________________
Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
CHAPTER IV
BUDDHISM
Buddhism is one of the atheist schools of the Indian Philosophy and it had tremedous following in the past and still it continues to have much influence in the eastern part of Asia. It disbelieves in God as well as in Ātman (Self) on various grounds; however, it is regarded as a spiritual system due to its trust in the doctrine of Karma and in moral perfection. There is no wild criticism in it on God, heaven, immortality, etc. Buddha has made his statements moderately. He was mainly occupied with the problem of the origin and nature of sorrow and with finding out the ways of its permanent cessation.' Buddha's mind was so much filled with the idea of the sufferings of human life that he was not at all interested in the purely philosophical speculations regarding cosmology and theology; he was mainly concerned with the problem of salvation.? Buddhism does not also believe in the existence of the Self. It is called a philosophy of sorrow since it has given greater emphasis on the sorrows of the worldly life and it is also nihilistic in its nature since it has developed the concept of Nirvāņa as the ideal of life.
1 Keith A, B.; Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon, p. 39.
2 Barth A.: The Religions of India, pp. 109-110. . Ā 8
For Private And Personal
