Buddha's concept of God
The Buddha did have a concept of God though the definition of God was not theistic but humanistic. For the Buddha, God is only a human concept. It is the concept of perfection, in knowledge, power, and goodness; symbolized in monotheistic religion as omniscience, omnipotence, and omni-benevolence. These are the ultimate values that human beings seek, because they are born ignorant, powerless, and with a tendency to selfishness, which is evil.
Although these values are attributed to the Creator in monotheistic religion, humanistic philosophers have always questioned how such a Good Creator could create a world full of suffering and evil, or allow such things to remain in this world. Biblical religions do provide a reason for this, however, by turning the blame on the disobedience of Adam and Eve, the first humans. Yet that does not answer why there is death for other animals, or even plants and inanimate matter.
Buddhists of course do not believe in the Creation of an all-loving God. Yet Buddhists do have the concept of an “All- powerful Killer” (Vasavatti Māra). The Pali term vasavatti means all-powerful, and the term Māra means “Killer.” The term Māra also symbolizes evil, in Buddhism. Therefore Mara represents the Devil, in Buddhism. “God” and “Devil” in Buddhism refers to the “good” and “evil” within human nature. This means, power, in Buddhism, belongs to the Devil, rather than to God. God, for the Buddhist, is the personification of goodness and Wisdom, but not power. This is why the Buddhist takes refuge in the wisdom and goodness of the Buddha, rather than his power. The term “Buddha” refers to man become God (Brahmabhūto) which the actualization of the human potential to gain perfection.
Common man seeks Supernatural power to change his natural unpleasant circumstances, but the enlightened Buddhist seeks wisdom of the Buddha to change himself. The teaching of the Buddha is about changing our selves and not about changing our circumstances. Even biological evolution progressed by adapting to the environment, rather than attempting to change the environment.
“God,” for the Buddhist, is the human ideal of perfection that human beings conceive and struggle to realize through the practice of religion. Religion, therefore for the Buddhist, is the human effort to solve the problem of existence (which is death). The human being is able to transcend all human weaknesses (ignorance, powerlessness and the tendency to selfishness). From this Buddhist humanistic perspective, it was man who created God, in his own image, not vice versa.
Buddhists believe that this state of perfection is a human potential that is actualized from time to time when the human being becomes an Awakened One (a Buddha), or God become (Brahma bhūto). This actualization of the human potential is the union with God, which all religions aspire to accomplish. To unite with God, for the Buddhist, is to become God. Just as a river enters the ocean and loses its identity, so a human being loses his identity in becoming God. This is not the deification of a human being, but the evolution of the human being to a Superhuman Divine level. Such a person who has realized the ideal of perfection becomes the Anthropomorphic God of the Buddhist.