Buddhism concentrates on human lives. It discusses on suffering (Dukkha) and how to get rid of it so as to achieve happiness (Nirvana) in human lives. It emphasis on the training of mind. Since Buddhism analyzes on human problems in depth and can lift the root of trouble out, it is often described as “one of the most effect mental therapies” in the world. Over the decades, people have been arguing whether Buddhism is a religion or a philosophy. Some belive that Buddhism is a philosophy rather than religion because it is not theistic while some argue that it is a religion because people have faith and worship in it. Sue Hamilton, a professor of Prehistory in University College London points out that it is just the western people who try hard to distinguish it. People in India, especially when Siddh?rtha, the Gautama Buddha was alive, believed that philosophy and religion were inter-related and interdependent practices in order to understand the meaning and structure of life and the nature of reality. 3 Therefore, Buddhism is both the religion and the philosophy. This essay aims to discuss about the reason of Buddhism being the religion and philosophy simultaneously. Buddhism is a philosophy because it pays emphasis on human effort to achieve a good life and it is realistic. According to Stephen J. Laumakis, philosophy refers to human experience and reality being reasonably explained, or a way of life focusing on “an organized body of knowledge." Therefore, when Buddhism is said to be a philosophy, Buddhism should be about reasoning and knowledge about human lives, not blind faith and worship. These can be seen in the human as the director of life, dukkha as the start of life and the concept of no-soul. In the first aspect, the Buddha rejects the belief that he himself as the omniscient God or the founder of religion. He sees himself as a teacher or a doctor and his teachings as medicine. The Buddha believes in self-effort, will power of oneself rather than blind worship to achieve the final goal, Nirvana. For example, when Ganaka Moggallana asked Buddha whether following his instructions would ultimately achieve Nirvana, the Buddha responded that one must practice industriously by themselves and not to rely on anyone. 6 Besides, the Buddha has also mentioned that his teachings (Dharma) are not constituted due to blind faith. What Buddha focuses are “seeing, knowing and understanding” by ourselves. 7 They are rational and demand for reasons. Therefore, there is no salvation by simply believing in Buddha and the problems appearing in lives are not caused by anyone but our own self. Buddhism is a philosophy that tells people to have self-awareness that they have power and strength to decide and build their lives. Buddhism states that life starts with suffering (Dukkha) and this is an in-depth observation and realistic thought in which can help human deal with their problems. When human encounter problem, people usually hide away from it because the problem is undesirable and challenging. However, Buddhism believes that we must face it so as to avoid the problem being out of control. Besides, dukkha is created by human and happens in everyone’s life. Hence, nobody can escape from it and we must solve the problem by ourselves. The Buddha gives us guidances with the Four Noble Path. It talks about the 1) suffering (dukkha) as the first noble truth and is developed into three aspects, including ordinary suffering, produced by changes and conditioned states, 2) origin (samudaya) as the second noble truth and tells people that suffering arises due to desire, craving and attachment, 3) ending (nirodha) as the third noble truth and introduces the way to stop suffering is to eliminate and stop desiring and craving and 4) the path to enlightenment (ma?rga) as the last noble truth and reveals the eightfold path to end human suffering. As a result, the Buddhist teaching is a problem solving method that helps people analyze and understand why they have trouble, how to get rid of it in a bid to achieve happiness. The teachings are not the dogma but the true analysis on the realities of human life. For example, in the ma?rga aspect, the Buddha teaches human the eightfold path as the middle way “between two extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification”9 because the Buddha does not want people to idle their lives, nor does he want people to go too extreme and painful to themselves. Apart from this, the ma?rga aspect strongly emphasizes on self-dev