Massive earthquake destroys Morocco (BBC)

Laurence Peter, Maria Zaccaro, BBC; A. Wells, CC Liu, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Marrakesh, Morocco earthquake: Mountain villages plunged into grief - BBC News

Morocco earthquake: British tourists describe 'terrifying' moment quake hit - BBC News

• Morocco: Race against time to save buried survivors
• UPDATES: 2023 Marrakesh-Safi earthquake (Wiki)

Where is Morocco? Next to Spain, EU?

The death toll from a powerful earthquake in the Kingdom of Morocco under King Mo in North Africa, has soared to more than 2,000, with a similar number of injured.

The interior ministry says more than 1,400 have serious injuries, and the heaviest casualties are in provinces just south of Marrakech.

King Mohammed VI declared three days of national mourning and ordered shelter, food, and other help for survivors. Many people are spending a second night out in the open.

The magnitude 6.8 quake hit Marrakesh and many towns on Friday night. In remote mountain areas, entire villages are reported to have been flattened.

The epicenter was in the High Atlas Mountains, 44 miles (71km) south-west of Marrakesh -- a city with world heritage status which is popular with tourists.

But the tremors were also felt in the capital Rabat, some 350km away, as well as Casablanca, Agadir, and Essaouira.

Morocco, Africa, next to Spain, circa 1212

The interior ministry says Al Haouz province has the highest death toll, followed by Taroudant province.

There are far fewer deaths in Marrakesh, though the UNESCO-protected old city has suffered considerable damage.

It is believed that many simple mud brick, stone, and timber homes in mountain villages will have collapsed, but the scale of devastation in remote areas will take some time to assess.

PM, King Mo, hot model, Don, Merkel, Putins

When he arrived in one such village, BBC correspondent Nick Beake says, "an elderly woman was wailing as 18 bodies had been recovered in that one place. Many people are camping out for the night there," he says, "as they fear aftershocks.

"They say they are desperately short of food and water. But such places are hard to reach, with mountain roads strewn with rocks and other debris, making access difficult for the emergency services." More

• "It was total chaos": Voices from the earthquake
• PHOTOS: Damage in historic Marrakesh
• Mountain villages plunged into grief
• Such a powerful earthquake is unusual for Morocco

What caused this?

Stewart Swerdlow survived Montauk Project

What is the cause of this great earthquake? There is one man who is sure to know, the great Stewart Swerdlow (expansions.com), a proficient psychic used by covert U.S. government agencies to remote view and test advanced technology due to his known lineage of Russian relatives with mystic powers. Swerdlow explained that the great quake that hit Aceh, Indonesian, and caused the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, was caused by the military-industrial complex trying to power up the Montauk chair for experimentation. It uses a tremendous amount of power. And in the wrong hands, it causes a great disturbance in the force. See: Buddhism on the causes of great earthquakes

• Mysterious flash illuminates Moroccan sky moments before earthquake. [Could it be HAARP activity disturbing the skies?] (msn.com)

Sutra: How NOT to meditate (MN 50)

Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.), The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, MN 50 (majjimanikaya.wordpress.com); Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), orig. 1/11/20, Wisdom Quarterly

Majjhima Nikaya = "The Middle-Length Discourses (Sutras) of the Buddha"

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Blessed One, your disciples are no meditators.

In this fascinating discourse, the chief male disciple foremost in magical powers is assailed by Mara, the Tempter. He lectures Mara as being on a bad course, just as his forebears, then tales him a hair raising tale of past lives when he, Maha Moggallana, was a mara named Mara Dusi, "the Corrupter" and this Mara now was his nephew.

§12. “Then, Evil One, Mara Dusi considered: ‘There are these virtuous wandering ascetics [allegedly] of good character, but I do not know their coming or going. Let me now take possession of these Brahmin householders, telling them: “Come now, abuse, revile, scold, and harass the virtuous wandering ascetics of good character. Then perhaps, when they are abused, reviled, scolded, and harassed by you, some change will come about in their minds whereby Mara Dusi may find an opportunity.'”

• [522: That is, by causing defilements to arise in their minds, Mara Dusi will prevent them from escaping from samsara, the round of repeated rebirths, or from the Kama Loka, the Sphere of Sensuality.]

