Is Buddhism a religion? What constitutes a religion?

 

    For the last several months, almost since the Corona Virus epidemic, I’ve been participating in a White Tara meditation on zoom.  This meditation consists of visualization and then chanting a mantra.  When I first began with the group, one of the questions I was asked was how I felt about White Tara meditation.  Since I was raised Catholic, I am partial to a female deity.  My ethnic background is Latvian.  In that ancient pre- Christian religion there is the mother of the world, Mara.  In suffering it seems logical to appeal to a mother figure, not an angry God.  White Tara is a kindly figure who represents longevity and compassion.

            I didn’t analyze the practice at all and found comfort and a degree of relaxation in it.  But  watching Ethos, a Netflix series that takes place in Turkey, I found paralells.  In one scene a group of conservative Moslem women are listening to one reading excerpts form the Koran.  Some have the glazed over bored look I remember so well from attending mass as a child. 

            I asked myself, how different is that scene from my own practice?  I chant in a language that I don’t understand in a group.  Are my objectives any different from the Moslem women?  Perhaps not. 

            Many who practice the techniques of mindfulness do so in an attempt to reach an understanding of how the mind works and to focus on the present moment.  Breathing techniques have been used in the corporate and sports world separating the technique from other aspects of the practice of Buddhism.  Buddhism can be described as a religion or not, depending on your definition of the term. 

https://www.lionsroar.com/is-buddhism-a-religion-november-2013/

               Religion, or rather, any fundamentalist form of it, frightens me.  Is it indeed as Marx stated, “the opiate of the masses?”  I reject any form of control so I will continue to pick and choose among the many options of any faith and not succumb to any telling me what to think or do.  I have my own moral code to live by.    

I prefer the Buddhist belief in the goodness of humanity as opposed to the belief we are sinners.  Back in my teaching days I attended a workshop where we discussed students who were problematic in class.  The question I learned that day was not “What’s wrong with you?”  but “What happened to you?”  It still serves as a compassionate guide.   And of course, I believe in the teachings of Jesus relating to love and forgiveness.  Or as in the mystical traditions, God is within you.