Buddhism in China and why did you come to Buddhism?

suopohe

Don't be fooled by the statistic that most people are Buddhist in Asia. Many of people said they beleive in Buddha yet they have no interest whatsoever to learn about the teaching of Buddha and practicing them. Their words don't match their actions. For many Asian ,Buddhism is not as a spiritual practice but as part of the cultural tradition. My sisters criticized me being superstitious and getting "too deep" in Buddhism. From the village I came from, people used meat as an offering to Buddha/Bodhisattva during holiday and used meat as offering for the dead relative. This is against the teaching of Buddha. By using meat as offering to the dead relative, it increase deceased's bad karma and suffering.

Many people in China now are turning to Christianity because they think all the good thing happened in the western world because of Christianity and ignore the bad things that happened. They also blame that Buddhism destroyed countries(because of war). Those people envy the powerful and blame the less powerful. In my view, westerners are more aligned with Buddha's teaching of no killing/philanthropy than Asian. Asian eats all kind of animals and many poor people kill the animal with their own hands. It's a shame to indulge into the sense of taste which last only a few seconds every bite. In the west, people eat less species of animal and don't kill the animal themselves.When some heard Warren Buffet gave billions to charity, they think he did it because so he can benefit from the taxation.

I started to get into the teaching of Buddha after a tragic family event couple years ago. It taught me a lesson of anger as a bystander. After that, I stopped many of my bad habits that against Buddhism and my life is going in the right direction. It became less stressful and peaceful because of the teaching I learned. Now I have a purpose in life other than the accumulation of material things and indulge in desires. I heard many atheist suddenly got into Buddhism after they realized Buddha's teaching of suffering is true. It's like someone smack on you head and said" wake up!". If they live an abundant and happy life, it's very tough for them to get into Buddhism.Buddha said the prosperous one is not easy to bring forth the resolve for Tao or Bodhi.

So why did you come to Buddhism? Thanks.

Jeffrey

I had a lot of trouble in highschool with depression and awkwardness. So I tried to improve myself by exerting effort. For example I thought my shoulders looked slumped so I remembered to put them back, but I was kind of tight about it.

Later I was kind of a stoner nerd and had friends who I could be myself with and the mental attitude was like more just being myself.

So I found a resonance with that sort of 'being different' in taoism tao te ching. In college I had an arts ease/west class and a Chinese culture class.

Fast forward to graduate school where I had a psychotic break and I went back to buddhism. I was so depressed that I couldn't focus on reading my mail at times and I constantly worried. So I started meditating like 10 minutes and right when I stood up I always felt a relief and connectedness. That sort of anchored me.

So that was my start. And the concepts made a lot of sense to me and were a better way to work with my mind than the extremes of shoulder lifting and stonerism although in their way both of those were sensitive responses to what I needed at the time.

weighted

Suffering brought me to Buddhism, and it all makes complete sense to me: the four noble truths, the five precepts, metta, meditation. It has been integrated into my life now in a very short time, and I still am suffering but in a less chaotic and fragmented sort of way. I have my practice to thank for that.

vinlyn

To the OP: I would suggest that we trust people to self-identify themselves with whatever religious beliefs they have. Some may be more into the religion of choice than others, but that is up to them to determine.

ThailandTom

OPer, you are correct about Asians and the way the vast majority take their religion. But the same happens in the UK, but I would suggest that it is worse. In the UK the national religion is of course Christianty, but hardly anybody goes to church, believes a word of the bible or anything related to it for that matter. In Thailand buddhism is mostly seen as a form of good luck, it is intergrated into their culture in a big way but it is built around a lot of superstition. Often I guess you could take the word luck and change it with karma by what they mean and say here.

What brought me to buddhism, well many causes i guess. I do not remember one specific moment where I was one minute an atheist and the next a buddhist, it was rather gradual. It happened before I moved to Thailand, I guess years of suffering, drug abuse of crazy proportions and general dissatisfaction with life started the wheel rolling. I believe you need to experience some kind of profound suffering in most cases to get to such a relization. Anyway, one night I was with my housemate smoking weed and watching Tv like we did every night, then a movie came on. It began and we were both really high so decided to leave it on. It was 'spring summer autum winter' a buddhist movie. Even though it had no english diologue and few words at that, it captivated me.

