Buddhism - religion, tradition, philosophy or way of life?

It depends on what definition of the word religion one prefers to use. In a certain sense ateism is a religion too, it offers a concept, even a dogma which is denying god without offering any sufficient evidence of his nonexistence.

In a broad sense Buddhism is a religion due to a necessity to classify everything, because it helps sort things out without needing to understand them, so it would be quite confusing to say "we have christianity and islam that are religions and buddhism that is a tradition". However being the oldest one of the three biggest religions in the world, Buddhism also makes quite a difference compared to them. It is based on personal experience and not on faith, there is no god in buddhism, Buddha himself denied existence of a creator, he encouraged people to think in a way and have a lifestyle that would help them become more conscious and aware of what's going on around them, to better understand themselves in order to find a way to a happier existence.

So, buddhism is basically a life philosophy. It does not offer a descritpion of reality, deos not explain how things appeared and the meaning of the universe, what most of the other religions do. Just at some point it gained too many followers and turned into a cult. And where there is cult there is worship and fanatism. Later on many phylosophical schools that based their teachings on buddhas teachings strated deifying him and developed a whole bunch of other good and shitty concepts. But just because people tend to turn things into shit doesn't mean that the original concept is shit, it might be worth of looking into it .

There are different directions to follow in buddhism. For someone who is lost in life, needs emotional guidance and discipline, and would like to engage into spiritual practice, I'd suggest buddhist tradition rather than any other known religion. It is difficult to practice buddhist tradition in western society though, unless you are just curious and nothing more, which isn't bad by any means, it'll help you to organize yourself mentally and physically. But if you want spiritual and philosophical experience of a high level, you'd have to visit motherlands of buddhism, spend sometime in a monastery and change your daily schedule completely. No matter how hard you practice concentration, it's just not the same experience - meditation in your room with your parents talking behind the walls and cars running outside, and meditation in a such kind of place http://www.kodaiji.com/e_index.html . eventually you'd have to become a monk

You can start from practicing zazen (sitting meditation), waking up and going to sleep with the sun, switch to rice, sea-food and boiled vegetables, no salt or sugar, just herbs and soy sauce if the food is tasteless for you in the beginning, in a little while your taste will start to change along with your mind and perception . You should always feel a bit hungry (not starving, just never feel full after food). Hunger is a moving factor for a human, it motivates you to act by appealing to our ancient survival instinct. It also helps to overcome conceptual intellectual way of thinking, since that way of thinking according to eastern tradition does not benefit your mind. You should be looking into clearing your mind from all kind of concepts and prejudice, thus getting closer to realization of impermanence - there is no permanent yourself, existing independently of everything else, everything changes momentarily, influencing everything, generating further changes, eventually ending up in the form of sand and rocks. Nothing is more or less important than anything else, nothing is bigger or smaller than anything else as there is no need for comparison. You are supposed to learn to be an observer without being a reflector. You should be able to look at everything in the same way, because nothing is important and everything is and shit like that, which is supposed to lead you to a condition of never getting disappointed, depressed or any other negativity, because you don't get excited in the first place and you are not attached to anything, so you are not afraid to lose. (including your health, teeth, hair, your family and your own life). And the middle way, which is hard to understand, but is important as it supposed to carry you in your life journey, like a river carries a leaf, without unnecessary struggles and goals. Because no-matter whether you just float like a leaf or struggle - the end is one, so you might as well just let yourself enjoy it. Following the middle way is about not being serious, but not joking; neither being afraid nor desperate. It is assumed you will be able to follow the middle way, once you start using your consciousness and instincts, hence overcome critical thinking, hence get enlightened

Spiritual practice also includes heavy physical work, martial-arts and playing some musical instrument

here is something for shit and giggles

http://www.do-not-zzz.com/

and

http://www.do-not-zzz.com/zero/swf/top.html


I also met someone who probably overpracticed zen-buddhism and had a unique conspiracy theory. He was convinced that east wants to establish control over the west, by using mind control techniques, so they pick western individuals, strong in mind and body, in their mid ages to turn them into eastern mentality, so that they could spend the second half of their lives living east, thus becoming so-called people-bridges, the ones, possessing both western structured mentality with critical thinking and eastern indifferent, hard to manipulate mentality, and could easily switch inbetween them, in order to develop a new tradition- teaching, that would allow to raise humans with both mentalities from the very beginning. O_o

all of the above mostly concerns zen-buddhist tradition, there is much more to the subject of buddhism to explore

good luck on your way to enlightenment