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What brought you to Buddhism?
Shoshin
No one in particularNowhere Special Veteran
What brought you to Buddhism?
In other words what 'karmic' events (happenings in your life) lead you to the Dharma ?
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Thanks for sharing!
I took up yoga and meditation upon medical advice. Became intrigued with the history of it all, and started reading.
You're welcome Crusty
Catastrophic karmic events chewed me up and spat me out and I landed on the Dharma...
Usual story... shit happened, hit rock bottom, clutching at straws, started to question everything, felt that I had nothing to lose (which ironically turned out to be right) then it was upwards and onwards....
So the nutshell censured version of events "A Life Crises"...
Learned about it in a college class on world religions. Required class I would not have taken otherwise.
I often wonder how many Westerners entered Buddhism via meditation and mental health reasons ie, stress, depression, anxiety, etc .....
Extensive travel in Thailand, including a family sharing Buddhist traditions with me.
Spoiler alert...I don't know anymore!
As each karmic event is examined, subtler preceding ones can be found.
Even when pining down ones life, as a subjective qualifier for karma's possible starting impetus, it simply becomes less definable the closer you look at it.
Perhaps it's not really much different than the question that the Buddha sidestepped when asked "where did karma start from?" by simply saying that such an answer simply had nothing to do with suffering's cessation.
Dabbling in substances and reading "Be here now" by that old hippy.
^^^ good answer. When did it start?
I blame the Buddha (good job Dude).
Apart from sharing thanks ... and you thought my first post in this thread was a josh ... tsk tsk ... mmm ...
I would say it was the clarity, meditation and emphasis on enlightenment.
I am not in the dharma business for Nothing ... eh wait ... I am not even sure I have been brought to somewhere known as Buddhism.
It might be more accurate to say I am under the dharma tree picking cherries to share ...
Thanks for sharing!
By accident I watched a documentary about Siddhartha- after a while (like 3 days) I found myself closing my eyes and felt a relief on my well being. I never look the same thing about suffering. Best of all - I NO LONGER BLAME GOD. lol.
I guess in the ultimate nutshell sense, "ignorance" that is not 'knowing' ( which includes not understanding the intricate workings of karma ) brought all us 'sense of selves' to explore Buddhism....
But in the 'conventional' sense (that is from one sense of self to another) "What brought you to Buddhism?"
I think it was 1980, London Buddhist Centre. I've been addicted to meditation ever since, the doctors can't do nuffink to 'elp, still I suppose the National 'Elf Service can't help everyone particularly with an ageing Buddhist population....
Me too, pretty much. Him, Watts, Ginsberg, Leary, Huxley... Fun times.
Except I didn't find out about them until around 1989.
Practice didn't get serious until around 2000 or so when the initial buzz started to wear off.
Don't know anymore.
maybe the colour of my favourite shirt? 
A raft.
Dukkha
And then I went to the library to research various eastern religious traditions and came across some guy killing a cat and another guy putting a shoe on his head.
Began to take an interest as a child of 12yrs. I remember doing a project at school about the various beliefs, religions etc. Buddhism was the one that struck a chord.
Really, as far back as I can remember I was questioning the nature of existence and the world.
It was only a matter of time.
I can still trace it all back to my Dad telling me to save him the hole in my doughnut.
@SpinyNorman sed '...still I suppose the National 'Elf Service can't help everyone particularly with an ageing Buddhist population....'
Cool...I'd always wanted to meet a real life Elf!
A cyber friend tricked me into joining a non-duality forum, got interested in it and later learned that Buddhism is a non-duality thingy...hit the library, searched the 'net, found books about it that were very helpful in coping with my son's death, and discovered that it was a very satisfying 'religion'.
Finally honestly questioning everything I believed, or had been told to believe. Which led me to seek for something that made more sense that a god who would send you to hell for not believing exactly as one is told to believe, or a god who could only forgive mankind by killing a son of his own. The more I thought of it, the less sense it made. So I go searching, and one day come across buddanet. And finally, found something that made sense to me. Not a gods fault for what happens to me, its mine. And that was a sticking point for me, the emphasis on personal responsibility. Only you can save you.
No karmic events. The logic of it appealed to me. As a kid, I thought belief in a Supreme Deity, the bearded guy in the sky, etc., was an odd type of adult make-believe. Buddhism didn't have that. It made a lot more sense: the 4 Noble Truths, and the 8-fold Path. It appealed instantly.
Actually, I got curious about Buddhism by reading a book by a militant atheist. While Sam Harris excoriated just about every religion, he had a good bit of praise for Buddhism and its meditation practices. Following up on that led me to a local Tibetan sangha, and then to refuge vows.
long story. But in short I encountered writings that were meaningful to me even at an early age. not all Buddhist or directed from a particular lineage. Then when the shit really hit the fan and I had my first psychotic break I got pretty serious about it as hoping for relief. It all seemed to work out. The qualities I needed to be serious and inquisitive came out as in I didn't just say 'this is lame' or that is to say that I had some quality to persist.
in short I prioritized my dharma experience ahead of other things and it stayed in my life.
Suffering
I read the word Buddhism on the internet.
I was relapsing into Schizophrenia and was searching for a way to help calm my mind down so like @Rodrigo suffering. I like what I found and have stuck with meditation for four years long after I recovered from my psychotic episode.
It was my mother's fault. She MADE me do it.
Suffering.
