(The East Made Simple) Every major school (sect, tradition, yana or "vehicle") of Buddhism explained: What each one actually believes, teaches, and attempts to practice. The division is usually Theravada (10%) keeping as close as possible to the teachings of the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama, Shakyamuni) versus all the others aligning with later interpretations, changes, watering down the message or changing it altogether to build a grand boat that calls itself the "Great Vehicle" or Mahayana (90%). But Vajrayana, a Himalayan (Bhutanese, Nepalese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Russian) school of Esoteric Buddhism, combining many occult Hindu practices (tantra, mantra, yoga, etc.) may also be distinguished or Japanese Zen (a combination of Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto, and Buddhism, but Japan prefers faith-based universalism, Nichiren Shōshū, like most of the rest of the world to pray and receive help from another-power to do all the heavy lifting to deliverance) even though all three are considered Mahayana sects.
This weekend (either Saturday or Sunday), Hsi Lai Temple will be conducting a noontime offering to the great Kwan Yin Pusa (GuanyinBodhisattva), who began as the male deva Avalokita (Avalokitesvara).
It is unknown which day it will be because it is officially posted as "Sunday, 8/1, at 10:00 am, but Sunday is 8/2, Aug. 2, 2026. So maybe it starts on Saturday at 10 and culminates with noontime offerings at 12 the next day? Call the temple for proper details.
It will be located in the Hsi Lai Temple main shrine at the top of the steps near the giant incense cauldron that looks like the Liberty Bell. Fortunately, for the Fo Guang Shan (lit. "Buddha's* Light Mountain") Movement Buddhists of the world and others, there will be a Livestream (live from Los Angeles):
Buddha's Light Mountain
Fo Guang Shan (FGS, Chinese 佛光山, Pinyin Fó guāng shān, lit. "Buddha's Light Mountain") is an international Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhist organization and monastic order. It is based in Taiwan and practices Humanistic Buddhism, whose roots are traced to the Linji School of Chan Buddhism.
The headquarters, Fo Guang Shan Monastery, is located in Dashu District, Kaohsiung, Buddhist Taiwan, and is the largest Buddhist monastery in the island country .
[Of course, mainland China lays claim to Taiwan as an integral part of the PRC (People's Republic of China) just as it insists that Bon/Vajrayana Buddhist Tibet and similarly oppressed Muslim XinjiangUyghur Autonomous Region in the northwest are part and parcel of the nominally communist actively capitalist post-kingdom].
The organization is also one of the largest charity organizations in Taiwan. Its counterpart for laypeople is known as the Buddha's Light International Association. Founded in 1967 by Hsing Yun, the order promotes Humanistic Buddhism and is known for its efforts in the modernization of Chinese Buddhism.
The modernist order is famous for its use of technology, and its temples are often furnished with the latest equipment [1, 2]. Hsing Yun's stated position for Fo Guang Shan is that it is an "amalgam of all Eight Schools of Chinese Buddhism." More
(*Sadly, while it sounds like one big, united Buddhist family, in fact the Buddha in the title refers to the "Cosmic Buddha" Amitabha, as in Amitofu, not the historical one from Earth, who is lovingly called the Sage of Scythian Shakya/Saka Clan, Shakyamuni, Siddhartha Gautama)
Hsi Lai Temple, Los Angeles; CC Liu, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit FGS
Please join Coming West (Hsi Lai) Temple in celebration of the birth of our teacher, Shakyamuni (Gautama) Buddha, which is one of the most important events on the Buddhist calendar. During this celebration, we partake in the traditional bathing of the baby Buddha (Prince Siddhartha), and pray not only for auspiciousness in our lives, but to also emulate him and his teachings.
Date
Sunday, May 24, 2026-Sunday, May 31, 2026, 9:00 am-5:00 pm
at Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles County, California
These are the "Gods" of faith-based Mahayana, Vajrayana, Jodo Shinshu, Nicheren, Shingon...rather than the much smaller (10%) back-to-basics Theravada Buddhist tradition, which recognizes countless brahmas and devas, particularly Great Brahma and Sakka (Sakra, Indra), King of the Devas, but neither worships them nor regards them as "Gods" in the Western sense.
If Buddhism has no God, who are Buddhists praying to?
(Buddha's Wisdom) 🔍 IF THERE'S NO BUDDHIST GOD, WHO GETS ALL THESE PRAYERS?
