Im grappling with this because Im a materialist athiest but I find alot of the axioms on how to live a life in buddhism to be extremely beneficial for me. mindfulness and the 8 fold path have always intrigued me and recently as I have gotten into guided mindfulness more (which often have many buddhist inspirations for obvious reasoms) I find myself trying to anchor myself and detach so to speak from things that bring me suffering etc.
my issues is the spiritual aspect which isn’t for me but i dont want to be rude or disrespectful. ive read alot online i cant just take a buffet style buddhism or whatever and i am stuck in this middle where i can’t help what I believe but i also want to share the peace the parts of buddhism have helped me.
idk if this is nonsense but i thought itd be nice to have a sounding board while I ponder this
In theory, yes. In practice, there seems to be quite a bit of it for the average non-western lay practitioner.
A difference similar to a Jesuit Theologian talking about the World and Jesus as both an emanation of the divine Logos versus some chud in America paying to the Virgin Mary to make them rich.
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Yes.
My general impression, both from reading and talking with Thai friends and from admittedly limited personal experience of Buddhist institutions in Thailand is that there is substantial integration of both the remnants of Mahayana Buddhism as well as Hindu and Folk traditions into day to day religious life and belief, especially in rural regions.
But that could be misinterpretation, or that other religious concepts are repurposed as representations of Theravada concepts and I'm just not getting it.