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Just wondering, converts what led you to Buddhism?

TheEccentricTheEccentric Hampshire, UK Veteran
edited December 2012 in Faith & Religion
I'm not really sure what led me to Buddhism, I suppose I just gradually gained a small understadning of it over time, liked it then decided to try it and then decided a liked meditation and it's philosophy and and started practicicing it.

Converts how were you introduced into Buddhism and what made you want to convert?

Comments

  • JasonJason God Emperor Arrakis Moderator
    That's more or less how I started as well. I stumbled onto Buddhism after discovering a Thai Theravada temple near by house, which I started going to regularly to learn meditation and more about Buddhism, and have been hooked ever since. A somewhat longer answer from a previous thread:
    My first inkling that Theravada Buddhism was right for me was, and that it contained within it existential truths about life, was while reading Food for the Heart: The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah. The more I read and thought about life, about how each living being is subject to aging, illness, and death, and about how much we, as human beings, suffer mentally, the more I became interested in learning more about the Buddha's teachings, which promised to help put an end to suffering.

    I found the teachings themselves both rational and empirical in nature. The Buddha isn't talking about anything beyond empirical observations (although some things do stem from extrasensory perception) and divisions of experience that are utilized to eliminate suffering in the mind; and the noble eightfold path doesn't rely or depend upon things I can't easily experience for myself or intellectually grasp on my own. Even its ethical structure is based on the perceived cause and effect relationship between our actions (kamma) and how they're experienced (kammavipaka). The methodology is pretty straightforward.

    I spent a lot of time visiting a Thai Theravada temple near my house and meditating, especially during some really difficult times; and I had a feeling that this path had more potential for my spiritual growth and well-being than any I'd previously undertaken. I even quit my job at one point to spent some time living at a Buddhist monastery in Perry, MI.

    Over the past decade, my study and practice has helped me in a number of ways, mainly by helping me to better deal with a range of emotional issues that have plagued me since adolescence, particularly depression and violent, angry outbursts, neither of which were abated by medication or pleas to the unknown. While progress has been relatively slow, there's been definite improvements over the years, which have been noticeable not only to myself, but to friends and family as well. Much of this is thanks to following the Buddha's advice to his son, Rahula, in MN 61, observing the five precepts, and practicing mindfulness.
  • It was karma . . .
    and calmer . . .
  • Various woman and massive amounts of suffering, which came as a result of clinging.
    Jeffrey
  • I was raised Christian and never thought much about the deeper meaning of life on my own. I then began to question things and search for new things about a year ago while in college. In that part of my Journey I discovered Buddhism and found it to speak a lot of truths for me.

    I'm a Vegan and am against harming ANY beings, so Buddhism definitely works with that part of me.

    I am against violence, and Buddhism works with that too.

    I also love to sit, listen to, and appreciate the Universe as it is.

    I love thinking deeply and meditating.

    So Buddhism really just coincides with many aspects of my life and is teaching me much along the Way.

    So that is why I am here. :)
    TheEccentric
  • I would sit on the edge of my chair at church as the pastor would say things like Let go of your past- etc... The "how to" never followed!
    I happened upon a Buddhist place and realized here is the HOW TO! I turned to the lady next to me and said just that- she said she felt the same way when she first came there (15 years ago) And then she said Coming here has brought me closer to Christ. I knew if a place was that open minded I was in the right place. My life has never been the same:)
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited December 2012
    My last year of highschool I found some true friends and felt very comfortable in my skin. I was kind of into the tao te ching and sort of letting go of all of the highschool anxieties. The tao didn't 'do' this to me rather it grew out of my life and that philosophy was a part of my life and not just 'caused' by the reading.

    In college much the same and I had an art history east/west plus a chinese culture class so I really got to examine the vibe and writings on various papers.

    I was then busy with grad school in chemistry, but had a mental breakdown. I started meditating and the dharma in books was a lifeline.
  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran
    Is your question specifically for people who "converted" from some other faith? I'll assume not as I had no faith for the first 40-odd years of my life.

    I was brought up in a completely non-spiritual / non-religious house (never been to church bar weddings and funerals) and community.

    I always felt there was something missing in my life but wasn't sure what. I got married, had a kid and have become financially secure but still felt the same way.

