Buddhism is as much what it is as what it is not. Like any other religion, it has largely been propagated as a method of keeping people happy in life. With my view of religion out of the way, the following is the first half of my response to http://factoidz.com/what-is-buddhism/
In response to your first paragraph. Buddhist will hardly define their belief or that they are a Buddhist for one reason. Buddhism teaches that the physical world is illusion, not a delusion. This illusion means that ‘I’ do not exist, ‘you’ do not exist. What does exist, cannot be defined and as such should not be defined. For that reason no Buddhist exists as a Buddhist in order to claim to be a Buddhist. They won’t ever define what you ask because it can only be experienced by realizing and understanding the illusion.
In response to your second paragraph. Buddhism as a philosophy and in it’s early incarnations have no belief in metaphysical beings and the Buddha actually warned against metaphysical speculation. The idea being that it only clouds and furthers the illusion. The Buddhist can be said to believe that all of existence is both a multitude and a unity. Some sects of Buddhism do believe in different levels of enlightenment. But, most all understand that each of us is enlightened, it is only temporally in which we are not.
In response to your third paragraph… I can say very little as it is very confusing. But, I think you are trying to say that Buddhism is not a sound philosophical idea in either it’s physical conception or its metaphysical conception? Excuse me if I’m wrong in assuming that you doubt its physical conception? Denying physics to the realm of metaphysics tends to displace peoples comfort. It is an assumption of causality that we believe our senses as either a complete lack of faith or with faith that what has previously resulted as true will continue. Without that assumption I doubt very much that we have reason to believe there is a necessity to the physical world.
In response to your fourth paragraph. Liturgy in itself is defined as conveying Christian connotations… What do you mean by Buddhism has physical exercises, but no physical demands? A Buddhist within the Sangha or order of monks follows very strict ascetic practices. The most common physical activity to all Buddhists is some form of meditation. But, I digress as I don’t know what you meant.
