Buddha said either God didn't exist, or he wasn't worthy of worship (since he allowed evil to exist). Some of his followers, however, turned Buddha himself into a religion.
Buddhism does not say that there are no gods. The Pali Canon is chock full of gods and demigods. The difference for Buddhists is that the gods are trapped in Samsara just like we are, and cannot liberate us from it.
It is taught in the Anguttara Nikaya that one who practices loving kindness has the protection of the gods, so they are active in the world and interact with people. Different sects of Buddhism have different ways of interacting with them, but in the end, the gods are as impermanent as we are.
Deities play a very minor role and are much more symbolic or trans-dimensional than the ones you find in middle eastern or Western ideologies.
Really you are your own god in Buddhism
From the Bhagavatam we understand that Lord Buddha is the incarnation of Krishna who appeared when materialism was rampant and materialists were using the pretext of the authority of the Vedas. Although there are certain restrictive rules and regulations regarding animal sacrifice for particular purposes in the Vedas, people of demonic tendency still took to animal sacrifice without reference to the Vedic principles. Lord Buddha appeared to stop this nonsense and to establish the Vedic principles of nonviolence. Bhagavatam, written five thousand years back predicted the appearance of Lord Buddha.
Then, in the beginning of Kali-Yugo, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Anjana, in the province of Gaya, just for the purpose of deluding those who are envious of the faithful theist.
PURPORT
Lord Buddha, a powerful incarnation of the Personality of Godhead, appeared in the province of Gaya (Bihar) as the son of Anjana, and he preached his own conception of nonviolence and deprecated even the animal sacrifices sanctioned in the Vedas. At the time when Lord Buddha appeared, the people in general were atheistic and preferred animal flesh to anything else. On the plea of Vedic sacrifice, every place was practically turned into a slaughterhouse, and animal-killing was indulged in unrestrictedly. Lord Buddha preached nonviolence, taking pity on the poor animals. He preached that he did not believe in the tenets of the Vedas and stressed the adverse psychological effects incurred by animal-killing. Less intelligent men of the age of Kali, who had no faith in God, followed his principle, and for the time being they were trained in moral discipline and nonviolence, the preliminary steps for proceeding further on the path of God realization. He deluded the atheists because such atheists who followed his principles did not believe in God, but they kept their absolute faith in Lord Buddha, who himself was the incarnation of God. Thus the faithless people were made to believe in God in the form of Lord Buddha. That was the mercy of Lord Buddha: he made the faithless faithful to him.
http://vedabase.net/sb/1/3/24/en1
You are looking at the outside and not taking a look at the motivation or investigating what Buddha taught or what is taught in the different Buddhist schools.
When you define a religion or a group of people without asking questions (your question here is posed as a statement first, and then asking about a spiritual being...)
Buddha was a real person, he was born prince Siddhartha. He was not the first historical Buddha, but the 4Th known historical Buddha. He is the only one whose teachings survive in written form to this day, but there are relics (a piece of tooth) from the next Buddha, Buddha Kysapa.
Buddha was a person who attained enlightened mind, removing all negativity's and delusions.
The statues you see in many different temples represent the teacher, Buddha... or a representation of qualities or attributes that an enlightened being might possess... this is why some images have 4 arms to 1,000 arms (to reach all beings in every direction).
Think of things being symbolic rather than completely mundane or literal... now you are getting closer.
Some Buddhas are blue, yellow, red, white, black... these colors can represent different qualities and a focus of intent... we even have expressions in the West such as "true blue", etc. it's not uncommon to have a color represent an attribute, otherwise brides wouldn't traditionally wear white either.
Offerings are an act of merit, it's something you can do to show gratitude... like wanting to get your Mom or Dad a nice present for their birthday. Perfume (incense), flowers, music, food (which is most often given daily to monks, nuns, hungry people as an offering after the alter offering) is see as a positive act and mind. Many times people who make offerings in the temple also visualize that they are feeding all hunger humans, and hungry animals, etc when they make an offering in the temple... even if a person cannot feed all the hungry in the world they can make a wish to do so, and in this way create the intent or a future where they might be able to do more for more beings in the future.
So, one must look at the motivation, the mind behind what we "think" we see, or even what we "know" we see when someone from another culture does something, perhaps from our perspective, is a big "strange".
Hope this helps.
i would say technically no. as long as they are not worshiping the Buddha as he specifically said not to worship him. if they are worshiping them in a way that is against the rules of Buddhism like sacrificing animals or drinking alcohol then yes but otherwise it's probably fine.
you ask a lot of questions about Buddhism! writing a big paper or just curious? keep 'em coming
In Buddhism no Buddhist worship neither Buddha nor deity. anyhow may be some Buddhist lack of understanding Buddhism might do in the way of worship but one cannot refer Buddhism from these individuals. Buddhism has to refer either from Theravada, Mahayana or varying. from that point of view no Buddhist worship any kind of beings even Buddha. YES one can pay respect to them , reflect on them , meditate on their nature. that is why one take refuge under Buddha, dharma and sanga but not in the way of worship. MIND IT, its very important point.
now question comes to god and gods: i think you are confuse between the creator god and the gods from one of the six realms.
there are many hindu gods mention in tripitaka, especially in the third pitaka (Abidhama Canon) such as Varuna, Vayu, Agni, Prajapati, Visnu, Siva, Saraswati, Prithvi, Lakshmi ,Kubera, Yakshas, Gandharvas, Garuda and so on are actually a god from one of the six realms. Buddhist dont denies these arent gods and buddhist dont say they dont exist. But when hinduism start giving explaination of the nature of the god they say five character of god. 1) he is a creator 2) he is eternal 3) he is Supreme Being 4) he is full of quality 5) he is pervasion at the sametime without activities.
when this was told to buddha, buddha said neither yes nor no. this understood buddha didnt except that kind of nature in god. for example i believe that you do exist but if some one says you have these five qualities then i ll say "Oh oh! whats going on". did you get it? god do exist but creator god dont exist in buddhism. like Datuk Seri Man exist but creator Datuk Seri Man dont exist.
The Theravada Abhidhamma tradition did not tend to elaborate argumentation against the existence of god, but in the Abhidharmako?a of the Sarv?stivada, Vasubandhu does actively argue against the existence of a creator god throught the reasoning logic called five syllogisms or five logical Axioms.
WHY IS THAT ON OTHER QUESTION WAS WITH FRENCH VERSIONS?
clearifiction, when you say thai monk , you always think full ordain monk but for me there are some monk who is not fully ordained. who has only 5 commitment vows. that types of monks can do any thing like any other lay people except this five vows.
second: for example i had an expereince working in hospital where the medicine are served free. when people get free medicine they never eat it, thinking its very cheap and their money didnt waste on it. later we ask few money than onwards people who ever receive medicine started to take it seriously. may be that is the reason. or may be for temple's survival somebody has to do no? the laughing Buddha is an example. there was always an exceptions until society feels this is too much.
if society thinks it normal then what is the problem if these monk's desirs are not involve?
Buddhism said there is no gods,but many Buddhist worshipping deity,is this againt bud
