I feel like Buddhism as an organized religion has corrupted the original intentions of Siddartha as much as any other religion. Generally, Buddhists haven’t been responsible for nearly as much death or intolerance when compared to Western religions, but the ritualization, celebration of festivals, and dogmatization of certain beliefs and practices corrupts the spirit of the religion as originally intended. People of all faiths need to realize that whatever was originally said and meant by their messiah (or prophet, or God, etc.), their religion as it exists today is a far cry from it, even if it tried to stay as true as possible. Keep in mind that this is coming from a non-practitioner, who holds no religious beliefs…but I have studied Buddhism (briefly) and found a lot in it that I respect and admire, even if I don’t subscribe to its view of the cosmos and religious beliefs.
I’m kind of rambling, I think all I’m trying to say is, in every religion, there is a core belief or ideal that has some good and truth to it, whether or not you buy its view of the universe, but the religions as they are practiced today, with all the rituals and dogmas are perverted (in the sense of changed, not necessarily to the point of being wholly without benefit) from this core.