The Buddha with gods Sakka and Brahma
Buddhism famously teaches that there is no "creator God." Yet, Buddhist temples across Asia overflow with [what sounds like] prayers, chants, offerings, and devotion.
From bodhisattvas and buddhas to spirits, protectors, and ancestors, this video explores whom Buddhists are actually praying to—if anyone—and why [petitionary] prayer never disappeared from Buddhism.
Discover how Buddhist "prayer" works in the absence of a supreme deity and why this "godless" religion created one of the most elaborate spiritual support systems ever conceived.
[NOTE: Theists are sure there's a God; atheists are sure there is not; agnostics say they do not know and remain on the fence. But nontheists are different. They say, "Whether there is a God or is not a God, we must still concern ourselves with our own enlightenment and liberation/salvation." No one else, not even "God," can do it for us. We must develop calm and insight, study and practice, to awaken from this illusory samsara or Wheel of Suffering and Rebirth.]
DISCOVER:
Why Buddhism rejected [an all-powerful, all-knowing, omnipresent] creator God but preserved devotion
Why [Mahayana] Buddhism has multiple buddhas instead of one God...and what each one specializes in
The bodhisattvas who postponed enlightenment just to help all living beings (and millions pray to them daily)
The terrifying wrathful protectors (guardian deities) who guard Buddhism with fangs and flames
How Buddhism absorbed local spirits, gods, and ancestors without losing its core philosophy
Why the three Buddhist schools (Theravāda, Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna) solve this paradox differently
How this ancient system still explains modern meditation, ritual, and faith
📿 If this changed understanding of Buddhist devotion, subscribe to Buddha's Wisdom for more deep explorations into Buddhism's most fascinating mysteries and apparent contradictions.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 If Buddhism has no God
01:31 The core confusion: No God yet prayer everywhere
06:50 Chapter 1: The Buddha specialists (Shakyamuni, Amitābha, Medicine Buddha, Guanyin)
14:55 Chapter 2: The Bodhisattva Help Desk—compassion incarnate
21:53 Chapter 3: Protectors, Gods, and spiritual security
27:40 Chapter 4: Where Buddhism meets local spirits and ancestors
34:48 Chapter 5: Human bridges—the power of dead masters
41:48 Chapter 6: Theravāda, Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna Buddhism — three different solutions
50:12 Chapter 7: How all the layers work together
54:45 Chapter 8: Why this still matters today
56:17 What 'prayer' really cultivates
📚 SOURCES AND FURTHER READING:
Primary Buddhist texts:
The Pāli canon (Tipiṭaka) - the Buddha's final words on self-reliance
Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra) - foundation of bodhisattva devotion
Pure Land Sutras (Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtras) - Amitābha Buddha and rebirth in [his western] Pure Land
Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thödol) - death and intermediate states between lifetimes
Platform Sutra - Zen Buddhism's approach to "sudden enlightenment"
Scholarly resources:
Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor
The Bodhisattva Ideal in Buddhism by Sangharakshita
Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations by Paul Williams
Tantric Buddhism in East Asia by Richard Payne
The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism by Robert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr.
Popular Buddhism in Sri Lanka by Michael Ames (folk religion integration)
The Cult of the Book of the Dead in Tibet by Bryan J. Cuevas
Academic articles:
"The Concept of the Bodhisattva in Early Buddhism" - Buddhist Studies Review
"Wrathful Deities in Vajrayana Buddhism" - Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
"Pure Land Buddhism in China" - Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
Historical context:
The Buddhist Conquest of China by Erik Zürcher (syncretism examples)
Buddhism and Society in Thailand by Tambiah (spirit house integration)
Who can say? One billion or more Buddhists in China go uncounted in official figures because, officially, all Chinese in China are communist atheists with no interest in religion, just a love of business, STEM, and tech.
The exact same thing happens in the United States, and any American can see it at the largest Buddhist temple in the western hemisphere, "Going West" (Hsi Lai) Temple, in Los Angeles, California:
"China" is actually called the People's Republic of China (PRC). Officially, it is a communist state governed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Officially, the CCP is guided by socialism with Chinese characteristics, which it describes as Marxism adapted to Chinese circumstances [184].
The 14th Dalai Lama is considered a demon.
The Chinese constitution states that the PRC "is a socialist state governed by a people's democratic dictatorship that is led by the working class and based on an alliance of workers and peasants" and that "the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party" [185].
