A question that I was suprised I didn't know the answer to. Such an obvious first question I would have thought. any one?
I understand that he was a theist in his first few incarnations, after which he began to have doubts.. As he once said to his disciple: " Brethern, have I said there is a god, have I said there is no god ? "
buddha believed in the self, which is the same as god. later he didn't believe in the self anymore, because he became the self, so the self didn't exist anymore.
He was Hindu, so he probably believed that the hindu god/gods existed. However, he felt that the gods were subject to the same problems as humans were. He wasn't concerned with them, though. The Buddha didn't want to create a religion. Buddhism was originally intended to be a philosophy of life and the self, and people turned it into a religion.
I don't believe he actually did hold onto any divinity. In fact, one of his main teachings was to let go of earthly desires.
God or gods are a different concept in Buddhism. Anyone can aspire to become a god. Except for his own. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deva_(Buddhism)
Yes, i do like the notion of being your own god. My beliefs are that we can see ourselves as gods, creating our own realities, so long as we all give up a little of this to constitute a single mind unit. The God, in which all other gods come from.
