Dios en el budismo

El budismo se opone a la creencia de que el universo haya sido comenzado mediante el acto de una deidad creadora,^[1]​^[2]​ negando el apoyo a cualquier punto de vista sobre la creación^[3]​ y estableciendo que las preguntas sobre el origen del mundo no tienen valor alguno.^[4]​^[5]​ El budismo también rechaza cualquier ser personal divino eterno.^[6]​^[7]​^[8]​ La no adherencia a la noción de una deidad creadora omnipotente (un Dios supremo) o a una "primera causa" (primum movens) es vista como una distinción clave entre el Budismo y otras religiones y filosofías.^[9]​

Las enseñanzas del budismo dicen que hay seres divinos llamados devas (a veces traducidos como "dioses") y otras deidades budistas, cielos y renacimientos en su doctrina del saṃsāra o renacimiento cíclico (ver Cosmogonía budista). El budismo enseña que ninguno de estos dioses como creador o como eterno, aunque pueden vivir vidas muy largas.^[6]​^[10]​ En el budismo, los devas también están atrapados en el ciclo de renacimiento y no son necesariamente virtuosos y o más sabios que nosotros. Por tanto, aunque el budismo incluye múltiples dioses, no se centra en ellos. Peter Harvey llama a esto "trans-politeísta".^[6]​ De hecho muchas veces Buda Gautama está representado como maestro o profesor de estos dioses^[11]​ y es superior a ellos.^[12]​^[13]​

Los textos budistas también plantean que deidades mundanas como Mahabrahma son mal interpretadas como un creador.^[14]​ La ontología budista sigue la doctrina del surgimiento dependiente (pratītyasamutpāda), según la cual todos los fenómenos surgen en dependencia de otros fenómenos, por lo que no se puede reconocer o discernir un motor primario inamovible. El Buda Gautama, en los primeros textos budistas, también afirma que no vio un comienzo único para el universo.^[6]​

A pesar de este aparente no-teísmo, los budistas consideran importante la veneración a personas nobles (aryas),^[15]​^[16]​ aunque las dos mayores tradiciones o escuelas de budismo difieren en estas actitudes "reverenciales": mientras la escuela de budismo theravada ven a Buda como un ser humano que alcanzó el nirvana o budeidad a través de esfuerzos humanos,^[17]​ algunos budistas de la escuela de budismo mahāyāna le consideran la personificación de un personaje nacido para el beneficio de los demás.^[18]​ De hecho, algunos budistas mahāyāna rinden culto al bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara,^[19]​ y esperan poder encarnarse en él.^[20]​

Durante el periodo medieval, filósofos budistas como Vasubandhu desarrollaron extensas refutaciones del creacionismo y del teísmo. Por ello, algunos estudiosos modernos, como Matthew Kapstein, han descrito esta última etapa del budismo como antiteísta.^[10]​

Sin embargo, a pesar de la tradición no teísta dominante en el budismo, algunos escritores como B. Alan Wallace han señalado que algunas doctrinas del budismo Vajrayana pueden considerarse similares a algunas doctrinas teístas de la creación.^[21]​