"‘These bald-pated recluses, these swarthy menial offspring of the Kinsman’s feet

• [Note 524: “The Kinsman” (bandhu) is Brahma {the Supreme, God, Lord}, who was called this by the Brahmins because they regarded him as their primal ancestor. MA explains that it was a belief among the brahmins that they themselves were the offspring of Brahma’s mouth, the khattiyas of his breast, the vessas of his belly, the suddas of his legs, and samanas {wandering ascetics, shamans, monastics, recluses, monks/nuns} of the soles of his feet.]

"[They] claim: “We are meditators, we are meditators!” and with shoulders drooping, heads down and all limp, they meditate, premeditate, outmeditate, and mismeditate.

• [525: jhayanti pajjhayanti nijjhayanti apajjhayanti. Though the verbs individually do not have an established pejorative [negative] sense, the string is obviously intended as a denigration. At MN 108.26 these four verbs are used to describe the meditation of one whose mind is obsessed by the Five Hindrances.]

"Just as an owl on a branch waiting for a mouse meditates, premeditates, outmeditates, and mismeditates,

"or just as a jackal on a riverbank waiting for fish meditates, premeditates, outmeditates, and mismeditates,

"or just as a cat by a door post or a dustbin or a drain, waiting for a mouse, meditates, premeditates, outmeditates, and mismeditates,

"or just as a donkey unladen, standing by a doorpost or a dustbin or a drain, meditates, premeditates, outmeditates, and mismeditates

"so, too, these bald-pated recluses, these swarthy menial offspring of the Kinsman’s feet, [they] claim:

“We are meditators, we are meditators!” and with shoulders drooping, heads down and all limp, they meditate, premeditate, outmeditate, and mismeditate.’

"Now, Evil One [Mara], on that occasion most of those human beings, when they passed away, reappeared [were reborn] on the dissolution of the body, after death, in a state of deprivation, in an unhappy destination, in perdition, even in hell [Avici].

§14. “Then the Blessed One Kakusandha [Buddha], accomplished and fully-enlightened, addressed the wandering ascetics thus: ‘Meditators, Mara Dusi [Mara the Corrupter] has taken possession of these Brahmin householders telling them: “Come now, abuse, revile, scold, and harass the virtuous wandering ascetics of good character. Then perhaps, when they are abused, reviled, scolded, and harassed by you, some change will come about in their mind whereby Mara Dusi may find an opportunity.”

Does that make sense? Would a video help?

"Come, wandering ascetics, abide pervading one quarter with a mind imbued with loving-kindness (metta), likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth. Just so [pervade] above, below, around, and everywhere, and to all as to yourselves, abide pervading the all-encompassing world with a mind imbued with loving-kindness, abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility, and without ill will. Abide pervading one quarter with a mind imbued with compassion… with a mind imbued with appreciative joy... with a mind imbued with equanimity… abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility, and without ill will.’

• [526: The Four Divine Abidings (brahma-viharas) are the appropriate antidote for the hostility of others, as well as for the tendencies to anger and dejection in one’s own mind.] More

Mara, the Lord of Death (evil)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Barbara O'Brien (Buddhism Expert)

I'll watch this child to make sure he does not lead others out of my realm (countryfried)

 

The "Demon" Who Challenged the Buddha 

B. O'Brien

Many supernatural creatures populate Buddhist literature, but among these maras (killers, corrupters, defilers, obstructors) one Māra is spoken of as a single terrible being.

 

Mara may be evil, but he's cute.

Various maras are named, the two very worst being Namuci and Dusi (the first who oppressed the Buddha and the second who, surprisingly, was Maha Moggallana in the distant past in a previous existence, MN 50). They are some of the earliest non-human beings, along with the ever present angelic "shining ones," the devas, to appear in Buddhist texts.

Hellmuth Hecker, in his biography Maha-Moggallana, writes:

"About his recollection of his own former existences, [Ven.] Moggallana spoke only once, [which was] in the 50th [sutra] of the Middle Length Discourses (Majjhima Nikaya).... In the ["Rebirth Tales," or] Jatakas,...which have been recorded, is a very small number compared with the infinity of lives through which every being in Samsara has passed." [But it was in that life that Maha Moggallana was Mara Dusi, "Mara the Corrupter."]

