Did Buddha claim divinity ?

It is all about personal belief. Buddha knew that we must follow our own mind.
Buddha himself said:

"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense"

 

Source?

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he claimed to be greater than gods in a way. i remember reading a phrase in a buddhist book "and the gods trembled in the heavens after buddha reminded them that everything is impermanent"

i've read the same thing somewhere.

 

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Hi Dru,

Buddha did not call himself a god, and he didn't call himself a Buddha either, because he was in the living world at the time. While he was alive, He referred to himself as a Tathagata (the one who has opened his eye completely to the world).

He didn't teach people that they should meditate by sitting down and not thinking anything. The danger of practicing this sort of meditation is that it is really practicing the way to abandon yourself. So it makes you open to other's consciousness which are roaming around in the air. Sometimes we call a consciousness which does not have its own body as a spirit or a god. If a spirit enters your body, your consciousness can pick up the activities which have been latent in the spirit from the past. This is probably why you saw the vision you had. In certain cases when people make contact with spirits if the person does not have a strong will then they can be suppressed entirely and this makes the result that they are controlled by what the spirit wants rather than with a view of their own problems.

On the other hand, the teaching which Buddha gave to human beings is that they should observe themselves and try to confirm the truth of what they heard, and when they find out they should allow themselves to accept the reality only. This teaching is helpful to human beings because it's possible for one to be successful when they have knowledge of what exists. But If they don't ever find out what a particular thing is, then they don't know what result they can obtain through that thing... and as a result they don't know through what thing they can get what they really want. In short, Buddha gave people the way to save themselves, but meditation has not been able to be as helpful to human's life because it lacks any way to do that.

This is simply my own understanding.... but I hope it can be helpful in answering your question..

Thanks,
Paul.

 

i've read this:
"'Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense'
-buddha"

before

 

Okay then ... I don't believe the Buddha said this.

No matter how many many times you find it on the Internet, I don't believe it unless you can find it in either the Theravada or Mahayana texts and show it to me.

Source?

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Just as jesus was claimed to be the son of god, so may have buddha NOT claimed to be divine.

as fallable as any work of man, the bible, the theravada/ mahayana, the torah, yada yada yada

 

omnipotence would be analogous to having a completely open perspective....the spirits agreed on that, test it an see

So...to say you are completely aware is to say you are a god. I think all buddha ment was that what he had done was not something only he could do

 

Actually in zen the practice of empty mind is much like this.Don't think of it as not thinking anything or as idleness but as reaching the Great Void.

 

Whether he said this or not isn't the point.
I believe he did.
Search it anywhere online. You'll find it quoted in well-known quote sites to sites of buddhist scholars. Investigate and learn is what the buddha taught.Here is a link-http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/b/buddha122706.html
Why wouldn't he say that? Just because we don't have specific quotes from ancient texts from two of the three schools of Buddhism doesn't mean he didn't say it.Buddhist scholars agree that buddhism and Buddha's teachings has important points of Free-Thought and Agnosticism in it.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freethought
That article has a nice part about Buddhist freethought.
also
Buddha did not claim divinity-he said he was enlightened and that we all have buddha-nature, we all can become enlightened.
I suppose you are complying with the quote after all by not wanting to believe that he said the quote about not believing what anybody says.
Namaste.

 

but thats religious devotion to a text...

 

You got that part right anyway ...

No where in any of the texts written by the [then living] Buddha's students has he ever said, "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense". A search of the Internet suggests it was in the Dhammapada, but on searching the original pali text that particular passage is nowhere to be found.

And lostminty is right about four of the seven words in his reply, "devotion to a text." Not what the Buddha intended, but having crossed a river does one carry the boat around with them. At some point I will HAVE to loose this "devotion to text."

Anyone can become enlightened, even without having to practice Buddhism. The teachings of the Buddha are for those who don't know how to do just that. There was no Buddhism during the time of Sidartha Gotama, and he became enlightened.

However, until I know absolutely for sure that the Buddha said, "we all have Buddha-nature", I'm declining on believing he said this also.

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I understand,thank you for your conversation,friend.

 

the word Buddha itself means, "the enlighten one" in Sanskrit. buddha himself never believed in being idolized for he was not preaching/teaching a religion, but more so a philosophy of living. i don't remember which doctrine, but he did allure to a "higher being" outside of himself. also, can't remember what the god's name, but an indian god did try to distract buddha from reaching full enlightenment.