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It's an error to see Buddhism as a religion. Buddhism is at heart a science of the human mind and the composition of "self". Meditation is part of the experimen

It's an error to see Buddhism as a religion. Buddhism is at heart a science of the human mind and the composition of "self". Meditation is part of the experimenting that we need to do in order to prove what we are to ourselves.

krapp 4y ago
Metaphysical aspects like reincarnation and the afterlife make it very clearly a religion.
- AnimalMuppet 4y ago
  There are branches of Buddhism that do not believe in reincarnation, nor in an afterlife. I don't think Zen believes in either. (Tibetan Buddhism does, but that's not all of Buddhism.) But you could say that Buddhism is a religion in a larger sense, because it is answering religious questions. "Who or what am I? How should I live? How do I change so that I live as I should?" Those are religious questions. (Also philosophical ones, though philosophy usually asks them using different terms than religion does, and usually gives different answers. But if you wanted to describe Buddhism as a religiously-flavored philosophy, sure, I could go there.)
- celtoid 4y ago
  The Buddha never spoke of a "Supreme being" or what happens after we die. Others may have turned it into a religion but its original teacher wasn't religious.
AnimalMuppet 4y ago
Science? No. That's not science. And you can't make it science just by using the words "experimenting" and "prove". Why isn't it science? Because the entire experience was subjective. I have no way to prove to myself that you had the experimental results that you say you had. Worse, you have no way to prove to yourself that the results are valid. You can say that they feel true to you, and that they seem to match the experiences that others have had (as best as can be told within the limitations of words). And that may be good enough to be useful, even life-changing. It's not science, though.
- celtoid 4y ago
  For 2500 years, disciplined practitioners of meditation have reported pretty much the same results. There are a number of scientific papers by scientists confirming brainwave changes by those who meditate, one example here[0]. Science and Buddhism are completely compatible because Buddhism isn't a religion. It's a system of rational thought as demonstrated by Buddhist thinkers like Santideva, Nagarjuna and Chandrakirti, to name only three. [0]https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.0407401101 https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.0407401101
  - AnimalMuppet 4y ago
    Science and Buddhism may be compatible. That doesn't make Buddhism a science (your original claim).
    - celtoid 4y ago
      Buddhism fits the definition of science. "Science, n.: The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena. ...A systematic method or body of knowledge in a given area."

krapp 4y ago

Metaphysical aspects like reincarnation and the afterlife make it very clearly a religion.

AnimalMuppet 4y ago
There are branches of Buddhism that do not believe in reincarnation, nor in an afterlife. I don't think Zen believes in either. (Tibetan Buddhism does, but that's not all of Buddhism.) But you could say that Buddhism is a religion in a larger sense, because it is answering religious questions. "Who or what am I? How should I live? How do I change so that I live as I should?" Those are religious questions. (Also philosophical ones, though philosophy usually asks them using different terms than religion does, and usually gives different answers. But if you wanted to describe Buddhism as a religiously-flavored philosophy, sure, I could go there.)
celtoid 4y ago
The Buddha never spoke of a "Supreme being" or what happens after we die. Others may have turned it into a religion but its original teacher wasn't religious.

AnimalMuppet 4y ago

Science? No. That's not science. And you can't make it science just by using the words "experimenting" and "prove". Why isn't it science? Because the entire experience was subjective. I have no way to prove to myself that you had the experimental results that you say you had. Worse, you have no way to prove to yourself that the results are valid. You can say that they feel true to you, and that they seem to match the experiences that others have had (as best as can be told within the limitations of words). And that may be good enough to be useful, even life-changing. It's not science, though.

celtoid 4y ago
For 2500 years, disciplined practitioners of meditation have reported pretty much the same results. There are a number of scientific papers by scientists confirming brainwave changes by those who meditate, one example here[0]. Science and Buddhism are completely compatible because Buddhism isn't a religion. It's a system of rational thought as demonstrated by Buddhist thinkers like Santideva, Nagarjuna and Chandrakirti, to name only three. [0]https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.0407401101 https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.0407401101
- AnimalMuppet 4y ago
  Science and Buddhism may be compatible. That doesn't make Buddhism a science (your original claim).
  - celtoid 4y ago
    Buddhism fits the definition of science. "Science, n.: The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena. ...A systematic method or body of knowledge in a given area."