Ya I don’t think of it at a religion either much . People kinda made it into a religion which I don’t think was Buddha’s intentions . Buddha himself never mentioned chants and bells and recantation and all that other stuff . But the messages dilivered has helped me drastically

But recantation and karma was never mentioned by Buddha . People kinda mixed that in there and in my opinion that has no business being mentioned in Buddhism

I agree many Buddhist do believe in the law of karma however Buddhism does t require u agree 100 percent with them to be considered Buddhist. Actually Buddha himself never said a dam thing about karma . So how’d it become mixed in ? Just people added that in there along the way . And as for no tolorence of other beliefs . Buddhism never teaches violence over beliefs again that’s just ignorent people

@DavidDeLa89 I could argue that the Bible never says anything about the trinity but the majority of Christians accept that as a cornerstone of Christianity so religions evolve. Having said that though, I don't know if you know who Richard Francis Gombrich is, but he is an Indologist and scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli, and Buddhist Studies. He said: The Buddha defined karma as intention; whether the intention manifested itself in physical, vocal or mental form, it was the intention alone which had a moral character: good, bad or neutral. As he is a scholar I'll take him as an expert and ask you to study up a bit more before saying the Buddha never said a damn thing about karma.

Not to shure where u went to go visit but worship ??? Buddhism never worships anything . They wanted your money ?? Again wonder where the heck u went . Rituals ? Ya some schools do them and I have not a reason why becus Buddha never said anything about ritual

@DavidDeLa89 Exactly! I go China, Thailand, and Japan for work, I can tell that ritual abounds, is given before supplication.
In Thailand they ritually bath their Buddha statue and dress him in Seasonal clothing. Put out food and candy and objects at their little corner temples. Oh yeah.
I don't understand it, but I saw enough,
I still have my Buddha statue in my garden...well...because I live in the bible belt. But alas,,he gets no bath and remains unadorned!

@FlyingGodess lmao . That’s just there way of showing respect to the Buddha . As far as offerings go some Buddhist belive in spirits and so on so they may leave offerings to show peace to the spirits . Buddha left that up for u to decide whether u believe in it or not . It isn’t required . But again ya all the Buddhist kinda add spiritual stuff with it . I guess I just follow much of the philosophy but don’t get into that ritual type of stuff .

I totally agree. After spending 2 months in Thailand and visiting many many temples and watching the Buddhist worship, pray, bow down to living and dead monks, asking for money at all the temples it becomes obvious that it’s just another mind game.

Ya the same here .