Buddhism is not a religion it’s a philosophy. Taoism is the same. I understand moving from religion to agnostic but I like at Buddhism and Taoism as promoting wisdom without trying to Ram god down your throat

"OUR LIFE...IS OUR UNIVERSE"...that is MOST PROFOUND...

If there’s one thing we can learn from the recent persecution of the Rohingya at the hands of Buddhist monks, it’s that even Buddhism could not prevent the mass killing of tens of thousands of people for simply being ethnically and religiously different. The Buddhist monks in Myanmar are basically fascists in robes.

If every religion was 100% bad, they would have ceased to exist centuries ago. They all have some good teachings.

I approach religion like eating a crab. You have to fight to get every little bit of sweet meat, then just toss all the shit around it

Sometimes, the smallest acts of kindness reach far deeper than any spoken words.

Thank you for such a beautiful and helpful posting!!

I learned that, to be accurate, Buddhism is actually a religion. It recognize gods, has scriptures, prayers, and many rituals. However, Zen Buddhism, from my understanding is essentially Buddhism without the religion. Accordingly, I have been a Zen Buddhist for about 60 years. There's no belief system, and the only "ritual," as such, is meditation. And by definition, Zen meditation is simply being fully awake but without thought.

I agree with the philosophy that my actions can makes the world a better place. Small actions may not change much, but they still have an effect.

It is kind of like the story where a man walking on the seashore sees what seems to be hundreds of thousand of starfish washed up on the sand, and as he walks down the beach he comes across of man who picks up a starfish and throws it back into the ocean. The first asks the second one, "You do realize that what you are doing won't make any difference." The second man reaches down picks up another starfish and throws it back into the sea and looking at the first man replies, "It made a difference to that one."

Little actions may not seem like much, but often they are appreciated. I've done beach and trail clean ups with different groups. It might just be the Pacific Northwest, but more than half the people the group encountered during the cleanups said "Thank you" as they walked by us. And, at least once at every cleanup a person asks about how they could join up on future cleanups.

Some Buddhists are atheists or pantheists anyway which is practically the same thing.