A short list of five very common misconceptions about Buddhism
"Buddha is a god"
Buddha is not another name for god like Yahweh or Alah. Answering the question who or what a Buddha exactly is, isn't that easy because it depends on the viewpoint.
For some Buddhist traditions, the Buddha was simply a historical person, i.e. a
human being who reached spiritual insight through meditative practice. For
others, the Buddha has transcended the state of an ordinary human being and
possesses special powers. Still, he isn’t considered a god, but rather forms a
category of his own.
It's even more complicated: Buddhism does not deny the existence of gods altogether. Buddhists
believe that one can take rebirth as a god, but it is not the goal of
Buddhist practice which is to pass beyond the endless cycle of rebirths.
"Karma means fate"
Karma is no
synonym for fate or predetermination in Buddhism. The Sanskrit term simply
means actions and describes the natural law of causality, i.e. that any action will
trigger off a specific effect. It is therefore often called "the law of karma,
cause and effect". While it is explained that any karmic action will inevitably
lead to a corresponding result, not everything that occurs is believed to have
been caused by karma alone. A great deal of what happens is said to depend on
conditions as well.
