What is the connection between Buddha and the Buddhist gods?
Traditional Buddhists worshipped a pantheon of gods. How do these connect with the figure of Buddha?
The westernised version I'm familiar with elimates the old pantheon of gods.
E.g. This month's NG magazine includes a couple of 1500 year old paintings of Buddhist gods from Northern India.
I've heard of Buddhist gods and demons in ancient Tibetan shrines as well.
As others have said, Buddhism is agnostic regarding gods and deities and a belief in gods or supernatural power is not part of Buddhism.
Our Western eyes automatically see Buddhist bodhisattvas as deities. This is not surprising, since the conceptual structure of Western religion doesn't easily accommodate the spiritual expressions of other cultures.
The gods to which you refer are known in Buddhism as bodhisattvas. ("Bodhisattva" means 'enlightened existence.')
There are many bodhisattvas and each represents a particular aspect of human energy -- compassion, wisdom, action, etc. Most of us have experienced these these energy-states in daily life and we are familiar with the depth and reach of these energies.
Buddhism gives names to these energy-states (Kwan Yin for compassion, Manjusri for wisdom, etc).
Further, some Buddhist traditions represent bodhisattvas in paintings and sculpture as if they were miraculous beings. And these energies are indeed miraculous, when fully revealed through meditation practice.
But when ordinary human beings, through sincere practice, experience these miraculous energies, they still remain human.
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