Buddhism

=== Classification ===
There is consensus among [[religious studies]] scholars that Buddhism is a religion.<ref name="Goble 2019 p. ">{{cite book | last=Goble | first=Geoffrey C. | title=The History of Buddhism | publisher=ABC-CLIO | date=2019-10-11 | isbn=978-1-4408-6404-9 | chapter=Buddhism is Not a Religion}}</ref> However, Buddhism has posed problems to Western scholars of religion who define religion based solely on a "theistic conception".<ref name="Herbrechtsmeier 1993 p. 1">{{cite journal | last=Herbrechtsmeier | first=William | title=Buddhism and the Definition of Religion: One More Time | journal=Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | volume=32 | issue=1 | date=1993 | pages=1–18 | doi=10.2307/1386910 | jstor=1386910 }}</ref><ref name="Lion's Roar">{{Cite web |title=Is Buddhism a religion, philosophy, way of life, or science of mind? |author= |work=Lion's Roar |date= |access-date=16 February 2024 |url= https://www.lionsroar.com/is-buddhism-a-religion-philosophy-way-of-life-or-science-of-mind/}}</ref> Further, some [[Western Buddhism|Western Buddhist]]s and commentators like [[Alan Watts]] maintain that Buddhism does not constitute a religion but rather a philosophy, a [[psychotherapy]], or a [[Practical philosophy|way of life]].{{sfn | van der Velde | 2014 | p=22}}<ref name="Aich 2013 p. 165">{{cite journal | last=Aich | first=Tapas Kumar | title=Buddha philosophy and western psychology | journal=Indian Journal of Psychiatry | volume=55 | issue=6 | date=2013 | pages=S165-70 | issn=0019-5545 | pmid=23858249 | pmc=3705677 | doi=10.4103/0019-5545.105517 | doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Lion's Roar"/> This conception is rooted in 19th century [[Orientalism|orientalist]] writers, such as [[Theosophy|theosophist]] [[Henry Steel Olcott]], which reinterpreted Buddhism in a [[Protestantism|Protestant]] lens and viewed Buddhism in Asia as representing a debased religious form of what was originally non-religious and rational.<ref>{{Unbulleted list citebundle|{{harvnb|Southwold|1978 |pp=362–379}}: "From Olcott's catechism grew the tradition of Buddhist ambivalence (if not outright hostility) toward the concept of religion, but his catechism had a religious origin in Olcott's own liberal Protestant Christian background. He took his challenge to be one of purifying Buddhism by returning to the fundamental teaching of the founder as recorded in its authoritative scriptures. The teaching he found in these texts had much in common with the liberal Protestantism of the late nineteenth century. It was opposed to 'superstitious' practices, suspicious of miracles and the supernatural, and respectful of the canons of reason."|{{harvnb|Stewart|2018}}: "The view that Buddhism is a 'philosophy' and 'not a religion' is a prime example of nineteenth-century Orientalist scholarship entering into the Western public consciousness that persists even now [...] [b]ut such a view is overly reductionist."|{{harvnb|van der Velde|2014|pp=30–31}}: "What was practice in 19th and early 20th century Asia was often considered aberrational, a perversion of what was once a pure practice. The purity of this practice was supposedly lost once Buddhism changed into the religion it now was in Asia. The original dharma could be reconstructed if the teachings were liberated from the 'cultural' and 'local' Asian context [...] In fact, our perception of Buddhism is still colored by these presuppositions."}}</ref> Some Buddhist teachers and commentators, such as {{em|Dharmavidya}} David Brazier, have criticized the persistence of this view.<ref name="Brazier Brazier 2015 h916">{{cite web | last=Brazier | first=Dharmavidya David | title=It Needs Saying: Buddhism is a Religion | website=Tricycle: The Buddhist Review | date=2015-05-30 | url=https://tricycle.org/article/buddhism-is-a-religion/ | access-date=2024-02-07}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Why Are We Surprised When Buddhists Are Violent? |author=Dan Arnold and Alicia Turner |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2018 |access-date=16 February 2024 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/opinion/buddhists-violence-tolerance.html }}</ref> Among Buddhists in [[Sri Lanka]], Buddhism is parallel to [[Hinduism]], [[Islam]], and [[Christianity]] as an {{em|āgama}},{{sfn|Southwold|1978|p=363}} literally "scripture" or "teaching".<ref>See [[Āgama (Buddhism)]]</ref>