Read above quote. The only thing about me is that while I practice Buddhism, I never went deep into thinking about all these "sets of gods" and all. I do meditation and following guidelines, but I don't know...
Ah, I see. Gods are such an intricate part of most Buddhist Sects that I always ask. There are so many. Theravada is probably the least like that, though, since the original Theravada practitioners mostly just followed the Hindu pantheon or whatever gods they already worshiped. Buddhism and Hindu are both highly syncretic religions.
Oh I see. I see your earlier post that you're probably Buddhist, but atheist. Any particular reason for an answer like that? lol
No, I'm not Buddhist at all. I'm an atheist. Buddhism and atheism are not really as compatible as some western adopters purport. Gods are pretty important. The origin myth of Siddhartha even includes god and goddesses being involved in the karmic system of death and rebirth.
I say they are syncretic because both religions mix well with others. Buddhism applies the concept of karma to all beings, even divine. That means gods have to behave well too if they want to have a good rebirth. In fact, the gods came down to witness Siddhartha's birth because they could use his teachings to break the karmic cycle of birth and rebirth and achieve dharma. However, it never is really specified what gods come down, so it can be mixed liberally with pretty much any non-Abrahamic fatih.
For Hinduism, they accept multiple gods, so it's sort of a no-brainer. On top of that, some schools teach that all gods are avatars of Brahma, so it doesn't matter which god or goddess you worship, so long as you accumulate positive karma. Even the god of the Christians could be another aspect of Brahma, so it doesn't matter who you are so long as you are 'good'.
If I come off aggessive though, I apologize. I honestly have little patience for dealing with the new-age types who have never set foot in a temple and know nothing about Buddhism but adopt it as their faith because it's the hip and cool thing to do.
Oh no, I completely understand that last part about the new-age types. They're welcome to learn, but I've seen it a few times where they just had it as a "phase" sort of thing. Kinda ridiculous, but yeah.
I find it very interesting you know a good depth of this. Did you take classes or just learn of this for self-benefit? ---