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It seems to me that Buddhism is more a philosophy than a religion. Am I wrong? Do Buddhists pray?
Well the term "philosophy" is a bad one for Buddhism. "Spirituality" would be more accurate. Religion is a tenant that is followed like a guide book of sorts with certain rules that keep you in line and a physical structure that sees many individuals who have the capability of paying lipservice to the beliefs for the sake of showing their face. Spirtiuality is a part of religion and is the action term of communing, praying, and seeking enlightenment through personal means. However since you can't play the game without reading the rules first there is a form of religion that has to preclude the spirituality of Buddhism. The big difference is the allowance of the individual to find his own path rather than the other religious beliefs that man is evil and you need to hammer the rules into their collective heads every week as well as have some spirituality. Buddhism does not have the capability for evil as does the more popular religions in the world because it is non-political and non-invasive. Following man is what we do out of necessity to maintain society, but that has somehow gotten into the churches, temples, and mosques of the world which creates power of man over man and power corrupts.
Philosophy is a thing discussed from a third person perspective which does no justice for a spiritual practice that is kinesthetic in its nature. Buddhism is internal action. Action implies personal involvement and therefore can't be philisophical for the given individual. Chrisitanity, Islam, and Judaism has tons of third person speculation which shows that Buddhism is far less of a "philosophy" than the popular religions of the world. People don't live or enact philosophy, they discuss it. Try going to a place of meditation for a few hours and see how many views you get about the meanings of life or the morality of the world then compare that to your first 5 minutes at any Christian church.
There are different sects of Buddhism. Some sects deify Buddha while others are atheistic in nature. The way some followers practice Buddhism it is more of a religion while the way others follow it is is more of a philosophy.
I'd say Buddhism is more a philosophy as it is often considered as a 'way of life'. Some believe in God or prophets while others concentrate more on doing Good in their lives and promoting harmony.
