Today, it is in vogue to study various oriental practices, teachings and religions, which hide many secrets of the universe. Buddhism, which preaches love, meaningfulness, the growth of consciousness, and so on, is considered a particularly popular trend. However, some people do not understand which category it belongs to - religion or philosophy.
Philosophical direction
Buddhism may well be attributed to philosophy, since its teaching is a logical and complete worldview. At the same time, it cannot be considered just a philosophy, since this direction explains the essence of various phenomena only at the formal level of concepts and words. Buddhism, on the other hand, embraces the entire human essence as a whole - and not only at the level of the intellect, but also at the level of the emotional, subconscious and sensory spheres.
The philosophy of Buddhism, like its practice, has as its goal the clarification of thoughts and the irreversible positive transformation of the personality. In addition, Buddhism allows you to gain an understanding of the essence of many phenomena that occur both in the human mind and in the world around him.
Due to the fact that following the precepts of Buddhism transforms people, some consider it to be one of the varieties of psychology. However, Buddhism begins where psychology ends - it can be practiced exclusively by psychologically stable people who have come close to perceiving the world around them as a friendly, not threatening environment. Based on such a spiritual state of a person, Buddhism helps to develop boundless love for all that exists, as well as joy, the ability to be content with little and other qualities that are originally inherent in the spiritual sphere of a person.
Religion
As for the religious component of Buddhism, it has quite little in common with the Chinese and Japanese monotheistic religions, therefore, it is completely wrong to consider it as a given direction. Buddhism is devoid of traditional religious attributes in the form of a creator God, sin, dogmas, scripture, and so on.
However, outwardly, it really resembles religion - however, exclusively due to the ritualism that has arisen in it over the past centuries. Thus, Buddhism can be considered a religion of experience, which can lead to understanding and enlightenment, however, after studying the influence on a person of a particular practice. By the way, the application of Buddhism in everyday life allows you to give it a sense of meaningfulness and constant growth.
The end result of Buddhist practice is the attainment of complete enlightenment or the so-called Buddhahood - in other words, spiritual perfection beyond physical or intellectual goals. In fact, Buddhism, which has 2,560 years of experience, combines a logical philosophical view of things and psychological methods with a powerful transformative force, the quintessence of which allows you to maximize the impersonal state of mind and soul.
