Hi Yalunda

Great questions
I’ve read a great deal about Buddhism and haven’t found a definitive answer to the question ‘What is Buddhsim’. Is it a religion a  philosophy, a practice…?

Buddhist teachings challenges the practitioner to confront the problem of opposites and doing so a realization of the opposites devolving into each other where language becomes unhelpful.  Take the following form Allan Watts

Imagine you’re climbing a mountain path that will lead you to a paradise where all your needs are met and your questions answered. What do you find when you reach the top? A mirror. This is the great cosmic game, reveals Alan Watts—that everything you’re seeking through meditation, self-improvement, or spiritual practice is always hiding inside of you. You’re It!

Watts will latter laugh and let you know your not that either.

In the Tibetan book of the dead when you confront the gods the gods are holding a mirror and so you confront yourself which isn’t you… The gods a reflection of you and you  a reflections of them. You are It! The question of “believing in God” dissolves

I come from a Christion up bringing where God is often thought of as a Being. At least that language used appears to suggest that God is a Being that lives somewhere above watching, judging, rewarding, punishing.

If in my opinion one looks at the teaching closer one realizes it is a error to relate to God as a Being. That the words used to point to the experience of G_d are transparent to the transcendent. In the Jewish traditions the name of G_d is not spoken. In Islam making a image of God is forbidden. In early Christianity a  practice of unsaying everything said about G_d. Words and images define and G_d cannot be defined.  Every wisdom tradition confronting its practitioner with the problem of duality, the problem of opposites. One does not “believe in G_d” but experiences G_d in all things. The All, the Void, Oum.. silence.