotion include the Buddha, past enlightened followers of the Buddha, Bodhisatvas, angels, gods, and living spiritual teachers. This seems to contradict the Quora quote when it said that Buddhism does not focus on a God. https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/24902/17739 points out through the answers that Buddhism can be seen as a religion, but... >The Buddha did not ask for anyone to take his word with respect to Dhamma - things as they are. He asked people to not blindly obey, to not follow ritual, to not ignore or go against what they directly observe. In this respect, Buddhism is at its core a scientific method. > >[...] > >Most major religions accept testimony of the wise, seers, prophets etc as truths, as well as others from the above link [pramanas ]. Buddhism does not. So, going back to the Quora quote, is Buddhism - a form of Letsism — an unspecified belief in an undetermined transcended reality? - a ​form of Dianetics — a set of ideals and practices regarding the relationship between mind and body? Or, - aside from "new age Buddhism ", is it just purely a spiritual teaching based on a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects?

Can someone provide me a reference to the passage in the canon where the Buddha describes the length of a kalpa? In the English Wikipedia article there is this quote which is allegedly by the Buddha: > "Were a man to take a piece of cloth of this most delicate texture [of > fine cotton], and therewith to touch in the slightest possible manner, > once in a hundred years, a solid rock, free from earth, a yojana [~14 > miles] high, and as much broad, the time would come when it would be > worn down, by this imperceptible trituration, to the size of a mung or > undu seed. This period would be immense in its duration; but it has > been declared by Buddha that it would not be equal to a Maha Kalpa." I would like to find that exact passage but alas no luck. I don't know where this could be. In the wiki article the sutta nipata is mentioned but I couldn't find anything in there. Thank you.

I wanted to know if someone could reference passages from the canon where the Buddha teaches about mindfulness. If such passages exist that is. I was wondering about it because terms and explanations surrounding mindfulness can sound very modern and almost technical at times, depending on who explains it. Has mindfulness, as practiced in this modern age, any roots in the original teachings of the Buddha (as taught by Himself), or did this arise in more recent times? E.g. Vietnamese Monk Thich Nanh Hanh's school of mindfulness is an entire sect devoted to the practice of mindfulness. But is there any canonical, textual evidence? I couldn't find anything. Thanks.

Yes, I have seen the similar questions. But they do not satisfyingly answer my own since my question is slightly different. Let me explain: I was reading up on Emptiness, Samsara and so on and found out that there is no individual soul or energy that reincarnates. Rather, it is like a candle lighting another whereby the wax of the new candle is different and has nothing in common with the previous candle. And I see that this image does not contradict (if there is no soul how can there be rebirth?) the theme of rebirth when looked at it this way. But I was wondering about one thing: If there is no individual, eternal essence (like the Atman in Hinduism) that is liberated wouldn't that mean that life would go extinct at a certain point? I mean if I understand the Buddha correctly we all return to the one "collective", true essence that he called the unborn, unchanging etc... Doesn't that mean that at the point where all beings were liberated life would cease to exist? So my question is why did he teach to free oneself from rebirth when looked at it from the perspective I tried to describe? Come to think of it the Buddha seemingly never answered questions of the origins or the fundamental workings of the universe. For example I know he was once asked what would happen to a fully enlightened Buddha after death. To my knowledge he would answer questions like this saying that it was meaningless to ask such things. Did the Buddha know something about the non-self or the universe that he purposefully never taught? Is the goal of a sentient being to join the "one soul/ground of being" that is the unborn? But why? Is it bliss to cease to exist and join a "homogenous mass of energy"? Why is it important to sever the karmic cycle if it is obvious that this is the way in which the universe manifests itself? In my opinion the universe manifesting as this myriad life forms is a joyous loving act and the whole point of the cosmic energy. I'm confused since I read that part about the Buddha's teachings...

So according to Buddhism , the gods realm is part of the cycle of existence. What are the references of this , according to all buddhists canons?

There is no self that is permanent. All this results from 5 aggregates, then who is experiencing the non self?

I'm just starting the study of Buddhism and I'm really interested in the whole philosophy of Buddhism. Can someone please suggest some books for beginners ? Thank you.

Many religions claim we came to this earth on a mission, everyone has a different mission, a specific reason to be here. In Buddhism I couldn't find anything like that, the "mission" would be the same for every one: Become an Arahant and scape samsara. There is nothing we should achieve here, except from that. Is that a fair statement? Does anyone know a sutta, speech or book related to Buddhism that states otherwise? That we do have a specific mission on this planet?

I would like to make a little temple in my home. Something that has my little singing bowl and its' pillow and a container for incense and maybe a little Buddha in a pagoda. Like a desktop thing. I'd use it for meditation. Is this frowned upon or allowed or even addressed? I see little temples at businesses and I didnt know how that all worked. Honestly I dont really care about a reputation or anything like that. I just need a tenable, defendable position about it if asked and you people are smarter than I.

When a student becomes aware of the thinking mind and begins to detach from it, would knowledge of how the thinking mind works be relevant to go deeper into the practice? Would an understanding of how the thinking mind works be an opinion and therefore lead to suffering?

What is funeral law of Buddhism is there any ? For both layman and monk.

See question above. So far I know to kickstart emotion : writing about emotion, boxing, put your awareness to bodily feelings(kind a hard if you just feel numbness)

To be precise, can anyone provide a one page summary of Buddhism as a whole, suitable to distribute to someone who knows nothing about the religion? (Yes, this is a "please do my homework for me" question - we're starting up a university Buddhist club, and need a handout to give out at the club fair).