Buddhism FAQ

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How can I become a Buddhist?

Becoming a Buddhist is a personal matter of faith – if you feel you are a Buddhist, then you are one! But we also need to know what that means and how to put it into practice. The traditional way of expressing a commitment to Buddhism is to say that we go for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, seeing them as representing the most valuable things in life and devoting ourselves to them. These are the Heart of Buddhist Practice.

In practice, this means studying the Buddhist teachings in a search for genuine understanding; looking at our lives and identifying the ways in which we are not acting in accordance with the Buddhist precepts; and starting to practice meditation. Being a Buddhist is also likely to feel much more meaningful, and our practice is likely to be more effective, if we can find a sangha or community of other Buddhists with whom we can share our Dharma lives and practice.

In time, we will learn that becoming a Buddhist and going for refuge isn’t just a single act. The process of aligning our lives and minds with the Dharma is an open-ended exploration. 

When there are so many Buddhist traditions, which one should I follow?

Buddhism has a long history, and as it spread to different countries it developed new forms. We are fortunate that Buddhism has spread across the world in recent decades, but this also means that, if you live in a city there are probably many Buddhist centres and groups offering different kinds of practice – and this is even more evident if you look around on the internet. So how should you choose which one to follow?

There’s no simple answer, except to say that it’s fine to explore different approaches and see which you respond. Perhaps you will quickly find an approach that feels right – some people do this through reading books, others visit different Buddhist centres. Then again, some people visit a certain Buddhist centre, or go on a retreat, and find that something just clicks. 

Eventually, to make real progress with Buddhist practice, the general advice is that you should settle down with a particular school or tradition. Most teachers suggest that to go deeper we probably need to become more focused in the sense of following a coherent approach with the clarity and discipline that brings. 

Is there a Buddhist Bible?

There is no single book that Buddhists revere in the way Jews and Christians respect the Bible. However there are many Buddhist scriptures that are considered the words of the Buddha (buddha-vacana). These include records of the Buddha’s life and teachings (‘The Discourses’), which have the strongest claim to be accurate historical records of the Buddha himself. As the best known versions are preserved in the Pali language, they are often referred to as ‘the Pali Canon’. 

Other scriptures emerged in the course of Buddhist history and were ascribed to the Buddha, including works such as The Lotus Sutra and The Diamond Sutra, which are revered by Mahayana Buddhists. Some inspired texts like The Tibetan Book of the Dead are revered in a similar way, while the teachings of people who have attained Enlightenment over the centuries are also considered to be ‘buddhavacana’ and are preserved, respected and recited as sacred texts in their own right. 

The complete canon of Buddhist scriptures is many hundreds of times as long as the Bible, and for Buddhists these scriptures are sources of inspiration and objects of reverence. 

Is Buddhism pessimistic?

The description of the world as unsatisfactory or filled with suffering (the Buddhist term is dukkha) has led some people to call it pessimistic. But it is really just pointing out something that any of us can see for ourselves if we look at the experience of being human. There’s a lot of unhappiness, frustration, stress and other kinds of suffering in the world. More concretely the Buddha said ‘old age, sickness and death are all suffering’, and we could add many other items to that list. 

Buddhism isn’t actually pessimistic because it says there’s something we can do about this state of affairs. We can practice the Dharma and find a fundamentally different relationship with the world, including its difficulties. That opens up a much larger perspective, and typically brings joy and a sense of liberation.

Do Buddhists have to be vegetarian?

The first of the Buddhist ethical precepts is undertaking to abstain from harming other beings, especially through killing. In the modern world many Buddhists take this to imply that we should practice vegetarianism or veganism. In countries such as China there is a tradition of Buddhist vegetarianism, but Buddhist monks in South Asia rely on donations, and make a point of not being picky about their food. The result is that vegetarianism isn’t part of the Buddhist culture there. 

However, this isn’t the end of the matter now that vegetarianism and veganism are options for most people. Meat is the staple for all Tibetans, in part because of the nature of the country, but the Dalai Lama recommends that his followers should be vegetarian or vegan. You should decide for yourself, but from the perspective of Buddhist ethics and values, the case for not eating meat or fish is very strong.

Do all Buddhists meditate?

All Buddhists go for Refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, but the ways they express this vary hugely. In many Asian countries meditation is a specialist activity reserved for monks and nuns, though it has become more popular in modern times among lay Buddhists. For many Buddhists in East Asia the main practice is chanting; others express their devotion through making offerings. However, meditation is a central part of the path taught by the Buddha and some form of conscious mental development is essential to making progress along it. 

Do Buddhists believe in God?

When Europeans first encountered Buddhism they were amazed to discover that, while it seemed to be what they would have called a ‘religion’, Buddhists didn’t speak about God. They made the great discovery that religion could be non-theistic.

The word ‘God’ means different things to different people, and some of these may well have something in common with the way that Buddhists see Buddhahood – the state of Enlightenment embodied by the Buddha himself. For Buddhists, the Buddha was far more than a particularly wise and compassionate human, and we see Buddhahood as the highest possible state of being in the whole of existence. 

However, some ways of understanding God (including the most popular ones) have no place in Buddhism, and the Buddha firmly rejected any belief in a deity who created the universe, for example. For that reason, it is usually best to say that Buddhists don’t believe in God.

What is Karma all about?

Read a special FAQ all about the teaching of karma and rebirth in Buddhism.