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• Good Yama, not Mara, is KING of the Dead
• Yama is the "God of Death" or "the Dead"

Is Mara watching, obstructing my meditation?

Early Buddhism acknowledged both a literal and figurative (psychological) interpretation of "Mara." Mara is described both as an entity having an existence in the Sensual Sphere and as a shapeshifting being on Earth around the Buddha; maras are also described in the chain of Dependent Origination primarily as the guardian of passions, a catalyst for lust, hesitation, and fear that obstructs meditation among Buddhists.

Mara Namuci, Mara the "Evil" One, is a tempter, a demon chief, sometimes personified as the Lord of Death. He is not Death but because he leads to death, and endless rebirth and redeath, he is spoken of as Death. And in the case of Mara Devaputra, literally Mara "Son of God," that is, a kind of Cupid or Lucifer character, an angelic Mara "born among the devas," who fancies himself Lord or Overseer of the Sensual Sphere (kama dhatu).

Charming Mara and nun (HK)

He plays a role in many stories of the Buddha and Buddhist nuns and monks, particularly by the two with the greatest psychic powers, the chief female disciple Ven. Uppalavanna Theri and chief male disciple Ven. Maha Moggallana Thero (along with the two other chief disciples, foremost in wisdom, the nun Ven. Khema and monk Ven. Sariputra).

 

Mara is best known for attempting to obstruct and derail Siddhartha's great enlightenment, which made him the historical Buddha. This story has grown to mythological proportions, literally as a great battle with Mara, whose name means "destruction," leading armies of yakkhas (demons, ogres) and his own daughters, who represent the various passions that snare and delude us.

The Buddha's Enlightenment

The ascetic Siddhartha is assailed by Mara's armies, yakkhas (demons), and doubts.

  

Siddhartha hit on by Mara's daughters

There are several versions of this story; some fairly straightforward, some elaborate, some phantasmagorical. Here is a plain version:

 

As the about-to-be Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, sat in meditation, Mara brought his most beautiful daughters to seduce Siddhartha. Siddhartha,however, remained in meditation. Then Mara sent vast armies of monsters to attack him. Yet Siddhartha sat still and untouched.

 

Mara claimed that the seat of enlightenment rightfully belonged to him and not to the mortal Siddhartha. Mara's monstrous soldiers cried out together, "I am his witness!" Mara challenged Siddhartha, who will speak for you?

 

Then Siddhartha reached out his right hand to touch the earth, and the earth itself spoke: "I bear you witness!" Mara disappeared. And as the morning star rose in the sky, Siddhartha Gautama realized enlightenment and became a Buddha.

The Origins of Mara

How to personify Death?

Mara may have had more than one precedent in pre-Buddhist mythology. For example, it's possible he was based in part on some now-forgotten character from popular folklore.

 

Zen teacher Lynn Jnana Sipe points out in "Reflections on Mara" that the notion of a mythological being responsible for evil and death is found in Vedic Brahmanic mythological traditions and also in non-Brahamanic traditions, such as that of the Jains. In other words, every religion in India seems to have had a character like Mara in its myths.

 

Mara also appears to have been based on a drought demon of Vedic mythology named Namuci. The Rev. Jnana Sipe writes,

 

"While Namuci initially appears in the Pali Canon as himself, he came to be transformed in early Buddhist texts to be the same as Mara, the god of death. In Buddhist demonology the figure of Namuci, with its associations of death-dealing hostility, as a result of drought, was taken up and used in order to build up the symbol of Mara; this is what the Evil One is like -- he is Namuci, threatening the welfare of [hu]mankind. Mara threatens not by withholding the seasonal rains but by withholding or obscuring the knowledge of truth."

Demon possession is real. However, Mara is not really a demon and cannot actually "possess" someone but can, as seen in MN 50, enter one's mind/heart and influence one by provoking that person's own unwholesome roots, the defilements (asavas, kilesas), the many expressions of greed, hate, and delusion. While we may say, "The devil made me do it!" we are still as karmically responsible as Mara for our own actions provoked in this way (SOAD).

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Mara in the Early Texts

Beautiful Mara Devaputra at the Bodhi tree

The recently passed Buddhist scholar, prolific writer, and translator, University of the West dean, former Sri Lankan ambassador to the U.S., UNESCO and France, and Wisdom Quarterly teacher, Dr. Ananda W.P. Guruge (1929-2014), writes in the best and most complete book about the maras, The Buddha's Encounters with Mara the Tempter, that trying to put together a coherent narrative of Mara is close to impossible.

