Buddhism does not demand blind faith from its adherents. In Buddhism there is not, an Almighty God to be obeyed and feared. The Buddha does not believe in a cosmic potentate, omniscient and omnipresent. There are no divine revelations or divine messengers.
A Buddhist is therefore, not subservient to any higher supernatural power which controls his destinies and which arbitrarily rewards and punishes. But Buddhism recognizes the infinite latent possibilities of man and teaches that man can gain deliverance from suffering by his own efforts independent of divine help or meditating priests.
Many people think that to be a good Buddhist one must have absolutely nothing to do with the materialistic life. This is not correct. What Buddhism teaches is that while we can enjoy material comforts without going to extremes, we must also conscientiously develop the spiritual aspects of our lives. While we can enjoy sensual pleasures as laymen, we should never be unduly attached to them to the extent that they hinder our spiritual progress.
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