Meeting John Lennon on the Way to Nirvana

Imagine there's no heaven

It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace

You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one   -John Lennon, Imagine 

I am terrible at song lyrics and pop culture.  I honestly thought this song had a lyric that went something like Imagine there's no God, but it looks like the lines are actually about heaven, hell, and religion.  So, I'll take what I can get and use this song as a jumping point to discuss Buddhism as a non-theist spiritual path.

One of the first uncomfortable ideas I encountered when moving into Buddhism was the concept of a 'godless religion'.  In exploring this idea I found in my experience that American Buddhists have a whole constellation of related answers about whether Gautama Siddhartha taught there is or is not a God -or gods. For an exercise in confusion, sometime do an internet search for "Buddha does God exist".

So, let me take you down my own path regarding this question:

My views on Buddhism and the existence of God began with a story I read in various forms from the internet over the years.  In the original form that I first encountered, the story goes something like this:

The Buddha was teaching near a village.  A villager came to the Buddha and asked him, "Lord Buddha, you are very wise.  Do the gods truly exist?"  The Buddha responded, "How can we really know?  Instead, focus on something you can do now." 

In other words, this story implies Gautama Siddhartha felt belief or disbelief in gods -remember he was raised in polytheistic Hinduism- ultimately was a distraction from improving one's life now through Buddhist practices.  Moreover, he felt the question was unanswerable and thus the futility of worrying over this idea again distracted a person from practical methods of improving one's life in the here and now.

Read the responses to a question regarding whether Buddha believed in God/gods for a mind-blowing exercise in confusion.  Mind you, how different is this thread from any discussion of Christians of different denominations discussing some aspect of Christianity...or Muslims discussing Islam, etc.?  No religion maintains a single orthodoxy.

Since then I've come to believe this story is more a folk belief rather than a direct quote.  It, however, embodies the general message regarding this question in early Buddhist writings.  The ambiguity, however, allows for a variety of Buddhist views:

Atheism:

There are some passages, and I cite them in the book, where the Buddha does address the question of Theism and Atheism. And he takes a stance of what I call an "ironic Atheist." Buddha treats belief in God with a certain kind of ironic amusement. He doesn't take it seriously at all. And the passages in which he addresses it, are really a sort of like a short diversional entertainment. Once he's dealt with those ideas, he puts them aside, and no longer dwells on that topic. -Stephen Batchelor, Confessions of an Atheist Buddhist

This useful webpage goes into more detail by contextualizing Gautama Siddhartha's life in the context of living in a Hindu society at that time.  It also explores the threads of argument against the existence of a Supreme Being.

Agnosticism:  Like the original story I described at the start of this post, the Buddha basically says "how can we know?" and urges focus on the knowable and do-able by focusing on Buddhist practices to reach enlightenment.  A number of Buddhists take this tack:  there may or may not be a Creator and/or Supreme Being.  In our current states of being we cannot know.

Devas:  In Hinduism devas are a race of beings with god-like powers.  They are in fact gods in Hinduism though there are different levels and types of deities.  Gautama Siddhartha grew up with this belief system.  Later Indian Buddhists appear to have continued to believe in devas but argued they too were ultimately impermanent -and immersed in their lives of sensual pleasures- could be less wise than an enlightened human being.  In other words, like the playful and spiteful Greek, Roman, and Norse gods more familiar to Westerners through classical mythology, the devas were often just like humans with some superpowers thrown in.  So some Buddhists view Buddhism as believing in devas but that they are no more than beings on a more elevated plane of existence similar to humans having certain greater abilities than other animals.

Theism:  While I have not come across much written about this viewpoint, I have encountered a number of spiritual people who practice a form of syncretism where they mix Buddhism and other beliefs.  Some of these people call themselves Buddhists.  Others do not.  They find Buddhist practices a rich skill set for dealing with life.  They take the seeming agnostic Buddhist viewpoint and run with it:  Buddhism gives them skills for dealing with NOW!  Larger questions of the creation of the universe and the afterlife punt to other spiritual perspectives.  So, I've met Buddhist Christians and Buddhist Wiccans.

This is not so unusual.  In Japan people often mix Shinto and Buddhism depending on the life event being acknowledged (births, deaths, etc.).  A great story I learned when I taught in China tells a fable where Gautama Siddhartha, Kongzi (Confucius) and Laozi -the founders of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism respectively- gathered to share a bottle of wine.  Alas, the wine had turned to vinegar.  Confucius first takes a sip, and he frowns because the wine is not what it is supposed to be.  It is disorderly.  Gautama takes a sip and maintains the serene smile on his lips.  Having no expectations, he experiences the vinegar as it is.  At last Laozi takes a sip, and he smiles.  Why?  Because Daoism seeks to understand Nature as it is.  The wine is now vinegar so it is the nature of its true self.

The moral to this story is basically these three belief systems offer a person various skill sets for how to deal with life.  Why choose when you can have all three?

I continue my own exploration of whether I believe in the existence of God, but that is a post for another day.  For now I leave you with this post and a Beatles tune to run through your head.