 

"In his Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, Professor G.P. Malalasekera introduces Mara as 'the personification of Death, the Evil One, the Tempter (the Buddhist counterpart of the Devil or Principle of Destruction).' He continues: 'The legends concerning Mara are, in the books [sutras, texts], very involved and defy any attempts at unraveling them.'"

 

Dr. Guruge writes that Mara plays several different roles in the early texts, and sometimes seems to be several different characters. Sometimes he is the embodiment of death; sometimes he represents unskillful actions, emotions, or conditioned existence (dependent origination) or temptation. Sometimes he is a "son of god" (devaputra), a common term in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism that simply means "reborn among the celestial devas."

Is Mara the Buddhist Satan?

Mara as represented by the Shakti Dance Company (shaktibharatanatyam.com)

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Although there are some obvious parallels between Mara and the Judeo-Christian Devil or Satan of the Abrahamic/monotheistic religions, there are also many significant differences.

 

Although both characters are associated with evil, it's important to understand that Buddhists understand "evil" differently from how it is understood in most other religions.

Trick or Treat Dick (Tom Tomorrow/TMW)

For example, "evil" (papa), which echoes another Buddhist term "proliferation" (papañca), is generally a synonym of "unskillful" (akusala). Unskillful is very broad and can be used to speak of any manifestation of greed, hatred/fear, or delusion, the roots of all harmful karma, all unwholesome and unprofitable deeds.

 

Conversely, in English, we reserve "evil" to mean not just "bad," but very-very bad. See "Buddhism and Evil" for an explanation. More

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"I want to kill!" - This American Life (audio)

Wisdom Quarterly; "Adam," Sarah Koenig, Ira Glass, ThisAmericanLife.com,  Jan. 10, 2014

"No apparent motive, just kill and kill again/Survive my brutal thrashing, I'll hunt you to the end. My life's a constant battle, the rage of many men. Homicidal maniac!" - Slayer "Kill Again"

 

Adam is a killer, and he knows it. He went to kill in Afghanistan -- with bloodlust inculcated in him by American military training during bootcamp. He is the first person to honestly speak about it. Fortunately, he did it on public radio.
 

SHOW 515: Good Guys

Lots of men think of themselves as "good guys." But what does it actually take to be one, to be a truly good guy?

Act Four: Deep Dark Open Secret

In 2009, a U.S. soldier ("Adam") contacted "This American Life." He offered to send audio dispatches from his military deployment in Afghanistan.
 

He wanted to do a story about what it is really like to go to war and to kill. What he learned when he was over there as a soldier [in the service of America's military-industrial complex] was way more personal and honest than anyone expected.
 

Even Adam had not planned to say as much as he did about how he was trained in bootcamp to WANT and look forward to killing people. He began as an older liberal among young, closed minded, gung ho killers.
 

War crimes, dishonor, moral injury, suicide

Although Sarah Koenig claims Adam never did get to kill anyone, it is clear he did: He killed by shooting humans he was invading, violating, and terrorizing. He shot alongside other Americans and saw targeted victims die but without being able to be sure that it was due to his gunfire.

• PLAY AUDIO
• WARNING: Story may not be appropriate for children.

More than gang killings, Adam called in airstrikes that got many people killed. He lusted after killing unarmed prisoners in his custody. He thought of executing them and shooting noncombatant civilians for no reason other than he had the power to. But he resisted like most other soldiers because he and they feared repercussions if they were caught killing without justification. It was fear of reprisal rather than respect for life that kept him and his fellow soldiers from killing more men, women, and children.

 

Now that he is back in America, he looks forward to being given an excuse to kill someone stateside. He needs a kill under his belt, which is not anything he discusses with VA doctors. He does not consider himself exceptional or psychopathic. In fact, he is sure other veterans kill and like it. Like other soldiers, he has discussed these facts with them. But they ordinarily never talk about it outside of the military. Producer Sarah Koenig explains (20 mins). WAR

Halloween: Is there a "devil' or a "God"?

