Is Buddhism a religion?

Many people might have this question in their mind. Is Buddhism a religion? Can people who follow other religion practice Buddhism ? Is Buddhism a Philosophy? How can we explain Buddhism as? Is Buddhism about monks wearing orange robe, venerating, bowing to Buddha?

Buddhism can be explained in different levels. We can see it as a philosophy, as a way of life or as religion. Many years ago when Buddhism prosper, practises or regulations was created for peaceful environment for monks who have to live together. Even though there were no successor appointed in the past by Lord Buddha, there were head monks and abbot of the temple. These kind of formulation made Buddhism a religion. When a group of people live together and practised activities together, that made a formalism and later became a religion. These formalism was made with the intention to make people able to live and avoid Chaotic environment, be able to focus on the teachings about way of life and philosophy.

In Buddhist way of life we have to follow 3 paths, first is stop doing bad things, second is start doing positive things and third is purify your mind. Once you follow them you are already following buddhist way of life and it will help you to understand the philosophy and its terms. You can view Buddhism in different levels but you have to understand the context.

There are lots of people following Buddhist way of life with different religion. Buddhism teaches us to live a simple way of life and help you better yourself everyday. It teaches us how to bring peace in yourself in daily hustle. Buddhism teaches us from basic habit to better yourself everyday to train our mind to ease our suffering.