The PRC officially characterizes itself as a democracy—more specifically, a whole-process people's democracy—that is organized around the [Russian] Leninist principle of democratic centralism [186].
However, the [empire or] country is commonly described as an authoritarian one-party state and a dictatorship [187, 188] with some of the world's heaviest restrictions in many civil rights areas, most notably AGAINST:
freedom of the press,
freedom of assembly,
free formation of social organizations,
freedom of religion, and
freedom of the Internet [189].
"Freedom of religion"? Not for Tibetans, Uyghurs
China has consistently been ranked among the lowest as an "authoritarian regime" by the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index, ranking at 145th out of 167 countries in 2024 [190].
But other sources suggest that terming China as "authoritarian" does not sufficiently account for the multiple consultation mechanisms that exist in the Chinese governmental system [191].
Freedom of religion is guaranteed by China's constitution, although religious organizations [like peaceful Falun Gong] that lack official approval can be subject to state persecution [198].
The government of the country is officially atheist, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) requires its members to be [or at least say they are officially] atheist [479].
Religious affairs and issues in the country are overseen by the National Religious Affairs Administration, under the CCP's United Front Work Department [480].
Guanyin in neighboring Mongolia
The "Three Teachings" of [spiritual] Buddhism, [social] Confucianism, and [philosophical] Taoism have historically shaped Chinese culture [481, 482], enriching a spiritual and philosophical framework of traditional religion that harks back to the early Shang and Zhou Dynasty.
Chinese folk religion, which is framed by the Three Teachings and by other traditions [483], consists in allegiance to the shen[Japanese kami], who can be:
deities of the surrounding nature or
ancestral principles of human groups,
concepts of civility,
culture heroes and heroines, many of whom feature in Chinese mythology and history [484].
Among the most popular cults of folk religion are those of
In the early decades of the 21st century, the Chinese government has been engaged in a rehabilitation of folk cults—formally recognizing them as "folk beliefs" as distinguished from doctrinal religions [487] and often reconstructing them into forms of "highly curated" civil religion [488]—as well as in a national and international promotion of Buddhism [489].
China is home to many of the world's tallest religious statues, representing either enlightened Buddhist beings or deities of Chinese folk religion; the tallest of all is the Spring Temple Buddha in Henan. More
European Buddhist nun in Chinese: "Stop comparing, start living"
The shocking truth about the Buddha they never told us
(Silent Flame) For centuries, we’ve been bowing, chanting, and meditating…. But did we ever stop to ask, Who was the Buddha — really? Was he a man who simply awakened? A divine being who walked among mortals? Or something far beyond both ideas?
This deeper dive is a controversial video as Silent Flame takes us on a journey through ancient Buddhist texts, modern science, cosmic metaphysics, and brutal honesty — to finally answer the question no monastic dares ask out loud, 🔥 Was the Buddha a God…or just a man?
✅ DISCOVER:
Why early texts portray him as a human — and why that matters
The hidden [Mahayana] doctrine of the Three Bodies of the Buddha
The shocking Mahayana view that Buddha never passed away into final nirvana (what the world mistakenly calls dying, even though dying always entails rebirth so this could not be a common death the unenlightened experience)
What neuroscience, quantum physics, and psychedelics reveal today
How we should relate to the Buddha in real life — worship or walk?
If one has ever meditated, bowed before a statue, or just wondered what “enlightenment” really means… 🧘♂️ this is the video that connects the dots — and burns away illusions.
Was the Buddha a [Creator] God? Divine? A miracle-worker? Great gurus say, "No one saves us but ourselves; no one can, and no one may; we ourselves must walk the Path; buddhas only point the way."
We as earthling humans have been depending on gods and God for too long, waiting for them to return and rule, with we peons and pawns to their larger designs, such as the Anunnaki, the Greek, Roman, and Indian pantheons.
🔔 Subscribe for brutally honest Buddhist truth every week. 👇 Comment your truth: Is Buddha a god or are we just afraid to awaken? #Buddhism #Buddha #IsBuddhaGod #DharmaTalk #SilentFlame #Enlightenment #BuddhistPhilosophy #ThreeBodiesOfBuddha #NoSelf #Anatta #Awakening #BuddhistWisdom #SpiritualAwakening #Mysticism #ReligionVsSpirituality #QuantumBuddhism #BuddhismExplained #BuddhaTruth #TheRealBuddha #LongformContent #YouTubeDharma #Consciousness #BreakTheIllusion
Silent Flame, YouTube.com, May 21, 2025; The 14th Dalai Lama; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
It might be good if Ananda's student, the struggling American meditator "Doggone," not to be confused with Ven. Dōgen, could learn from former soldier in the U.S. military Ven. Scott, who has found peace through Zen practice, which includes a lot of Taoist philosophy (and probably a sizeable amount of Confucianism and Shinto, too).
