To be fair there is a lot of mysticism in many branches of Buddhism. Buddhism is a fairly syncretic religion. Since it neither affirms nor denies any gods or dogmas, that makes it fairly easy to meld Buddhism with whatever beliefs you already have. Indeed, people have been doing so for thousands of years. That’s part of the reason why there are such widely varying schools of Buddhism – from Tibetan, which is highly mystical, to Zen, which, in contrast, is pretty atheistic.
The core of Buddhism, however, is simple, and is found in the Four Noble Truths and the Nobel Eightfold Path.
The Four Nobel Truths are that
– Life involves suffering
– Suffering has a cause
– Cessation of suffering is possible
– Through practicing the Noble Eightfold Path.
The Noble Eightfold Path is practiced through
– Right view
– Right intention
– Right speech
– Right action
– Right livelihood
– Right effort
– Right mindfulness
– Right concentration
No, of course, countless volumes have been written about what, exactly, each part of the Noble Eightfold Path means. But there’s no rigid dogma there that applies to everyone across the board, as many religions are wont to do. For example, Right livelihood would mean not being in an occupation that by necessity involves the suffering of other beings. Being a butcher, for instance, would be an example of such an occupation. However, this does not mean that working as a butcher is sinful (Buddhism has no concept of sin), or that no one should works as a butcher. It simply means that working as a butcher is not conductive to the cessation of suffering.