Dhr. Seven, Maya, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson Wisdom Quarterly HALLOWEEN SERIES

Is the Devil "Death" (Mara) personified? (Patrick Woodroffe/skeptically.org)

Why do we carve pumpkin jack o' lanterns for Halloween? (merinews.com)

  

Does Wisdom Quarterly believe in the Christian "devil"? 

Sakka (St. Michael) conquers the titan Vepacitti

No, not as such. Just as we do not believe in a "God" as Christians say. But there is something, and we think that would surprise most readers.

 

There is little reason to believe in an "all evil" entity motivating unwholesome karma. This would take away the agency of individuals, of ordinary beings to engage in unskillful conduct on their own. By ourselves is "good" and "evil" done or left undone. We often cite the quote, "No one saves us but ourselves; no one can and no one may; we ourselves must walk the path; buddhas only point the way." 

 

The devil "made" me do it

"Simpsons Bloody Simpsons" with evil Moe Sizlak, Homer, and famous bar patron

 

There are supernatural agencies. There is the famous case of Maha Moggallana recounting a discussion with Mara Namuci ("the Evil One," the onerous tempter figure who tried to dissuade Siddhartha from liberation during his time under the Bodhi tree and constantly harassed him to stop teaching).

In that sutra (MN 50), a previous mara, Mara Dusi (or Mara "the Corrupter"), incites Brahmins to unduly rebuke enlightened Buddhist monastics then later incites other Brahmins to unduly praise them, each time in the hopes of revealing a defilement Mara Dusi might exploit, each time unsuccessful, but each time leading to heavy karmic results for the Brahmins involved: The first are mostly reborn in miserable destinations, the second are mostly reborn in desirable destinations. How could this be if it were Mara Dusi's karma, not the Brahmin's intentional deeds?
 

Happy what? - Grumpy Cat (Huffington Post)

 The Commentary goes to great lengths to explain how; it was, in fact, both Mara Dusi's and the Brahmin's doings: Mara Dusi did not "make" them do what they did. He merely filled their heads with blameworthy or praiseworthy visions of the monastics through his supernatural power to influence their minds.
 
They reacted in a predictable manner as he hoped they would. Seeing visions of hypocrisy, for example, they reviled and cursed the arhat monastics. Mara Dusi met with his karmic results, a dreadful rebirth in Avici, the "waveless" or "unrelenting" infernal waste, a hell of the most horrific torments. The Brahmins went on to meet with their just deserts, which may not sound "fair" to us, but that is mainly because we do not normally realize that the magnitude of our karma does not merely depend on the doer and intention; it also has a great deal to do with the virtue of the recipient. What we do toward enlightened beings -- whether they be stream enterers, once returners, non-returners, arhats -- bears the greatest results.
 

We got power!

Wonder Women and Super Men

We can be affected by others, both seen and unseen beings. The "devil" can sort of make one do something, sort of. Even we have that power: we can discourage or encourage, lead or mislead, help or ruin others. How difficult is it? But to say that we "make" anyone do anything is not quite correct. We inspire or incite. We can do it for good or ill. 
 

God, the judge of all deeds? Or is it karma?

That is not to say that these monolithic polar opposite figures, the devil and God, can take all the credit. We are involved. We are co-creators. We are "GOD" (Brahman, the ALL, not to be confused with a personal Brahma), just as Jesus (both the mythical Christ and the historical Jewish radical from Nazareth who bears the mantle of so many Church legends and popular misconceptions) is reputed to have said. We have the potential for "divinity" -- to be reborn as devas ("shining ones," light beings, celestial citizens in superior albeit impermanent space worlds, and even in rarefied immaterial planes of existence, all of which are referred to as "heavens" (sagga). 

  

"Teacher of gods and humans," the Buddha, Himalayas (Michael Foley/blog.dwbuk.org)

 

Buddhist jack o lantern (Tracy Lee/flickr)

As humans we can even reach much higher than that -- to the end of all rebirth and suffering. This goes beyond Maha Brahma, other brahmas, as well as sensual-sphere devas, rupa-devas (fine-material-sphere light beings), and arupa-devas (immaterial-sphere beings). We are capable of enlightenment, be it final knowledge in this very life, or stream entry, which ensures that we are reborn here or elsewhere no more than a maximum of seven times. We would never again be susceptible to falling into births in worlds of deprivation lower than the human plane. One might live for millions of years, even for aeons, in superior worlds before final knowledge and complete liberation. That is more than any ordinary deva or brahma, any angel or god, can claim. It is a "change of lineage" (gotrabhu) from mundane to noble.
 