It's hard if not impossible to get a "pure Buddhism" as the Dharma is always steeped in a culture colored by shamanic and other preexisting spiritual traditions and philosophies.
Look, Everybody, I'm being mindful and Zen.
The West is a good example. We color the heck out of Buddhism to make it understandable, not realizing how much we're distorting what the Buddha taught. Early Buddhism was colored by Saka/Scythian (Central Asian) and Vedic proto-Indian (Brahminical, Magadhi, subcontinental views) customs and cultural baggage.
Instead of muscling through everything, efforting and straining, there's a better way that bends with the wind, goes with the flow, and thereby follows "The Way," the Tao.
Western translator and spiritual entertainer Alan Watts speaks of a great divide in outlook in Japan that developed in Buddhism: self-power (jiriki) versus other power (tariki).
Can we do the impossible and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps? Or must we rely on some higher power, an outside source, to pull us out of the mire?
In practice, the latter may make more sense or seem much easier. The former may work, but it will take subtlety and great mindfulness (sati-patthana) so that ego is not just leading ego around, self-willed as it has so long been, thinking it's getting anywhere worth going.
Let's shut up and stop talking to ourselves to see
Is Pure Land Buddhism even still Buddhism?
Will faith in something outside ourselves us save us? Yes, there are the Three Treasures, the Three Jewels to whom we can go for enlightened guidance: the historical Buddha, the early Dharma, and the noble Sangha.
It is important to qualify these words as nowadays there are lots of buddhas or alleged "supremely enlightened teachers, and many latter-day interpretations of the Dharma (the Buddha's Teaching or Doctrine), and it is not the monastic Sangha ("spiritual community") that serves as this ultimate guide but rather the "noble" (Aryan/Ariya) or enlightened community, which refers to these eight people, who may or may not be Buddhist monastics.
Or must we take responsibility for our behavior and cultivate our own direct wisdom? (Of course we must do this, but the former may help in doing it).
Two Buddhisms have developed in Japan over this vital question of tariki versus jiriki. Shall we follow the example of the historical Buddha or the later (possibly make believe) "Cosmic Buddhas," who seem more like old time Vedic/Hindu gods (brahmas and devas) than the buddhas the Buddha talked about as having taught in the distant past.
There is Amitabha, Ksitigarbha, Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin, Kwan Yin, Kwannon), Budai, or whoever. It is the Kali Yuga (the "Decadent Age") after all, as Hinduism's holy books, the Vedas, tell Mahayana Buddhists. In these dark times, blind faith will seem far more attractive to faith-types full of attachments than the letting go asked of us by wisdom, confidence (saddha, reasoned and verifiable faith, conviction), and a persevering-practice.
Sit a little every day; that is far more powerful thana marathon effort every so often. Practice is key. Even trying to sit once will make this tariki vs. jiriki debate suddenly make sense. In the meantime, listen to Alan Watts. He, though irascible with an irreducible rascality, knows a thing or two.
"Amida Manifesting in the Dharma-body of Expedient Means," Japanese painting, at The Met.
"Self-power" (Chinese zìlì 自力, Japanese jiriki) and "other-power" (Chinese tālì 他力, Japanese tariki) are key terms used to explain and define Pure Land practice in East Asian Buddhism [179].
It was Shandao who first argued that Amitabha's power helped take people to the Pure Land after death (previous authors having held that Amitabha created the Pure Land and it was up to an individual's own effort to make it there).
This other-power relationship was compared to how a lowly man who is accompanied by a king can enter previously inaccessible places [180].
Did Christianity just steal this idea of tariki in whole, or is it a natural devolution of religion?
.
Whose power, my own or a magic Cosmic Buddha?
Chinese Pure Land Buddhism never denied the importance of self-power. Instead, according to Jones, Chinese Pure Land generally holds that "Rebirth in the Pure Land results when the two powers work together, an idea that the modern Taiwan Pure Land master Zhiyu (Zhìyù 智諭, 1924–2000) captured with the phrase "the two powers of self and other" (zì-tā èr lì 自他二力)" [179].
