The Buddism Religion & Theology Essay Research Paper (Essay Sample)

Buddhism
Name
Academic Institution
Buddhism
The human mind has a spiritual longing to connect itself to something outside the physical world that will give it inner peace and fulfillment. Consequently, humans ascribe to different religions that illustrate their relationship with divine beliefs that direct their values and behavior toward other humans. Buddhism is one of the well-established religions in the universe that comprise 7% of the entire world population. The religion originated in India before spreading to other regions in Asia. It was started about 2500 years ago by Siddhartha Gautama also known as “the Buddha” from whom all the Buddhism beliefs are founded (Harvard Divinity School, 2015). The believers are divided into three different categories namely Theravada, Tibetan, and Mahayana. All the various Buddhist groups subscribe to the same beliefs but named differently based on the areas they come.
It is difficult to state whether Buddhists have gods or not and whether they are allowed to believe in a supreme being as Christians and Muslims do. Buddha is literally not a god to them but the founder of the religion. However, instead of physical deities Buddhists believe in tantric deities in the form of rituals, yoga, and the use of symbols that connect them to the spiritual realms. The Mahayana Buddhist teaching has an elaborate example of the tantric deity which illustrates that no phenomenon exists independently (Havey, 2013). Living things, non-living things and gods are all interconnected without one there is emptiness. Buddhists are therefore expected to believe in this dependency in order to gain spiritual fulfillment. Avalokiteshvara is another deity evoked through meditation but expects humans to be the hands.