Basic Buddhism has some affinity with Western notions of humanism and rationalism. However these terms are used in a variety of contexts, with humanism associated with theistic notions on the one hand and extreme secular-materialist notions on the other. But if humanism means what it should mean, that is the primacy of the human as against the Divine, and then it conforms to the Buddhist approach.

With rationalism as the application of reason and the scientific method to investigation there is much in common. One of the basic sutra of the Buddha, the Kalama Sutra given in the Anguttara Nikaya is rightly regarded as the Buddhist charter for free inquiry.

View Our Buddha Statues Catalogue

View Our Bodhisattva Statues Catalogue

View Our Hindu God & Goddess Statues Catalogue

View Our Buddhist Ritual Items Catalogue

View Our Stupa Catalogue