Author – Dr Amritpal Kaur What we call a religion today is the remains of what once was a complete civilization. Buddhism emerged as a non-religious philosophy, as a hope for a better way of life by reorganizing society. As the time passed the basic structure of events that created the original plan got diluted with local mystical ideologies and degenerated from a philosophy to religion i.e a system of spiritual beliefs in relation to a supernatural entity. Emily Durkheim (a French sociologist who formally established the academic discipline of sociology and along with Karl Marx and Max Weber is considered as the principal architect of modern social science) ran into difficulty in his attempt to confine Buddhism in the established definition of religion and finally accepted that early Buddhism cannot be covered by any established definition of religion. Buddha was not a religious reformer or innovator but was an opponent or critic of religion who had no intention of finding yet another example of what he criticized. He was not the type of recluse who only concerned himself with his personal emancipation but the one who actively involved himself in the social and political world of his time. He … Continue reading Social and Political Revolutionary Potential of Buddhism