Do we have any Atheist Buddhist amoung us?

I'm only slightly familiar with Buddhist ideas and I find them interesting as I do some of the Native American ideas and mythologies. I'm currently reading "The Snow Leopard" and it has again peaked my interest in learning more about Buddhism. I've always heard that it is not uncommon for Buddhist to also be atheist, I know many Buddhist schools (traditions) don't consider Śākyamuni as divine and none are monotheistic (correct?) but there does not seem to be any sect of Buddhism that is without supernatural beliefs either in the form of divinities (apparently often taken from the more ancient B'on religion) or in the form of past/future(reincarnation) lives. I can comprehend how some of the ideas of oneness and freeing yourself to see or become aware (at least momentarily) of a deeper aspect of reality might fit into an atheistic worldview but what I'd like to learn more about is how atheist Buddhist reconcile the other mystical aspects and where to learn more about that.

From what I'm reading in "The Snow Leopard" it seems Zen Buddhism is the sect that would be closet to what I'm interested in learning about but from what I've read so far that is based on the Mahayana tradition which although it includes the idea that there is no such thing as a disembodied 'soul' is much more 'mystical' in it's fundamental ideas than the Hinayana sect (which I guess is the more prevalent tradition in Tibet) but Hinayana seems more involved with a pantheon of divinities.

Anyway, I was wondering if there were some here that might help me learn more by pointing to good books or other sources or just providing some insights via personal experience.

TIA.

She'll probably check in shortly.

and the Zen koans all made perfect sense to me when I was a kid and had discovered meditation as a way to deal with the pain of undiagnosed arthritis. Yes, I was a squirrely kid.

Buddha was not divine and I don't know any sect that says he was. He said not to believe a word of it but to try the practice and find out for yourself through that practice.

Buddhism doesn't demand utter faith in reincarnation, only the admission that it is even remotely possible. It isn't what most people think it is, at any rate, more a recycling of whatever consciousness is rather than a continuation of personality or memories, although some sects do believe that individual consciousness remains separate and reincarnates as a whole.

Some sects of Buddhism recognize folk gods, but only in the same way they recognizes all other types of consciousnesses.

My advice to anyone who wants to explore it is to do the practice. The Buddhist Society of Western Australia has guided meditations online and they're a good way to get started. There's a limit to what you can understand through reading. The practice is what helps you transcend that limit and get the point.

On edit: Tibetan Buddhism is Mahayana. The Hinhayana (profane, not lesser sect) is mostly practiced around Sri Lanka. At the core of all of them is practice.

that makes sense.

But are you pulling our legs a bit with "Zen koans all made perfect sense to me" is that a koan too? lol

thanks again.

Pay no attention to the nonsense that associated itself later on in Taoist history. But the ideas in the Tao Te Ching bare looking at a bit. No gods needed either.

:)

Just looking to learn more about actual practices.

Same with the Hua Hu Ching,widely accepted as being written by the same author.

They may not seem like a much but they are very profound but subtle lessons on how to live in balance with the cosmos.

Taoism is probably more in line with what you are looking for.No belief in dieties is required.Also,belief in a deity is not forbidden either.Religous practices are,for the most part,held to be an altogether different activity from the spiritual practice of taoism..

IMO a lot of the mumbo-jumbo (like reincarnation) it is associated with is merely the result of the cultural environment it developed in. I agree with pretty much everything Warpy said. IMO thinking of the Eastern meditative tradition as "religious" is an insulting disservice to it; I consider it a very interesting and thought-provoking perspective on our inner mental life and fits quite well with what I've read about the working of the brain.

I remember hearing about a story about a neuroscientist that had a stroke and that during her stroke she would often go into a blissful, ego-less state she affectionately called "lala-land" as a result of the language centers of her brain shuting off. It struck me as fitting very well with Buddhist conceptions of our "monkey mind" and it's language-based mental narratives and how these mental narratives create a false sense of the existance of a coherent self. The Indian neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran has also talked about this same stuff. It's all incredibly interesting.

I've been thinking about this lately as well. Mostly only interested in the meditation aspect.

Thanks to Warpy for this site: http://www.bswa.org/

The Pali Canon, one of the earliest canons of Buddhist teachings, has a lot of references to the Vedic gods. There are several stories telling that the gods also are caught up in the cycle of life and death, and are as much prisoners of the material world as humans. One of the Buddha's first sermons was to Brahma and a few dozen of his associates.

However, the Buddha taught that worship and veneration of the gods was an attachment, just like any other. The gods should be respected in the same way one would respect a king, and nothing more.

I don't respect "kings" ;)

But I get the point :)

books. Makes me think and take a deep breath when things get crunchy.
A few days ago a co-worker commented on my 5 inch Buddha statue on the shelf in my cube.
Told him the above and that I was just your garden variety atheist.
He replied that Buddhism at least gives you common sense things to use in your real daily life.

I feel it is important to understand Hinduism, because Shakyamuni was a reformer. He kept the concepts of karma, dharma and reincarnation and got rid of the many gods.

Buddhism does not talk about god, although it talks about spirits. So it could be considered atheist.

Asian religions are far more interesting to me than the abrahamic ones. I am sick of hearing people that get in my face about Jesus.

In Theravada Buddhism (Hinayana) one is urged to strive for enlightenment and reach nirvana.

In Mahayana Buddhism, one is urged to become enlightened, and stay behind on earth in order to help other beings become enlightened. Kwan Yin is the Bodhisattva of Compassion. So I think that compassion is behind the morality of any valuable religion -- putting yourself in another's shoes and helping them in some way.