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Main article: God in Buddhism In Buddhism\Buddhist mythology, devas are beings inhabiting certain happily placed worlds of Buddhist cosmology. These beings are mortal (being part of saṃsāra), numerous, and are respected but not worshipped; it is also common for Yidams to be called deities, although the nature of Yidams are distinct from what is normally meant by the term. The Buddhist Madhyamaka argue strongly against the existence of a reificating creator or essential being (such as Brahman). Some Prasangikas hold that even the conventional existence of an essential being is a non-existent, whereas others consider that the conventional existence of such a being is an existent. Some modern Buddhists, especially in the west, believe that deities exist in the same manner that elves or unicorns do – as an archetypal consensual entity that serves a symbolic purpose in the popular imagination. Though this may seem a rather weak basis of existence for some, as many Buddhists (such as the Yogacara) deny any objective existence (of e.g. a chair), and many more deny any sort of essential existence of phenomena at all, the distinction between the existence and non-existence of consensual entities is important to Buddhist philosophy. |
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