The devil in me

What motivates unskillful behavior? Asavas

We are often agents of good, but WE are the Ahriman, the antithesis, members of "Mara's Army" (subject to asavas or "defilements" of the heart/mind, the taints, the fetters), who could be called the Devil. There are demons, asuras (titans), yakkhas (ogres), narakas (denizens of hell), nagas (reptilians), pretas (spirits, ghosts, general shapeshifting troublemakers).
 

God: angry, sexist, and racist

God (Maha Brahma, YHWH, Allah, the Alpha and the Omega) is not really the "God" adherents think -- an all-good, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent  creator or uncaused first cause of everything in the universe. Those beings (yes, there are many gods of all kinds) may claim or believe themselves to be all that, but they are not. It is hyperbole and overestimation, a deceptive and deluded reputation. They can be so grand and glorious that it seems like they are -- dazzling, long lived, judgmental, humble, vengeful, exalted, arrogant, angry, loving, compassionate, beneficent, equanimous...

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Sexism, racism, slavery, war, genocide by and for God? (See the Bible's Book of Judges for murder, mayhem, and human suffering ordered by the angry jealous tribal Jewish God. Who follows a character like this? The world much prefers the peaceful son and the Marys.)

 

The many visitors from space who manipulated human DNA to make these physical forms as they are did not thereby create the "being" (gandhabba, atman) reborn in this form on this planet. Various theologies attribute this kind of "creation" to the God of their conception of reality. It is as if something (an eternal soul) came out of nothing (dust and breath, materiality and prana). But "we" have gone on and on -- as have all living beings -- in this cycling samsara (the "continued wandering on") or Wheel of Rebirth and Death.
 

Devils are real

There are "devils," inimical spirits, of all kinds as in China (Greal-Wall-Hikers/flickr)

 

If, then, there is no devil as Christians say, Is there a being like him? Yes, we think so. This belief of ours comes from a shaman mentioned in the anthropological research of Michael J. Harner (The Sound of Rushing Water, 1968):
 

"Many times the Christian missionary had told [the shaman medicine man] Mashu of the devil feared by white men. But since he had never seen the spirit, Mashu remained skeptical. Some time later, after drinking natema [the local variety of ayahuasca], Mashu was confronted by this figure of the "white man's devil." Since that time, Mashu has remained convinced of this spirit's reality."
 

There are many divine goddesses or devis

So we think something exists, some quite scary beings -- devils (maras), serpents/dragons/seamonsters (nagas), demons (yakkhas, asuras), shapeshifters (petas, politicians), avians (garudas), and so on. But one all-inclusive "devil" who is the epitome of evil, the source of everything bad, the defiler of all humankind, who ruined the first Adam and the first Eve? No, these are all oversimplifications based on things that may have actually happened. Early genetic synthetic experiments, a kind of "creationism," led to the Adama, a race of humans, "modern humans" millions of years ago. (See Michael Cremo for the real age of Homo sapien sapiens, modern humans, who are in fact very ancient). This did not happen once, but happens again and again, for samsara is cyclical in staggering stretches of time (kalpas) too big to conceive of. The truth is much stranger than myth and fiction.

"When the dust has settled, and you're born again, maybe as a [Martian], maybe then you'll see that your reality was squashed into banality, was squashed into banality!" - Nick Blinko

"The God-idea"
Ven. Nyanaponika (BPS, BuddhaNet.net, ATI)

Buddhism has sometimes been called an atheistic teaching, either in an approving sense by freethinkers and rationalists or in a derogatory sense by people of theistic persuasion. Only in one way can Buddhism be described as atheistic, namely, in so far as it denies the existence of an eternal, omnipotent God or godhead who is the creator and ordainer of the world.
 
The word "atheism" -- however, like the word "godless" -- frequently carries a number of disparaging overtones or implications, which in no way apply to the Buddha's teaching. Those who use the word "atheism" often associate it with a materialistic doctrine that knows nothing higher than this world of the senses and the slight happiness it can bestow. Buddhism is nothing of that sort. In this respect it agrees with the teachings of other religions... More