1. ↑ Thera, Nyanaponika. «Buddhism and the God-idea». The Vision of the Dhamma. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society. «In Buddhist literature, the belief in a creator god (issara-nimmana-vada) is frequently mentioned and rejected, along with other causes wrongly adduced to explain the origin of the world; as, for instance, world-soul, time, nature, etc. God-belief, however,is placed in the same category as those morally destructive wrong views which deny the kammic results of action, assume a fortuitous origin of man and nature, or teach absolute determinism. These views are said to be altogether pernicious, having definite bad results due to their effect on ethical conduct.» 
2. ↑ Approaching the Dhamma: Buddhist Texts and Practices in South and Southeast Asia by Anne M. Blackburn (editor), Jeffrey Samuels (editor). Pariyatti Publishing: 2003 ISBN 1-928706-19-3 pg 129
3. ↑ Bhikku Bodhi (2007). «III.1, III.2, III.5». En Access To Insight, ed. The All Embracing Net of Views: Brahmajala Sutta. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society. 
4. ↑ Thanissaro Bhikku (1997). «Acintita Sutta: Unconjecturable». AN 4.77 (en translated from Pali into English). Access To Insight. «Conjecture about [the origin, etc., of] the world is an unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about it.» 
5. ↑ Thanissaro Bhikku (1998). «Cula-Malunkyovada Sutta: The Shorter Instructions to Malunkya» (en translated from Pali into English). Access To Insight. «It's just as if a man were wounded with an arrow thickly smeared with poison. His friends & companions, kinsmen & relatives would provide him with a surgeon, and the man would say, 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know whether the man who wounded me was a noble warrior, a priest, a merchant, or a worker.' He would say, 'I won't have this arrow removed until I know the given name & clan name of the man who wounded me... until I know whether he was tall, medium, or short... The man would die and those things would still remain unknown to him. In the same way, if anyone were to say, 'I won't live the holy life under the Blessed One as long as he does not declare to me that 'The cosmos is eternal,'... or that 'After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist,' the man would die and those things would still remain undeclared by the Tathagata.» 
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Harvey, Peter (2019). "Buddhism and Monotheism", p. 1. Cambridge University Press.
7. ↑ Taliaferro, 2013, p. 35.
8. ↑ Blackburn, Anne M.; Samuels, Jeffrey (2003). «II. Denial of God in Buddhism and the Reasons Behind It». Approaching the Dhamma: Buddhist Texts and Practices in South and Southeast Asia. Pariyatti. pp. 128–146. ISBN 978-1-928706-19-9. 
9. ↑ Bhikku, Thanissaro (1997). Tittha Sutta: Sectarians (en translated from Pali). «Then in that case, a person is a killer of living beings because of a supreme being's act of creation... When one falls back on lack of cause and lack of condition as being essential, monks, there is no desire, no effort [at the thought], 'This should be done. This shouldn't be done.' When one can't pin down as a truth or reality what should & shouldn't be done, one dwells bewildered & unprotected. One cannot righteously refer to oneself as a contemplative.» 
10. ↑ ^{a b} Error en la cita: Etiqueta <ref> no válida; no se ha definido el contenido de las referencias llamadas :3
11. ↑ Susan Elbaum Jootla (1997). «II. The Buddha Teaches Deities». En Access To Insight, ed. Teacher of the Devas. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society. «Many people worship Maha Brahma as the supreme and eternal creator God, but for the Buddha he is merely a powerful deity still caught within the cycle of repeated existence. In point of fact, "Maha Brahma" is a role or office filled by different individuals at different periods." "His proof included the fact that "many thousands of deities have gone for refuge for life to the recluse Gotama" (MN 95.9). Devas, like humans, develop faith in the Buddha by practicing his teachings." "A second deva concerned with liberation spoke a verse which is partly praise of the Buddha and partly a request for teaching. Using various similes from the animal world, this god showed his admiration and reverence for the Exalted One.", "A discourse called Sakka's Questions (DN 21) took place after he had been a serious disciple of the Buddha for some time. The sutta records a long audience he had with the Blessed One which culminated in his attainment of stream-entry. Their conversation is an excellent example of the Buddha as "teacher of devas," and shows all beings how to work for Nibbana.» 
12. ↑ Bhikku, Thanissaro (1997). Kevaddha Sutta. Access To Insight. «When this was said, the Great Brahma said to the monk, 'I, monk, am Brahma, the Great Brahma, the Conqueror, the Unconquered, the All-Seeing, All-Powerful, the Sovereign Lord, the Maker, Creator, Chief, Appointer and Ruler, Father of All That Have Been and Shall Be... That is why I did not say in their presence that I, too, don't know where the four great elements... cease without remainder. So you have acted wrongly, acted incorrectly, in bypassing the Blessed One in search of an answer to this question elsewhere. Go right back to the Blessed One and, on arrival, ask him this question. However he answers it, you should take it to heart.» 
13. ↑ http://www.himalayanart.org/pages/Visual_Dharma/yidams.html
14. ↑ Harvey, 2013, p. 36-8.
15. ↑ Buddhists consider an enlightened person, the Dhamma and the community of monks as noble. See Three Jewels.
16. ↑ Thera, Nyanaponika (1994). Devotion in Buddhism. Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka. «It would be a mistake, however, to conclude that the Buddha disparaged a reverential and devotional attitude of mind when it is the natural outflow of a true understanding and a deep admiration of what is great and noble.» 
17. ↑ Bhikku, Thanissaro. «The Meaning of the Buddha's Awakening». Access to Insight. Consultado el 5 de junio de 2010. 
18. ↑ Donald K. Swearer (2004). Becoming the Buddha: The Ritual of Image Consecration in Thailand. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-11435-4. 
19. ↑ Hong, Xiong (1997). Hymn to Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. Taipei: Vastplain. ISBN 978-957-9460-89-7. 
20. ↑ Lama Thubten Yeshe; Geshe Lhundub Sopa (junio de 2003). Robina Courtin, ed. Becoming the Compassion Buddha: Tantric Mahamudra for Everyday Life. Wisdom Publications. pp. 89–110. ISBN 978-0-86171-343-1. 
21. ↑ B. Alan Wallace, "Is Buddhism Really Non-Theistic?" in Snow Lion Newsletter, Winter 2000, ISSN 1059-3691, Volume 15, Number 1. https://www.shambhala.com/snowlion_articles/is-buddhism-really-nontheistic/