Sometimes it takes years - but then I begin to get it. 'It' in this case is how people can use Buddhist methods, but keep their own religion. I have friends who do this, and I've never gone into it in depth with them because it just didn't make sense to me - and I didn't want to insult or offend them. And I read occasionally of the priest who is also a Zen teacher, and the like.
Well, this past Wednesday during a discussion group about religion, one of the members asked, "Is Buddhism a religion?" I fielded the question and replied that it all depends on how you define religion. There are no omnipotent deities in Buddhism - nothing parallel to the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition. So if you define religion as the worship of God, then, no, Buddhism is not that. But if you look at the role it plays in the life of many or most Buddhists, it does exactly what religion does in the life of a Christian, Jew, or Moslem. It provides an explanation of reality; it gives some sort of access to what is numinous, divine, or holy; it is a refuge for those who are troubled; and so on. Moreover, it is the only such system that Buddhists have - that is, they generally don't have any other religion. In other words, if Buddhism is not a religion, then those people who are Buddhist have to be thought of as having no religion whatsoever. That doesn't really make sense. That is the position I've always taken.
However, it's finally clear to me that for some people who explicitly or implicitly hold that religion is the worship of God, then Buddhism is not a religion. Its meditation techniques are handled in the same way that yoga exercises are - as something available to anyone who desires to use them without any requirement of spiritual commitment to the tradition in which they are embedded.
In fact this is a mistaken view of yoga, let alone Buddhist forms of meditations - well, it is mistaken according to my view. However, I begin to understand how people can hold this view.
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