A Question for the Buddhists

You are mistaken on a number of counts. First, "righteousness" is not the goal of Buddhist practice. Rightousness is still attachment. Second, Gautama Buddha is not regarded as God, but as someone who came to an important understanding about the world and how people interact with it. You are correct that Buddhism and Christianity have different views of suffering. However, it is my understanding of Christianity that suffering does not purify, only Christ's redemption can do that. Also of purity -- the Buddhist does not seek to attain purity, the Buddhist seeks to understand that we are already pure. (I once attended a lecture in which His Holiness the Dalai Lama illustrated this by saying, "No matter how polluted the water may be, the water itself remains pure water.")

Whether Christians view the eightfold path as righteousness has nothing to do with whether Buddhists take themselves to attempting to attain righteousness. Nothing you say in the paragraph that begins "Further, you said..." contradicts the fact that the Buddha is not regarded by Buddhists as God, or even a God. Having a compassionate eye does not a God make. Your problem is that you are insisting on cramming Buddhism into a Christian model, so it's inevitable your view will be distorted. Nor does your quote from the Buddha condtradict the Dalai Lama. Even if someone's heart is the polluted tank, the water that is their consciousness itself remains pure. Both are saying that one can attain a state where the "tank" gives forth pure water, no matter what pollutant might exist today. Pretending to detach does not not actually detach, and one who only pretends to detach will not receive the benefits of detachment. Your declaration, however, does not shift whether any given individual attains detachment or only pretends to it. Faith in God may be the only thing that can make you stand upright, others of us are not so constrained. Like Buddhiests, as a Wiccan, I reject the premise that we have sinful natures, so I can't answer your question about protection from same. The Buddhist goal is not to eliminate desire, but to detach from it. To detach from desire is to accept them for what they are -- impermament things in an impermament world -- rather than blowing them up into a delusion that fulfilling them will bring ultimate happiness. Your hypothesis about the result of following the eight-fold path is refuted by the actual outcomes of those who follow it.

I thank you for taking interest in my post and for recording your valuable comment. Strange but true, every Christian, and for that matter any person from any other religion too would view the noble eightfold path as an exercise to attain righteousness. Righteousness after all is adherence of moral principles. The noble eight fold path comprises eight moral principles, viz., 1) Right views 2) Right thoughts 3) Right speech 4) Right actions 5) Right Livelihood 6) Right Efforts 7) Right Mindfulness 8) Right meditation. Further, you said, "Buddha is not regarded as God". Please allow me to point out that Buddha was silent about the existence or non-existence of God. It may be that since India was drowned in idol worship and anthropomorphism, therefore, a sudden step to monotheism would have been drastic. Thus, Buddha may have chosen to remain silent on the issue of God. He did not deny the existence of God. A disciple once asked Buddha, "Whether God exists". He refused to reply. On seeing that disciple was persistent . he replied, "if you were suffering from a stomachache would you concentrate on relieving the pain or studying the prescription of the physician." Further, he added, "It is not my business or yours to find out whether there is God - our business is to remove the sufferings of the world". Buddhism provided Dhamma or the ‘impersonal law’ in place of God.However, this could not satisfy the craving of human beings and the religion of self-help had to be converted into a religion of promise and hope. The Hinayana sect could not hold out any promise of external help to the people. The Mahayana sect taught that Buddha’s watchful and compassionate eyes are on all miserable beings, thus making a God out of Buddha. Many scholars consider the evolution of God within Buddhism as an effect of Hinduism. Many Buddhists adopted the local God and thus the religion of ‘No-God’ was transformed into the religion of ‘Many-Gods’ - big and small, strong and weak and male and female. The ‘Man-God’ appears on earth in human form and incarnates from time to time. Quite contrary to what Dalai Lama said, as mentioned in your comment, Gautama Buddha spoke differently. He said, "Today I have found the truth about life; what is it? The sanctification of the five senses is the way of Truth. If the senses are polluted, of what avail are spiritual exercises? When the water in a tank is polluted, all taps will only give polluted water. Your heart is the tank. Keep it pure through purity of vision, thought, speech, and action." "Keep it pure," he said; but I ask how? Is it by mastering the opposing tendencies or by mastering the art of pretense? It is like trying to stand when I have no backbone in my body. Faith in God is the only thing that can make me stand upright. When evil desires in me rises as an impulse to reach the surface of my consciousness, it is God’s memory in my conscious, which protects it from rising and thus prevents me to act (commit sin). What is the component in Buddhist mind to protect him from his own sinful nature? His false sense of purity alone cannot save it because as per the noble eight-fold path he must purify himself by having the right views and right thoughts, besides, six other things. Buddhist goal is to eliminate desires, to remove suffering and miseries in life. However, it is not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is Nirvana. Again, Nirvana is cessation of all sorrows. To eliminate desires what a true follower of Buddha does. He creates a desire in him to follow the noble eight-fold path. This again is the beginning of his suffering and miseries because he discovers to his utter dismay that to follow the noble eightfold path these ought to be the part of his path these ought to be the part of his conduct. If not then he will have to attain right views, right thoughts, right speech, right actions, right livelihood, right efforts, right mindfulness and right meditation through conscious effort. Consequently, his state after he tries to follow the noble eight-fold path will be worse than the previous one.

Why do people worship the buddha if he is not God in the religion. It is much like worshiping or praying to Mary, Jesus mother. Can you tell me why that is so. Thanks in advance for your answers.

Thank you very much for doing this, could you give me some readings (books and such) I dont believe (being honest) but I like to learn before I say this is wrong or right. I have long since learned that every religion has a piece of the truth. That means that there is something that they do that corresponds with the scriptures. I always find out what that is. Or try too. Since Buddhism is an old religion, it may have a small piece to complete my puzzle of questions. I think if everyone took the time to learn the different religions, you would be more able to know what they believe and get an understanding of the people themselves.