Over recent times, many people were curious to understand if Sunya is a religion or if it was promoting Buddhism. How do you define a religion? For me, I consider three things when I deem a text to be religious. First, there must be a Father or a Supreme Being. Second, there must be a Supreme Abode or the Kingdom of God. Finally, there must be few practices and rituals for you to qualify as a follower or believer of that religion.
The only thing closest to God is the theory of the Soul. Buddhists are said to not believe in the soul.
Buddha often stated that there is a Supreme Consciousness that filters through time and space. Many religions claim that God created this world. But according to Buddha, this world is the manifestation of the Supreme Consciousness. However, he avoided giving a name to the consciousness. He also said that every human can have only one Father but many teachers. He described himself as a teacher rather than a Father. Because of this, many people accused Buddha of being an atheist even though many of his followers were whole-hearted believers of other religions and he never
influenced or stood in anyone’s way.
The only thing closest to God is the theory of the Soul. Buddhists are said to not believe in the soul. In fact, during a conversation between a Buddhist and a Hindu, the latter maintained that their religions were alike. Nevertheless, the Buddhist contradicted his statement and said that they are not the same because Hindus believe in the soul or aatma. This goes to show that nowadays Buddhists are misinterpreting the teachings of Buddha. We need to define what a soul is or is meant to be. As mentioned earlier, Buddha stated that we are the manifestation of the supreme consciousness. Our soul is the element of our body that is key during our reincarnation at the kingdom of God. Our body and consciousness can never be uncoupled.
Supreme Consciousness spans over time, space and worldly manifestations. It only occupies a tiny spec of our lives. The practice of Sunya is categorized into three distinct levels:
- The first level is to harmonize your mind and body.
- The advanced level is to synchronize your mind and body with the
environment. This is to attain prosperity. - The supreme level is to mesh and integrate your consciousness with the
supreme consciousness.
Buddha originally avoided giving a name to supreme consciousness as his disciples were from different background and religions. God never asked you to worship his name, he asked to follow his teachings and rituals. Even in religious texts like the Bible, Upanishad and Quran, it is clearly stated that the preachers and followers should not worship the Lord’s name but follow his teachings. In the Upanishad, it is mentioned that you should do your duty and follow your karma and not irrationally worship the name or nameless, as well as the form or formless.
In Sunya, we never preach any name or form and we do not worship to any God. That preference is totally up to you. It is the basic right of every Sunyatee to worship a god or not. We shall not interfere. This just proves how Sunya is far from a religion.