What the Buddha taught, in his own words, was “Suffering, and the end of suffering.” He had no intention of establishing a religion, nor of teaching philosophy, cosmology, and metaphysics, and he said so repeatedly.

As it turns out, though, the end of suffering involves a kind of wisdom that encompasses both the nature of human experience, and the ultimate nature of reality. And the end of suffering, the nature of human experience, and the ultimate nature of reality are key issues in religion, philosophy, cosmology and metaphysics. Thus there was no way for him to guide people towards the end of suffering without broaching topics associated with all those domains. As a result, beginning even before he died, people have been turning his wisdom teachings into religions, and have used them as the foundation for a variety of philosophies, cosmologies, and metaphysical descriptions of reality.

Culadasa (John Yates, Ph.D) is the author of the widely acclaimed meditation guide "The Mind Illuminated".