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**DenisMoor** · 05-08-2011, 12:42 PM

People who do not study Buddhist teachings will probably not understand the Buddhist concept of 'no self' and so they might call 'ultimate reality' God, but that doesn't make it a bad term.

The allusion was probably to the Vedic assumptions that preceded the Buddha (and largely infiltrated Buddhism after his death) of Brahma (their version of philosophy's "God") being the Ultimate Reality, and that the goal of the holy life was to seek "union with the Brahmin". Brahmins exerted a great deal of influence on Buddhist doctrine after the Buddha's death (for example, in the case of Buddhaghosa), and I think this notion of an "Ultimate Reality" crept in with that influence. When the Buddha spoke of "the way things are", he tended toward the word "tathana", rather than some notion of "Ultimate (vs. conventional, mind you) Reality".

05-08-2011, 12:42 PM	#17
DenisMoor Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 640 Senior Member	People who do not study Buddhist teachings will probably not understand the Buddhist concept of 'no self' and so they might call 'ultimate reality' God, but that doesn't make it a bad term. The allusion was probably to the Vedic assumptions that preceded the Buddha (and largely infiltrated Buddhism after his death) of Brahma (their version of philosophy's "God") being the Ultimate Reality, and that the goal of the holy life was to seek "union with the Brahmin". Brahmins exerted a great deal of influence on Buddhist doctrine after the Buddha's death (for example, in the case of Buddhaghosa), and I think this notion of an "Ultimate Reality" crept in with that influence. When the Buddha spoke of "the way things are", he tended toward the word "tathana", rather than some notion of "Ultimate (vs. conventional, mind you) Reality".
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