The Buddha as compared to God

A common misconception among non-Buddhists is that the Buddha is the Buddhist counterpart to "God." Buddhism however, is in general non-theistic, in the sense of not teaching the existence of a supreme creator god (see God in Buddhism) or depending on any supreme being for enlightenment. The Buddha is a guide and teacher who points the way to enlightenment, however the struggle for enlightenment is one's own. The commonly accepted definition of the term "God" is of a being who rules and created the universe (see creation myth). In Buddhism, the supreme origin and creator of the universe is not a god, but rather causes and conditions obscured by time. However, certain Mahayana sutras (such as the Nirvana Sutra and the Lotus Sutra) and especially such tantras as the Kunjed Gyalpo Tantra give expression to a vision of the Buddha as the omnipresent, all-knowing, liberative essence and deathless Reality of all things, and thus, to some extent, this conception of the Buddha draws close to pantheistic conceptions of godhead, yet it differs in that in the Mahayana tradition, anyone can become a Buddha, as compared to general theistic religions in which it is generally considered impossible to become a god or God. Also, Indonesian Buddhism declares its belief in God, in accordance with the Indonesian constitution.