I don't agree to the universality of suffering. The statement that it is unequivocally true in the face of other opinions is the definition of a dogma...
Personal responsibility.... buddhism teaches that suffering is caused by our OWN desires and expectations, and that we must dedicate ourselves to taking responsibility for our own suffering.
Taken to its extreme.... if you are being tortured... your suffering is rooted in your own desire to NOT be tortured...
If you had no desire or expectation either way... your suffering would cease.
buddhist monks prove this dogma my lighting themselves on fire from time to time.
That suffering is entirely self generated is a dogmatic belief.
The eightfold path is cited as THE path to enlightenment... this is no different than Christians saying you get to heaven by doing thus and so...
In Buddhism Karma does not mean cause and effect... Karma is a magical form of moral momentum that you build up THRU your actions...
And Karma manifests as the direction you move in when you are reborn... that is... the Karmic momentum you generate in life carries thru to your next life and defines your position and challenges in that next life.
In this sense the buddhist idea of karma is functionally no different than the christian idea of heaven or hell... it is a punishment or reward meted out to you after death as consequence of your behavoir.
The idea that actions you take today will affect you tomorrow is NOT karma.
(although ever since Yoko Ono coined the term "instant karma" that is what most westerners mistakenly think karma means)
Transmigration.... you claim the eternal self is rejected... well, you are HALF right.
Buddhism CLAIMS that the goal of all living souls is to escape the wheel of life, to escape the cyclic re-birth into suffering by attaining non-being.
But you will note that, without a shred of evidence, they claim that you are reborn as many times as it takes to accomplish this task.
So it rings as disingenuous... "oh please let me achieve non-being... but not THIS time around... I get to come back THIS time, don't I?
In this sense, even though Buddhism rejects the idea of a god... it still fullfills the primary function of all religions...
it offers you a dodge around death.
Because this idea of transmigration was invented by human beings.... it is clearly a reaction to the fear of death... the horror of oblivion...
In buddhism, you are promised... as long as you fear death, as long as you desire to live, you have still not attained enlightenment and you are guaranteed to be re-born.
So its as dogmatic as it gets... the only substantive difference between buddhism and judeo-christian religions is that buddhism does not have a personal and pro-active God...
It sees all human souls as facets on the diamond of the divine.
In that sense I think its closer to the truth than god based religions... and I think its useful for folks to try and realize how much of their own suffering is self generated.... ( not ALL but a good deal)
And I think meditation and other outgrowths of buddist tradition are hugely valuable and effective at re-organizing the human mind to be more compassionate and less fearful....
All in all I would rate buddhism way way way above any god based religion in terms of its ability to actually transform human behavior for the better....
but its still grounded in dogma.
And its still a religion.
The biggest difference between taoism ( what put the "zen" in zen buddhism) and buddhism is one of attitude.
Buddhists see life as suffering.
Taoists see life as ecstatic. Even suffering is better than the nothing of oblivion...
And more... that some measure of suffering is crucial to even being able to experience joy.
The Buddhists masters couldn't wait to get off the wheel of life...
Taoists masters were the ones trying to figure out how to live forever.
I prefer taoism because of its optimism... because it sees life as the essence of everything that is.
To reject the universality of suffering is clearly to be blind . Life isn't all suffering sometimes we have good times but sometimes we have bad times . Several kinds of suffering exists mental and physical. We don't have to be a Buddhist to realize that many people in the world suffer and we eventually will suffer too if we are not suffering right now.
In buddhism is stated that our suffering and the collective suffering is caused by ignorance and attachment. Karma isn't a magical world , Karma literally means action.
Karma isn't a reward and punish system by a divine judge . The idea of karma is that negative actions produce suffering and good actions produce happiness . There is a big misconception in Buddhism by many people . Many people think that buddhism is against desire . The desire to became enlightment , the desire to help others and the desire to end suffering are examples of good desires . The most correct word to negative or ignorant desires is to act with ATTACHMENT.
Buddhists don't believe that humans have eternal souls , what we identify as an I is the sum of aggregates .
I think that you should read more about Buddhism before commenting on it because you have like many people in the nonbuddhist countries several misconceptions about it . To disagree in something is VERYGOOD but to do that we must get educated the best we can in a topic. I said this because you wrote several misconceptions on Buddhism and posted them as facts about this religion .
You said in your post that buddhists believe in eternal souls and reincarnation but in reality they don't believe in eternal souls and instead they believe in rebirth . Rebirth and reincarnation are similar but not the same thing.
You claim that karma concept in Buddhism isn't cause and effect when it is .
Buddhist and Hinduism understanding of Karma isn't necessary the same.
In Buddhism the Karma concept is cause and effect but in relation to morality and mental intention.
Buddhism is a very vast and complex subject to discuss.
