Buddhism beliefs – the core belief in Buddhism is not the conventional belief in a God that we find in other religions, but instead a more psychological practice of experiencing our true nature or essence. However, if we look up the word ‘God’ in a dictionary we can find that it means “ultimate reality” and as such the Buddhist practice of enlightenment is not far from other religions in that our true nature, or soul, is also the ultimate nature of reality.  

In India teachings on enlightenment have been passed on for thousands of years even before Buddhism and the Buddhism religion. The Bhagavadagita, which builds on a religious tradition more than 4.000 years old explains about enlightenment, and building on this tradition, the (last) Buddha is known as the greatest teacher of enlightenment of all time.

While the Buddha set out to help people out of their suffering the tool or method to reach a state of liberation from suffering is enlightenment and as such enlightenment is the heart of Buddhism. It is said that the heart of what the Buddha taught and all of his 84,000 teachings can all be condensed into one line: “Recognize your essence.”

Now, to recognize our essence or true self is in fact very similar to the highest wisdom of ancient Greece: “Know Thyself.” Even in the Bible we find references to God’s nature being “I AM” and if we translate “spirit” in Holy Spirit or Spirit of God from Greek into English we find that it means: “soul,” “mind” or “consciousness.”

Therefore, it is no wonder that some enlightened teachers of Buddhism tell us that Buddhism is not a religion but a universal truth as a universal state of being. Our true nature, essence, soul or I AM is a universal state that is beyond any religion or organization because this state of being simply is: I AM.

As such a pure form of Buddhism focuses solely on the pure state of enlightenment - I AM - and this universal state of being simply is – IT IS – and as such, the state exists independent of any religion or organization.