Life, mostly. Looking for a connection other people seemed so comforted by but I could not embrace. Turns out I didn't need what I was seeking but found something much better. At the same time, my oldest son (was 13? at the time) took an interest as well and so I found some beginner books to read to help explain it to him. Went from there. Found this place not long after and lucked out that a teacher monk visited my tiny hometown and we formed a Sangha with his guidance.
What brought me to Buddhism?
The realization that Dukkha is what it is and will never change, but it is up to me to change my attitude about it.
And Buddhadharma simply presented me with the best recipe to learn acceptance and equanimity, the key elements to grapple with dukkha.
I just want to grow the #$@^ up.
I'm hoping to prevent that at all costs, in all manner of ways.....
But I get your point.
'Child-like' does NOT equal 'childISH'.....
Thanks for understanding
.
While serving in the US Army I was stationed near Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. There was a place that we used to run (see: large hill) that had the ruins of an old Buddhist monastery. Despite everything (relaxing military running), I felt a great sense of peace there. When I got out, I bought my statue of the Buddha at a local Target store. It is just a tea light holder, but, it makes me happy.
I staggered through life from 2002-2008 (when I quit drinking). Still kept my statue around. Finally, in 2015, I attended my second PTSD inpatient treatment and was introduced to mindfulness exercises. Through that, I found a way to help myself. That also caused me to start reading and beginning to practice.
So, here I am, about 3 months in. Life is getting better.
Had fairly serious social anxiety disorder 5-6 years ago. When I went to therapy, I was basically led through what I now know to be mindfulness and visualization exercises, and was taught basic samatha and vipassana meditation to relax myself and confront my anxiety respectively.
It wasn't until a few years later that I read Huston Smith's "The World's Religions" in an attempt to find some spiritual nutrition that Buddhism struck a chord with me, and I realized that what had helped me get out of my social anxiety was derived from Buddhist meditation.
I was pretty sold after that.
I have a stummering and it's been very hard to deal with, because any social event for me is difficult. Use to drink/smoke/eat all my frustrations and I became more and more insecure about every aspect of my life. Between December 2013 and February 2014 I experienced the most difficult and dark episode of my life. I hit rock bottom, and the whack was hard: I knew that I need to make some changes in my life, because I didn't wanted to live again that torment.
Then I made the changes and in July 2014 I went to visit an uncle of mine who follows Buddhist ideas and had a very deep conversation that changed my entire perception of life: he opened my mind.
Nowadays I still have to deal with the stummering. But if one time was considered like the evil itself, now I can work with it and have another perspective about it. Anyway, it's not a bed of roses, but I have the courage and the weapons to face fear and pain.
So, suffering bring me to Buddhism.
"I" never want to grow the #$@^ up....
Even if we may have all powers of this world , we can not control our happiness without mastering own mind. And i was always reluctant to believe God therefore it brought me near to try to practice Buddhism .
I hit rock bottom a couple of years back and to get some relief I started meditating and exercising. I never went very deep into the dogma of Buddhism.
Later I read some books by Tolstoy and that completely changed my perspective on Christianity. From then on I got more interested in religion and spiritually.
In therapy, a lot of advice seemed to point to Buddhist practice (meditation, "observe your thoughts", etc). And after watching a few videos by Eckhart Tolle, I started to get a hunch that there's something more to Buddhism than I thought at first.
Every now and then I watch documentaries and lectures on Buddhism and I try to keep practicing meditation, but yeah, that's where I'm at right now.
I blame Superman.
Guys, it is very interesting to read your stories and the direct relationship to Dukkha.
For me however, one inspiration was a friends brother who bought imported superhero comics, which were third hand lent to me. Ah to save people from disaster, Lex Luther types and other calamities. To be a superhero. Surely this is just an eight year olds heroic Bodhisattva?
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it is a Mahayanist ...
after smoking weed for many many years i got lost, and then I found Buddhism.
Hey a fellow Koreanite! About 30 years ago I was stationed at a little communications site near Osan. While I had been introduced to Zen Buddhism a few years before while stationed in Florida, I was determined to at least continue a solitary practice. Instead while exploring one day I found a little shrine on a nearby mountain where an old monk lived. I was meditating in front of the Buddha statue when the old monk sat down and joined me. When I was ready to leave, it turned out he spoke English very well (he was a translator for US forces during the Korean war) and when I explained I was new at this he told me to show up there on my days off and he'd teach me what he could.
My hippie parents planted the first seeds.
I had all sorts of profound thoughts while I was smoking weed but could never remember them the next day...
I know the feeling. As a lonely geeky kid I lived in a fantasy world of my superheros. The biggest feeling of betrayal came when our nation openly tortured Muslims after 9-11. Up until then, I'd believed in "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" and thought America felt the same. Superman doesn't kill and America doesn't torture! Period! No weazel justifications! No, "Well they deserve it!"
Turned out there is no American way, only people doing what people always do. That, I think, was my final lesson learned that people are people everywhere, always have been, and always will be bless their hearts.
That's fantastic! I was at Camp Castle, a tiny little blip near Camp Casey! I loved Korea and am hoping to go back as soon as possible.
If you get a chance next time you're there, make the trip to see the Suekgarum Buddha, a wonderful ancient statue inside a small cave that faces the East. Stay at an inn at the town and arrange to be taken up there along with other pilgrims to see the sunrise spear in and light it up. One of my spiritual experiences.
It would seem that the potential for learning is ever-present and when a person is ready to learn, they will be able to find that potential.
As the following proverb highlights......
"When the student is ready-the teacher will appear !"
...I assume you're all wondering why I have gathered you here.
It's time to kill superman!