I then started doing some research into it and then gave myself that big old label that some people often do at the start, I AM A BUDDHIST I then became very unhappy with the way my country was being run, the people in it, the culture and other slightly more trivial factors. So 4 months before the end of my degree I simply googled what countries have the highest percentage of buddhists. Sri lanka and thailand came up as the top 2. I had never ben to Asia and knew very little about it. I used the rest of my student loan and grant to buy myself and one friend a ticket and that was that

Dakini

Don't be fooled by the statistic that most people are Buddhist in Asia. Many of people said they beleive in Buddha yet they have no interest whatsoever to learn about the teaching of Buddha and practicing them. Their words don't match their actions. For many Asian ,Buddhism is not as a spiritual practice but as part of the cultural tradition.

Thank you, suopohe! I posted an observation similar to this a little while ago, and got into trouble! But this is the simple reality. Many people who consider themselves Christian don't really study or understand the details of Christianity, either. They say they're Christian because they live in a Christian culture.

I came to Buddhism because when I was a child, the Christian tradition--belief in God, and Jesus as the son of God, angels, and all that, seemed like adult make-believe. It didn't make sense to me. I was lucky, and learned about Buddhism in class. I loved the logic of it, and the sense of personal responsibility. I've been hooked ever since.

jll

I came to Buddhism bcos I was suffering and I was looking for answers.

I can speak from personal experience, there is too much
superstition in 'Buddhism' and too many 'Buddhists' who know very little
about what Buddha taught.

Don't be fooled by the statistic that most people are Buddhist in Asia. Many of people said they beleive in Buddha yet they have no interest whatsoever to learn about the teaching of Buddha and practicing them. Their words don't match their actions. For many Asian ,Buddhism is not as a spiritual practice but as part of the cultural tradition. My sisters criticized me being superstitious and getting "too deep" in Buddhism. From the village I came from, people used meat as an offering to Buddha/Bodhisattva during holiday and used meat as offering for the dead relative. This is against the teaching of Buddha. By using meat as offering to the dead relative, it increase deceased's bad karma and suffering.

Many people in China now are turning to Christianity because they think all the good thing happened in the western world because of Christianity and ignore the bad things that happened. They also blame that Buddhism destroyed countries(because of war). Those people envy the powerful and blame the less powerful. In my view, westerners are more aligned with Buddha's teaching of no killing/philanthropy than Asian. Asian eats all kind of animals and many poor people kill the animal with their own hands. It's a shame to indulge into the sense of taste which last only a few seconds every bite. In the west, people eat less species of animal and don't kill the animal themselves.When some heard Warren Buffet gave billions to charity, they think he did it because so he can benefit from the taxation.

I started to get into the teaching of Buddha after a tragic family event couple years ago. It taught me a lesson of anger as a bystander. After that, I stopped many of my bad habits that against Buddhism and my life is going in the right direction. It became less stressful and peaceful because of the teaching I learned. Now I have a purpose in life other than the accumulation of material things and indulge in desires. I heard many atheist suddenly got into Buddhism after they realized Buddha's teaching of suffering is true. It's like someone smack on you head and said" wake up!". If they live an abundant and happy life, it's very tough for them to get into Buddhism.Buddha said the prosperous one is not easy to bring forth the resolve for Tao or Bodhi.

So why did you come to Buddhism? Thanks.

Arjquad

I came to Buddhism after I started calling myself atheist. I always had doubts with the catholic teachings but didn't really do much with that as a "just in case" thing. Finally 4 years ago when I was a freshman I accepted that I was atheist and started calling myself as such with people at school.
Soon after I felt like something was missing and that for some reason it would be easier if I had a religion. So I started learning about many different religions from more in depth Christianity, Taoism (I could never really understand it, still can't) and I had a strong interest in Islam for awhile, I still enjoy learning about it, I even read the Quran. Finally somewhere along the line I found Buddhism. The teachings I found made sense and there was no god or supernatural dogma to believe in. I would still call myself atheist before Buddhist though, just a personal choice.

Dakini

there was no god or supernatural dogma to believe in.

How do you relate to the teachings on rebirth? Some people consider that to be dogma, some don't. Just curious.

federica

stay on topic, please.... thanks.....

compassionate_warrior

I came to Buddhism purely and simply because it makes sense. And you must admit, most Buddhist artwork is serene and quietly inspiring.

vinlyn

I came to Buddhism purely and simply because it makes sense. And you must admit, most Buddhist artwork is serene and quietly inspiring.

Guess you've never seen much Buddhist art from Thailand.

Lady_Alison

*sigh* sorry, mine will be long...

I spent 24 years as a roman catholic before I began to question my faith and dogma. Particularly the divinity of jesus. Innately I have always believed in a supreme creator, or divine single God.

