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Can somebody please help me?
I dont know what to do. I want to learn more about buddhism. i'm very interested in it, but i know virtually nothing about it. i dont know where to start!! any suggestions?
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Comments
Here's the thread : Beginner's info
Boy, that is a loaded question. An excellent site is www.buddhanet.net which has tons of articles and ebooks. A really easy place to start there is in General Buddhism "Good Question, Good Answer" or "Foundations of Buddhism". These are shorter ebooks that give general information.
For a tad more humorous look at Buddhism, "The Accidental Buddhist" by Dinty Moore is great. One of the first books I picked up as it was about a man who wanted to know if there was a distinctly American Buddhism.
For a Theravadan approach "What the Buddha Taught" by Walpola Rahula is very good! I really liked this book as he simplifies things so anyone can understand it.
For a Mahayan approach, "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching" is very good. We are doing a study on it here in a thread. We all have gotten something out of it.
For a more overall approach "The Idiot's Guide to Understanding Buddhism" is good. But you can't understand it just by reading it. LOL!
Hope this helps.
regards
Darryl
Its sort of a Girl's Buddhism Beginners guide.
Now I'm a Guy. But I started reading this thing and found it to be simply wonderful. This Nicole Beland has a unique way of describing things like the Four Noble Truths & the Eight-fold Path with simplistic clarity of today's Western world.
She covers a whole-range of topics, Like Meditation, Mini-Meditations, Buddhist principles applied to Dating, a collection of different websites to help you on your journey, A short history of Tibet and the Current Dalai Lama, Buddhist teachings applied to Work, Buddhist teachings in regard to Sex, a glossary.
Plus shes really funny. The book is broken into small subsections and really easy to follow and understand. Also, its not a large book. Its only 157 pages.
I'm really enjoying it. Here's an excerpt that got me to buy it.
"Buddha taught that the only way to know anything for sure was to experience it for yourself. So he advised students to put his ideas to the test before deciding if they were true. As for far-out questions such as where all life comes from or what happens when we die, his standpoint was that while they were fine subjects to ruminate on, getting all riled up over the unknowable is no way to free ourselves from suffering and enjoy life from moment to moment. For those who are looking for a straightforward, no-bullshit approach to happiness, Buddhism is one big breath of fresh air."
Nicole Beland - Girl Seeks Bliss
The First Noble Truth is that life is suffering. Of course, that doesn't mean that it's nonstop suffering, but essentially life (what Buddhists call samsara) produces no lasting happiness. You can get married, be happy for years, but eventually you're going to die. You can get rich and think you're happy, but then you start craving even more. There's never any lasting happiness in samsara. Any happiness we manage to attain is impermanent, and this produces a feeling of dissatisfaction that never really goes away.
The Second Noble Truth is that there is a cause of suffering. This cause is desire. Desire arises from the deluded notion of "self" and "other". This distinction only exists in our minds. There really is no distinction, but we believe there is. When you think there is "self" and "other", then by definition you don't have everything, so you desire what you don't have. This then leads to suffering because in reality we can never get everything we desire.
The Third Noble Truth is that there is an end to suffering. If suffering arises from desire, then the way to end suffering is to end desire. Sounds simple, sure, but it is, of course, very difficult to do.
That's where the Fourth Noble Truth comes in. There is a method that can lead us to the extinction of desire and the attainment of true perfect happiness which doesn't end, not even with death. This Path is what Lord Buddha taught the rest of his life and which we as Buddhists practice.
I hope this helps you on your way, Kristina.
Palzang
It's a beggining of a very exciting self-discovering journey.
Maybe you would like to read books by Ajahn Brahm and Ven Chondron.
There are other many good ones too.
Do a search on the internet with these two names, and you should be able to find something valuable.
Awesome.
btw, Ajahn Brahn (a British-Australian) will be in Singapore for a public dialog on
1. Karma, Evolution and Intelligent Design.
2. What happens after death?
If you happen to be in SG. It will be very interesting to attend this.
cheers.
Best place to start!
In hapchong with deep bow,
Jerry aka Jerbear
They'll introduce you to Buddhist ideas.
Lots of good suggestions here. My standbys for newbies (of which I'm definitely still one) are:
1. Buddhism for Dummies - it sounds silly, but it's actually a very good book for a big overview
2. Buddhism Plain & Simple by Steve Hagen. Small and easy to read, but full of good info.
As was pointed out, the best place to start is at the beginning. And the very beginning in Buddhism is the Four Noble Truths. Those lead to the Noble Eightfold Path. That's the foundation upon which all Buddhist practice is built. All the rest of the lineages, sects, teachings, robes, incense, statues, paintings, mandalas, beads, etc, etc, etc is man-made and extraneous (to my way of thinking) to those basic foundations. It's very (very) easy to get overwhelmed with all the man-made stuff. So for now, just concentrate on those basic things.
Also, meditation is VERY important. It should be the basis of your practice. A good book I recommend is Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn. There are lots of others, but I especially like that one. Diligent (i.e.: EVERY day) meditation practice is one of the keys. Even if it's boring. Even if you feel like you're going to explode if you sit there one more second. Even if your mind races off in a million directions (which I absolutely *guarantee* it will do), keep at it. Diligence. If you miss a day or two, don't bust your own chops. Just go back at it. You'll find if you go into it without pre-concieved notions of what it should or shouldn't do for you, and without any particular expectations of what it should or shouldn't do for you, that it just might do some amazing things for you. The Kabat-Zinn book is excellent for this.
Best of luck with whatever you choose to do. You've taken the first step on the path!