Buddhism Spirituality
There is a common saying all spirituals are religious, while not all religious are spirituals. Merriam-Webster online dictionary (2020) refers to being spiritual as “relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things” (par 1). Buddhism is considered the world most spiritually organized religion in the globe. Melvin McLeod, a religious analyst, states that while Christianism, Islam, Hinduism and Jainism focus on the complete absolution of the spirit through the bodily act, Buddhism believes between the body and the soul but rather the unity of the body, soul and spirit as one entity (BBC, 2017). Spirituality defines the essence of both the spirit and the soul over the needs of the body but does not separate them.
Firstly, there is no recorded existence of a Buddhist God. The different schools of thought on Buddhism contain varying understandings of the deity of Buddha (Muesse, 2019). The Southern Buddhists believe that Buddha was a normal human being born of living parents who discovered the “path of to the awakening.” One common understanding among both the southern and other Buddhist is that Buddha was no God. Thus, any person who follows his path will be highly enlightened as he was a will get the knowledge of the true path (Woodhead, Partridge, & Kawanami, 2016). This belief differentiates Buddhism from all other religions as it provides a central focus of both the body, soul and mind while other faiths showcase the infallibility of the soul, Buddhism forms itself around the spiritual highness of mind, body, and the soul.
The noble path, first discussed by Buddha two thousand five hundred years ago is the foundation of Buddhism spiritual training. It is made up of eight interconnected disciplines that are concurrently followed by the postulant. Making, it the simplest yet most prudent spiritual belief available (Woodhead, Partridge, & Kawanami, 2016). Each section functions as a guide toward helping the follower recover their natural human nature. Of the eight, four are entirely focused on morality. They include wholesome action, wholesome speech, wholesome livelihood, and wholesome effort. The other four are concerned with generating wisdom and virtue growth (BBC, 2017). They include wholesome concentration, wholesome mindfulness, wholesome thinking, and wholesome understanding. These involve aspects such as deep meditation.
Christians believe that life ends and a new one of the sole. However, to Buddhists, life is endless and is full of suffering and uncertainty. Nothing is programmed to exist in a specific manner, and no deity or person has knowledge of tomorrow. This state is recognized as tilakhana and for modern and new believers the three signs of existence (Woodhead, Partridge, & Kawanami, 2016). Existence is infinite since each person is reawakened as a different entity. With this belief, each person is supposed to show the ultimate sense of belief and morality to each other (Muesse, 2019). The understanding that the soul and body are intertwined in incarnation makes Buddhism a more spiritual order compared to Christianity.
In truth, there several images and representation in Buddhism that may be interpreted as signs of God, deities or religion. Therefore, it is important to understand that these are not representations of spirituality or religiousness but the infinite cosmos that is made up of minds, different realms, bodies and other faculties. Besides, these are never-ending distinctions of the realities we experience. The mysteriousness and profoundly deepness of such theology and concepts deepened by the need and willingness to allow divinity over profound religiousness makes Buddhism more of spiritual than other religions.