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Hello from someone interested in Buddhism
Hello all,
I'm new to Buddhism and while I wouldn't consider myself a Buddhist quite yet, I'm certainly interested in learning more about it.
First a little back story. I was raised Christian. Growing up, I always questioned what was being taught. I remember in 4th grade asking my Sunday School teacher, "How do we know we're right.." Well, that didn't go over too well.
When I turned 18, I also left the church and for the past 12 years have considered myself agnostic or atheist. One reason is I'm a full believer in Science.
About a month ago I started meditating. I've always had trouble concentrating at school/work, and have had conversations with people or read a chapter in a book without knowing what was said or what I read. This lead me to Buddhism. I starting reading about it and realized how much it fit within my belief system.
So where do I go from here? I read that finding a teacher is the best practice. Unfortunately, I'm 4 hours away from the nearest center so for right now, that's out of the question. Any good books I could read? Any advice from any of you?
Lastly, I curious on your views on reincarnation or possible a good reading on the subject. Like I said, I've been atheist for the past decade and find it hard to believe that reincarnation could exist, especially since I don't believe in a "god" or "creator." I realize that not all Buddhist believe in reincarnation, but I'm still curious in everyone's point of view, as I try to form my own.
Sorry for the long post. I look forward to chatting with you guys in the future.
I'm new to Buddhism and while I wouldn't consider myself a Buddhist quite yet, I'm certainly interested in learning more about it.
First a little back story. I was raised Christian. Growing up, I always questioned what was being taught. I remember in 4th grade asking my Sunday School teacher, "How do we know we're right.." Well, that didn't go over too well.
When I turned 18, I also left the church and for the past 12 years have considered myself agnostic or atheist. One reason is I'm a full believer in Science.
About a month ago I started meditating. I've always had trouble concentrating at school/work, and have had conversations with people or read a chapter in a book without knowing what was said or what I read. This lead me to Buddhism. I starting reading about it and realized how much it fit within my belief system.
So where do I go from here? I read that finding a teacher is the best practice. Unfortunately, I'm 4 hours away from the nearest center so for right now, that's out of the question. Any good books I could read? Any advice from any of you?
Lastly, I curious on your views on reincarnation or possible a good reading on the subject. Like I said, I've been atheist for the past decade and find it hard to believe that reincarnation could exist, especially since I don't believe in a "god" or "creator." I realize that not all Buddhist believe in reincarnation, but I'm still curious in everyone's point of view, as I try to form my own.
Sorry for the long post. I look forward to chatting with you guys in the future.
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Comments
Quite a number of buddhists do believe in reincarnation and so forth. I think it will only be stressful if you want to change others or if you feel you *should* believe in reincarnation or something.
In my opinion there is no buddhism without eventually meditating.
Welcome to the forum, I hope you find some of what you're looking for here. I hope we can help.
Glad to have you here among us.
At the risk of of undermining AJnast4r's fine contribution( Ajnast4r I tip my hat to you. :thumbsup: ) I would like to suggest a couple of websites online which have numerous e-books which would cover just about every aspect of buddhism you could ask for. If you haven't perused them already they are:
buddhanet.net (look in the e-book library)
and
AccesstoInsight.org
As far as I'm aware, the info on both sites is completely free, and therefore is only dependent on your willingness to look through them for topics that interest you.
While there is some give-and-take on reincarnation as a possibility here. I have always thought that rebirth(reincarnation if you will) is just simple recycling with a karmic component added.
That said, though, the subject can get rather complex and sometimes spawns rather heated discussions on here so be aware.
Best wishes to you.
Nanimo
:om:
I generally suggest starting out simple and focusing on observing the precepts to the best of your ability and developing a consistent meditation practice. I also like to point people to Access to Insight, which is a fairly large and reliable source of information.
As for my views about rebirth, you can find some of them here and here.
And definitely thanks for the ebooks and links to the sites.I'll be checking those out.