What makes someone a Buddhist?

I have to admit, this one’s my fault because I went on Reddit, where internet trolls and gatekeepers of all sorts decided to let me know in no uncertain terms on the r/buddhism subreddit, that I am not a “real Buddhist.”

The reasoning? First, I said that the Fifth Precept, “Refrain from intoxicants” is not an outright commandment against drinking that while some monastics do adhere strictly, that the precept isn’t totally about abstinence.

In short, I said that from a Buddhist perspective, there’s nothing inherently wrong with drinking alcohol. The fifth precept isn’t a prohibition—it’s about avoiding intoxicants that cloud the mind. The key question isn’t “Is alcohol bad?” but rather “Am I using this to escape reality, or am I being mindful about it?”

Now, this was with the knowledge that not all Buddhists agree, some schools of Buddhism will have varying views.

Yet, because I said this isn’t a commandment, in the Christianity sense, I was told I am not a real Buddhist because I view Buddhism secularly and if you’re a secular Buddhist, you’re not a real Buddhist.

So that got me thinking, what makes a “real Buddhist”? Well, as luck with have it, this came up in my Temple recently. I won’t repeat what took place at the Temple as a lot of it was a conversation with someone else and it’s not mine to share, but I want to share what I took away from the conversation on how it applies to me personally.

I was told because I am secular, I cannot be Buddhist because that means I reject all metaphysical or supernatural claims. They even went as far to tell me that I believed that the Buddha never even made those claims. So let’s explore.

I do believe the Buddha believed in karma, and rebirth. Everyone at his time believed in rebirth for sure. It would be kind of weird if he didn’t. But simply because he accepted it doesn’t make it true, and he was clear that we should only accept what we have evidence for and can experience. I have already written on rebirth, so I won’t say more here.

Belief in these types of claims does not define one’s Buddhism, and saying otherwise is a weird form of gatekeeping that says more about the person saying it than myself.

Yet, it does raise a question worth answering which is, if I am not worried about my rebirth or my karma, then what is it that makes me a Buddhist? The answer is pure and simple though, because it’s the core of the Buddha’s teachings that I am drawn to and what I believe makes me a Buddhist.

I want to end all suffering for myself and for all sentient beings, and I believe the way to do that is through the path and practice laid out by the Buddha. While I don’t necessarily believe in Bodhisattvas as living beings in the same way many in the Mahayana tradition do, I believe in them and the idea of bodhicitta as aspirations we should all strive towards. Every morning before I sit for my daily practice, I take refuge, I have a small home altar, and as I said before, though it’s a lay temple, I attend weekly and even volunteer as a host

If someone wishes to gate keep this belief to the extreme that says following that means I am not a Buddhist, so be it, but as we discussed in the Temple, Buddhist, unlike other religions doesn’t have a conversion. Truly the only person who can decide if you’re a Buddhist or not is you, yourself. At a minimum, I would suggest that believing the core teachings of The Four Noble Truth, and The Noble Eightfold Path, and learning the dharma, would likely be good starting place to consider yourself a Buddhist, only because if you reject those ideas, I am not sure what you get out of Buddhism. While I do think there are some important parts of being a Buddhist, such as what I wrote about the dharma and it being partisan, I think Buddhism leaves a lot of space for a lot of belief systems to fit inside of it.

If your goal, like mine, is to reduce and or eliminate suffering for all sentient beings, then why would i want to push you away simply because you don’t accept every single aspect of what I believe or don’t? Isn’t that exactly the kind of dogmatism that the Buddha was trying to avoid?