Buddhism and religion

Thank you 1962tron for your question.

There are various religions, but (for example, Christianity, Shinto, etc.)
The general answer would be that Buddhism is one of them.

I have a question about the differences between Buddhism and religion, but from that point of view,
Buddhism is one religion, so is it different from other religions?

It's as I can think of.
Unlike monotheistic religions such as Christianity, Buddha has many Buddhas,
That Buddha came long before the Buddha was born.

It was Buddha who noticed the Buddha's teachings, learned them, and spread those teachings widely,
You could say it's a kind of view of the universe.

Religion and Buddhism are categories.
Broadly speaking, the act of having faith and praying for something is religion, and I think it's safe to think that believing in Shakyamuni's teachings is Buddhism.

Right and wrong aside, the religion that the general public envisions may have absolute gurus and blindly follow those teachings. That idea and Buddhism are certainly different. Therefore, some scholars say that if you dare to categorize Buddhism, it is philosophy.

I hear that the original meaning of RELIGION (religion) in English is “for people who have been banished from the Kingdom of God to connect to that place again (RE),” so Buddhism is different from RELIGION even in that sense.

However, religion in Japanese is a teaching that becomes a sect and should be a sect. Since it should be the norm for that person's daily life, Buddhism is still one of the religions. People who are money worshipers are often called “money teachers,” and one-man leaders are called “(that person's name) religion,” etc., but I think that way of naming them is close to Japanese ideas about religion.

As the term “freedom of religion” suggests, religion is an extremely personal matter. Therefore, I hope you will take my answer as an extremely personal opinion.

There are various classifications of religion, but it can be said that religions such as Buddhism and Christianity add meaning to our lives. At first glance, modern society looks like scientific universalism, but science cannot question our way of life (our values for life). It is a question asked to oneself that science can analyze a relativized world, but it cannot be relativized, that is, it does not rely on comparisons with others or other things (“How will I live?”) That's because I can't answer it. To question our way of life (our values for life) is to find meaning in our lives. It is by no means a relativized worldview; it must be an absolute, universal thing that can be adapted to any place and time (era). Some might say that science also deals with universal truths. However, for example, even if water is H2O, water cannot be formed where there is no H (hydrogen) and O (oxygen). Even if we say that the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west, the Sun is not a star that exists forever. They will eventually disappear. Also, east and west are just relative perceptions. Discovering one's own way of life in such a relative world is tantamount to putting oneself in an unstable world. Therefore, man sought an absolute world and created religion.

One such religion is Buddhism. Buddhism captures this world as “a world where our way of life (values for life) is clarified by examining how things in this world exist in order to remove the suffering of life from us.” In other words, in Buddhism, when it is explained that this world is a world of luck, innocence, and emptiness, “in order to remove suffering from our lives, we must be unattached to things.” A world that questions our way of life (values for life) opens up.

These are my answers. Please use it as a reference.

I don't know what it means I want to know, but there are two ways of thinking about it: the meaning of teaching (doctrine) and a group (religious group) that believes in it.

Generally, it is called a religion by including both the original teaching and the group (denomination) that believes in it.

So, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Shinto, and even Oh Shinrikyo are all religions in a big sense.

However, in Buddhism, Christianity, and other teachings, it's just that something that each gathered with the same faith took shape, and when you look at it from the outside, they say “because they believe in this doctrine and are gathered here, the ○○ sect (○○ sect),” and it's just that the word “religion” is used to classify them.

If you think in the form of a cult (organization)
Religion if it takes shape
Faith without taking shape
Does that mean?

In Japan, organizations certified as having an unspecified number of followers and engaging in religious activities for a certain period of time are collectively positioned as religion as “religious corporations.”

Therefore, as a religious organization, it is certain that there is a part that definitely distinguishes traditional religion that has been around for a long time, and religion that seems to be aimed at “gathering people and collecting money” these days, and cult-like religions.

However, what is religion in the strict sense? In other words, the weight will shift to teaching rather than religious groups.

What kind of doctrine do people who gather for that faith believe based, and the term that classifies it is probably called religion.

We believe in the Buddha's teachings and belong to the religion called Buddhism.