Thus, in Chinese Pure Land, rebirth in the Pure Land arises from a cooperation of the practitioner and the Buddha [179].
方便法身尊影: Amida's Dharma- body of Expedient Means (The Met)
Yúnqī Zhūhóng argues that the practitioner's efforts connect with the Buddha's power through "sympathetic resonance" (gǎnyìng 感應) which links them with the Buddha, attuning their mind with that of the Buddha, much like one plucked string in a lute can make another string nearby resonate in sympathy [181, 178].
According to this view, the more that one practiced nianfo, the stronger and more enduring this bond with Amitabha became [182].
However, Chinese Pure Land masters also argued that one certainly cannot rely on self-power alone, which they denigrated as a futile effort [183]. More
Amitabha Buddha: Infinite Life and Light: History, Dharani, Sutras, Sadhana, and Sukhavati
(Buddha Weekly) Aug. 7, 2024: Why is the magnetizing or attracting power of Cosmic Buddha Amitabha and the Lotus family so alluring? Why is Amitabha so popular in the various lineages and schools of Mahayana Buddhism? Why is Amitabha's Western Pureland Sukhavati called the "Happy Realm," and how easy is it to attain rebirth in this paradise? Why is Amitabha called both "Infinite Light" and "Infinite Life"?
[Is it because it's a fantasy that does not require effort and spiritual exertion to calm and purify the mind only to develop faith and devotion, which are much easier? In the dichotomy of hariki and jiriki, most humans prefer an "other" power rather than "self" power as a means of salvation/liberation.]
CONTENTS
00:00-02:57 Introduction and why is Amitabha so popular in Mahayana Buddhism?
02:57-05:41 Magnetizing power, charisma, and the power of Amitabha’s Lotus family
05:41-08:17 Amitabha’s 48 vows and the story of Bodhisattva Dharmakara (from sutra)
08:17-09:15 Shakyamuni Buddha explains Sukhavati Pureland of Ultimate Bliss
09:15-11:11 Amitabha’s name literally means “Infinite Light” and why
15:21-18:55 Sukhavati Pureland: Land of Ultimate Bliss described by Shakyamuni Buddha
18:55-21:27 Dharani practice of Amitabha Buddha and magnetizing
21:27-22:21 Three shorter mantras as a daily practice
22:37-23:57 Amitabha’s sadhana practices and visualizing Amitabha Buddha
23:57-31:00 Recitation of Amitabha sadhana in full
Let's answer these questions and more in this in-depth presentation that ends with his dharani, mantras, and unique sadhana called Brief Amitabha Sleeping Practice by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö to help connect directly to this compassionate and powerful Buddha of the 48 vows.
Let's look at the story of these 48 vows later in the presentation plus the story of Amitabha as Bodhisattva Dharmakara from the sutra.
FOR A FULL FEATURE ON BUDDHA WEEKLY including the shorter sutra and dharani in English, Sanskrit, and Chinese, see: buddhaweekly.com/?p=24862.
Amitabha is the magnetic "savior" Buddha. He helps with his charismatic bliss and joy and wisdom for discernment to overcome the poisons of attachment and desire.
It is our clinging attachment to things -- objects, money, ownership, and ego -- that causes suffering in samsara (the cycle of rebirth). With discernment wisdom, the wisdom of Amitabha's Lotus family, we overcome our obsessive clinging to things and ego.
His practice is the magnetizing power of the buddhas signified by his body made of red glowing light like a beautiful glowing sunset. Red is the color of magnetizing, the color of fire and the setting sun of the west, all of which are symbols of Amitabha.
Orgyen Topgyal Rinpoche explained in a teaching on Red Amitabha's Lotus family:
“The manifestations of the wisdom of discernment are the deities of the lotus family of magnetizing. The magnetizing deities (devas) have the power to bring circumstances under control.”
Magnetizing power is the power of charisma, attraction, cooperation, compassion, and loving-kindness. Amitabha's magnetizing power attracts auspicious circumstances, knowledge, good fortune, helpful people, students, business, and prosperity — as long as we are motivated by the cause for enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.
Khenpo Namdro explains:
Magnetizing of Amitabha's Lotus family is “that which brings within one’s power all that appears and all that exists. It goes by such a name because if you make this prayer fervently, you will be able to magnetize or bring within your power the phenomena of the entire universe.”
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