I took some advanced classes and courses on classical philosophy, history, Biblical archeology, the tannak, torah,gospels, Gnosticism and finally the quran...that ended my Abrahamic education. It was three years of seclusion from the world. I ate, shit and breathed monotheism.

I ran into a problem, after choosing to become muslim, that while I believed in God, I didn't FEEL him near..to me, he was far away and could give a shit less if I prayed, fasted, or wept.

Then I had a loss in the family and sliped into a suicidal depression. It was maddening. I was in my own hell and I was suffering so much that I dropped 15 lbs in a month. I am 5'5 and weigh 128.

Umm..when I was in the dark place and exhausted from the emotional agony, something strange happened. It was like all the thoughts and emotions momentarily ceased and a great space opened up and peace filled it.

I didn't know what it was at the time. I was in hell and suddenly felt "bliss "?

I spent 6 months trying to figure out what that feeling was. Then I heard eckhart tolle audio...his experiences resonated with me and I am starting to seek buddhism as a way to cultivate presence, meditation, my relationship with allah, compassion and all good qualities.

So for me, buddhaism has added and enriched my faith and I have more empty space experiences now...I am grateful to be able to know and identify that experience.

For me, personally...I need a personal God...I need to feel him, and I do, thanks to buddhism practice.

Thank you for letting me share.

compassionate_warrior

Guess you've never seen much Buddhist art from Thailand.

This is why I said "most" B. art, rather than making a more general statement. Much Tibetan art is far from "serene", as well.

suopohe

Thank you all for your sharing of stories of into Buddhism.

May all sentient beings be away from all sufferings.

Arjquad

there was no god or supernatural dogma to believe in.

How do you relate to the teachings on rebirth? Some people consider that to be dogma, some don't. Just curious.

I actually kinda avoid it for now. But I see it as something unknown like before the big bang. I see it taken figuratively, in a sense that the atoms that make up our bodies are constantly recycled into new forms.

Dakini

Very interesting. Good attitude, Arj.

Invincible_summer

Indeed, it seems that when a religious tradition is more "native" to a region (or at least has a very long history there), people growing up with the religion tend to take it for granted, almost as a superstitious, inherent value/belief system. It's easy to see how religions from other parts of the world - in China, this could be Christianity; in Canada, Buddhism - would be exoticized and more carefully studied/followed.

I asked a question on these boards once about how to understand East Asian Buddhists and their superstitious approach to Buddhism. One user here (I forget who) said basically that it's better than nothing - at least these people who are nominally Buddhist are sort of aware of the beliefs and go through the motions. If it strengthens their refuge in the Three Jewels somehow, then who's to say they're wrong? If a Korean mother thinks that adhering strictly to precepts and doing 108 prostrations every morning will help her son pass his university entrance exams... well, at least she's adhering to the precepts?

I've also read an argument for how rituals, chanting, all these outward expressions of "faith" (for lack of a better term) are more culturally accepted in East Asia as not cult-like and more sincere. I can't really remember the details though.


Anyways to answer the OP's question: I came to Buddhism because, like many other Westerners, I was very disillusioned with Christianity and other Abrahamic religions. I spent a lot of time reading about other religions - the book "The World's Religions" by Huston Smith really opened my eyes to Buddhism though. I began taking classes in university on Buddhism, so I developed some head knowledge.
The point at which I knew Buddhism was "right" and "worked" was when I attended the funeral of my uncle. I felt very sad and confused (it was the first funeral I had attended as an adult that understood the occasion), lots of emotions. I decided to sit and meditate, examining the emotions, and after a while, I had a moment of very stark clarity. It's not that I wasn't sad or I just suppressed my emotions, but it was like I intuitively understood all the emotions I was feeling simultaneously. I also felt a sense of peace that I never felt before.
I decided to take refuge (on my own, not at a ceremony) pretty soon after that.

Mahuidou

I have always been somewhat interested in religion and come a mostly Christian background. I guess by being exposed to East Asian culture by studying Buddhism I slowly just found myself naturally coming into it at first on how different it is, but eventually it became a bit more natural after understanding a lot of the scriptures. I am still hurdles behind a native speaker, especially someone with a classical education in Chinese, and absolutely horrible in Vietnamese, but a work in progress nonetheless..

SimpleWitness

Buddhism is a wholesome practice verbally, bodily, and mentally. Despite all world views and fabrication of thought and belief the practice of the Buddha teaching has revealed the way of the centered in all triggering events. As a result, my emotional responce has proven to be far more natural than it ever has been, which is an immense improvement in my life. No other way has shown me this the but the middle way.

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