Tibetan Buddhism is not a fusion of Hinduism and Bon

by Alex Yewa, Portugal, The Buddhist Channel, Oct 7, 2005

I think it is important to correct a wrong piece of information found in a recently published article on your channel (Re: The Kagyu Sect: Tibetan Buddhism struggling with exile and feuding).

In the first paragraph itself, there are some seriously wrong information. It was mentioned that "Tibetan Buddhism is a fusion of Buddhism with the ancient, animistic religions of the rooftop of the world: Bon and Hinduism."

Buddhism nor Tibetan Buddhism is not a "fusion" of anything. Buddhism comes from the teachings of the Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha.

I think it is important to put a note of such origin on this article, since many people may have that misguided notion that Buddhism comes from Hinduism, or that Tibetan Buddhism is an off shoot of Bon Tradition. It is important to make it clear that buddhism comes from the Buddha, it is Buddha's teachings.

As buddhists, we have a lot of respect for all religions who teaches peace and who extols one to live a life of calm, lending hand towards building a more peaceful world. However, we cannot allow this misguided idea to fester, that the teachings of the Buddha are some kind of mix fusion or simplified version of Hindu or anything else.

Buddhism is buddhism. And where does it come from? It comes from a Buddha mind, it comes from a Buddha expression of freedom. I hope to see more accurate publication of such information in the future.