Deistic Buddhism is a contemporary form of Early Buddhism grounded in the Early Buddhist Texts. It retains Early Buddhist teachings on the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, karma, rebirth, and nirvana while updating nonessential traditional elements in light of science and psychology and augmenting its worldview with compatible insights from philosophy and other wisdom traditions.
Its philosophical account of reality holds that God is the unconditioned, nondual, ineffable, and timeless Ultimate Reality: the transcendent source of all that exists, but not a personal being who acts in history or intervenes in nature. From Ultimate Reality emanate Logos, the ordering principle; the Dyad, physical and spiritual energy; and the Cosmos, an evolving process through which consciousness develops and returns to its source.
Conscious life continues through karma and rebirth until liberation is attained. Through ethical discipline, mental cultivation, wisdom, solitude, contemplation, and the Noble Eightfold Path, practitioners purify their conduct, illuminate the mind, and move toward nirvana: the end of conditioned becoming and realization of the Unconditioned.
Deistic Buddhism treats no scripture, teacher, or tradition as infallible. It welcomes empirical and mystical experience, reason, science, and reliable testimony as avenues to truth. It is a path of personal awakening rather than a devotional religion centered on worship, miracles, or supernatural intervention.
How to become a Buddhist
The usual formal step is taking refuge in the Three Jewels: the Buddha (the awakened teacher), the Dharma (his path and teachings), and the Saṅgha (the community of those who practice the Dharma). This is often done in a short ceremony led by a monastic or Dharma teacher and commonly includes undertaking the Five Precepts. Yet refuge is fundamentally a sincere personal commitment, so it may also be undertaken privately when a teacher or Buddhist community is unavailable.
If you wish to take refuge privately, set aside a quiet moment and recite the following words slowly and sincerely. Then undertake the Five Precepts as voluntary commitments to ethical training and commit to practicing the Noble Eightfold Path in daily life.
Going for Refuge
I take refuge in the Buddha,
I take refuge in the Dharma,
I take refuge in the Saṅgha.
For the second time I take refuge in the Buddha,
for the second time I take refuge in the Dharma,
for the second time I take refuge in the Saṅgha.
For the third time I take refuge in the Buddha,
for the third time I take refuge in the Dharma,
for the third time I take refuge in the Saṅgha.
The Five Precepts
1. I undertake the precept to refrain from killing and injuring living creatures.
2. I undertake the precept to refrain from taking that which is not given.
3. I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual misconduct.
4. I undertake the precept to refrain from false and harmful speech.
5. I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicating drinks and drugs which lead to heedlessness.