Do gods and Buddhas really exist?

My mother was taught sermons a lot when she was a child, so living itself is an ascetic practice, and there are many things I don't like, but if I do the right thing, God and Buddha will watch over me.

Bad people will surely be hit by bees, so try to be a clean person on a daily basis.
Pain is a test given by God and Buddha, so I won't put up with it.

It is often said.
I'm very sorry to say it in a place like this, but since I'm not religious and don't believe in God or Buddha at all, I don't think so, and when I complain even a little when something bad happens at work, etc., that story always comes up, so I try not to have that kind of consultation recently.

It is often said that gods and Buddhas are watching, but in the end, I think it is a world where people who are good at the point benefit, and people who are bad at the point lose.
People who don't actually work at work and spend most of their time saying bad things are in a good state (they are good at fighting), and people who do it seriously aren't evaluated... even bullying is targeted just because they are slightly different from others, and eventually innocent people take their own lives, and people who bullied them are living like this. It's such a world.

There are only unreasonable things, so the current situation is that I think that if God or Buddha were there, they would never have seen them.

This may be a very rude question, but what exactly are gods and Buddhas from a monk's point of view?

4 Zen Responses

Shinto and Buddhism can only be useful if you read them in depth

Yes, that is important.
I'll write it as a sequel to ↓, but it's not a must-read. It's OK to read it alone.
https://hasunoha.jp/questions/4497

Buddhism (or rather Indian philosophy) has a worldview called “causal retaliation.” There is always a cause for every outcome. Doing good things has good results; doing bad things has bad results. Conversely, if a bad cause is eliminated, there will be no bad results, and if a good cause is eliminated, there will be no good results. That's the way of thinking.

This causal relationship spreads and accumulates. This is the point.
For example, let's say I was a so-called “bacutter.” I uploaded an image of her lying on top of an ice cream freezer at a convenience store! I'm the one getting fired because of that, and it's the store that causes financial losses. But people on the other side of the Japanese archipelago, which had nothing to do with it, also became uncomfortable, and it remains in my memory. Then the “influence” of misdeeds spreads.

At first, it was probably a trivial tweet that no one cared about. However, as we repeated acts in a bad direction, little by little, the sense of fun deviated from common sense, and the values of right and wrong were broken, and what we ended up with was misconduct in the freezer... In this way, “habits accumulate” of misdeeds.

That influence and habit is called “karma.”

To put the way of thinking about this business ① for children ② for people who have no school education and are allergic to logic (there were quite a few people in the Edo period and before the war), the expression “Shinto and Buddha are watching” is the expression “Shinto and Buddha are watching.”
Actually, you have to deepen your understanding and expression according to your life stage, and it's no good for monks to sit on the missionary methods of a time when there was no school education forever...

> It's such a world.

This also means that social work is moving in that direction. Right now, aging and immigration policies are becoming issues around the world. This is an effect and accumulation of the collapse of the population pyramid due to war. Same as that. It will resonate until later, so everyone must “live a way of life worthy of future generations.” This is the “teaching” of Buddhism and karma, but what is thought to be “religion = belief” due to secularism and the popularity of cults is an issue that must be solved in the first half of the 21st century.

Incidentally, “God = free love” is a sense of monotheism like Christianity. Polytheistic gods are usually relentless and rough. What's more, it smells human-like, and the motive doesn't matter.

Don't ask based on assumptions, ask from assumptions

I read your consultation.
There may be an aspect where people who say “I have no religion and don't believe in gods or Buddhas at all” actually acknowledge or expect the existence of “gods and Buddhas” in a sense.
And the “gods and Buddhas” at that time are often “gods and Buddhas I think of,” and I don't doubt that assumption. And they lament that this reality doesn't match the assumptions they have held, saying “it's because of Shinto and Buddha,” or “there is no god or Buddha.”
First, keep your understanding of “the gods and Buddhas I think” and ask “do gods and Buddhas really exist?” Instead of asking, “What are Shinto and Buddha?” Sincere questions begin when I question my own assumptions.

Be sure to check out similar questions in the past.

“Is there a Buddha?”
http://hasunoha.jp/questions/17372

“About crime”
https://hasunoha.jp/questions/23238

“I once denied Shinto and Buddhism. To me like this...”
https://hasunoha.jp/questions/27198

“What is the existence of gods and Buddhas?”
https://hasunoha.jp/questions/26462

Since there are various religions in the world, there are probably religions that acknowledge the existence of a “God who always watches” as you mentioned and think “God's will is at work in everything.” That “will of God” is good and bad, and humans have a heart that fears it.

However, it is actually the opposite; it is the human mind that fears good and bad fortune that makes us assume God, and it was a single “human” named Gautama Siddhartha who woke up to “the truth called fact,” and humans woke up and became Buddha.

When it comes to “fact,” it means “not something humans have thought of.” It's been like that before I even thought about it. It was Buddha who woke up to Sonoko. Therefore, Buddhism is not a teaching “thought (made)” by the Buddha. It's a wake-up call to something that already exists.

For example, just as gravity invisible to the eye was “discovered” when watching an apple fall from an apple tree, the Buddha looked at the suffering in this reality of life, “discovered” the cause of that suffering, and woke up.

If the cause of your question is a wrong view of Shinto and Buddhism, the Buddha also tells you to wake up and deal with it.

Buddha (Buddha = Buddha) is a real person

The person Gautama Siddhartha, who founded Buddhism about 2,600 years ago, is a Buddha (Buddha) who actually existed on Earth.
Buddha means one who has awakened to the truth.
In other words, Buddha (Buddha) was Gautama's nickname.
Since Gotama comes from the royal family of the Shaka tribe, he is also called “Buddha” or “Shakyamuni.”
Gotama (Buddha) passed away at the age of 80, but the teachings (laws) that the Buddha preached have continued to live on until now.

According to Buddhist teachings, worry is the cause of worry and suffering.
If you do bad things, it will be training to increase your own worries, so you will have a personality that is easy to worry and suffer, and a personality that makes you feel bad, so you will be unhappy.
Conversely, if you do training (good deeds, training) to weaken your own worries, your worries will decrease, and you will have a personality that makes you less likely to feel bad, so you will be happy.

If you do bad things, you will change yourself into a personality that makes you more likely to be unhappy according to the law of cause and effect, even if others don't see it.
In a sense, it can also be said that “Shinto and Buddha are watching.”

Everyone has a sense of Buddhism in a person's heart. You could call it Buddha's seed, or conscience.
Even if you do something bad just because no one is watching, the Buddha in your own heart is watching. And, in the end, I end up suffering myself due to the Buddha nature in my heart.
Also, when you are struggling for people because of an unknown world, you see the Buddha nature within yourself, even when no one seems to be watching. Because of that Buddha nature, you can feel pleasure for yourself. Furthermore, this act also fosters Buddhism. As Buddhism grows, it becomes Buddha (the person who perfects the personality).
So even if you have no religion, in terms of Buddhism, you also have Buddhism within you, and you are the Buddha of the future.
If you exist, it means that the Buddha exists.
If you see someone who is struggling without knowing anyone, please say thank you as always.

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