    About 18 months ago I picked up and read The Art of Happiness (not sure why I picked it up) and it just spoke directly to my heart! Haven't looked back.......I do sometimes wonder if the tenderness and love that arose in my heart when my daughter was born made me ready to hear the dharma? Perhaps I wouldn't have been open to that book until after she was born. Who knows?
  • cazcaz Veteran United Kingdom Veteran
    I was raised as a Buddhist but didn't really begin to appreciate Dharma until latter, Other systems rely to heavily on faith in something such as a divine creator of the universe which cannot be proven to exist nor from the proceeding state of the world could be called anything worth investing your faith in because all other religious systems have this as their basis it reaffirmed for me the rarity of Buddhadharma as a system that can move from one step to another with valid reasoning and techniques to change the mind which do actually yield results.

    The concept of Samsara has always (for me) made sense over that of the experience of reality being that of a playground for a divine bully boy.
    BunksTheEccentric
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    Not a question of converting. Just a question of realising things didn't fit before, and now they do.

    :)
    TheEccentricMaryAnneBarra
  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
    I grew up in the religion of the intellect, a zealous and insistent realm that never really answered the important questions. I didn't so much convert -- which suggests leaving one thing in favor of another -- as I seemed to slip into more comfortable and sensible clothes with a 'Buddhism' label. Was it a salvation ... did it provide a gooey bliss ... was everything suddenly "all better?" Nope, but the clothes were comfortable.
    TheEccentric
  • RebeccaSRebeccaS Veteran
    edited December 2012
    Hmmm... I don't really consider myself a convert because I still believe in Jesus and that he died for my sins, so I don't know that I really count as a Buddhist. But I also believe that the Buddha was enlightened and that he taught the way to end suffering.

    And ending suffering sounds pretty good to me :)
  • FlorianFlorian Veteran
    edited December 2012
    Aged fifty and devoutly anti-religious I took up the study of metaphysics. After three days I had a solution but could make no sense of it. Three weeks later I met a Buddhist for the first time and immediately realised that the Buddha had beaten me to it. I became a believer on the spot and a practitioner soon after. Nobody was more amazed than me. I couldn't even spell Buddhism at the time, but the logic is overwhelming. Useless without the practice, I know, but it can lead us to water.
    ecdrewello1
  • I rember trying medition as a teen-kid-stoner. I wanted to do some astral-projection Trip for free. LOL.

    Several years later.
    I was backpacking in Australia and attending an outdoors bbq. When someone asked me if I was a buddhist because I was not drinking any alcohol. A month or two later at Bali, still backpacking, 06:00 am in the morning I saw a man meditating three meters from the sea at sunrise.

    Two years later.
    I picked up boxing, then added tai-chi practise which lead to Zen practise which lead to a weird mix of philosofical and esothorical views/believes, buddhism and taoism.
  • When i was eleven, my anthropologist Godmother gave me a book about the religions of the world. The buddhism stuff seemed very cool and i asked my Catholic school teacher if i could still go to heaven if i became a buddhist. She said ""no" because i belong to the one "true religion." That got me thinking, "how can there only be one 'true' religion."
    So i started studdying buddhism as a teenager out of rebellion first, but it all made sense to me, so i just kept with it...
  • my interest in japanese culture, lead me to my interest in samurai, lead me wondering what religion they followed, lead me to discovering zen, lead me to questioning the bible, lead me to discovering contradictions within my christian background, lead me researching Buddhism, which answered a lot of important questions I had, which lead me to becoming a buddhist. Now I consider myself a "mixed" buddhist because I practice zen, theravada, and a little tibetan buddhism.
  • kashi said:

    my interest in japanese culture, lead me to my interest in samurai, lead me wondering what religion they followed, lead me to discovering zen, lead me to questioning the bible, lead me to discovering contradictions within my christian background, lead me researching Buddhism, which answered a lot of important questions I had, which lead me to becoming a buddhist. Now I consider myself a "mixed" buddhist because I practice zen, theravada, and a little tibetan buddhism.

    I had a similar journey, except I became Muslim after leaving Christianity, and then became a Buddhist, after becoming disillusioned with the predominant Islamic schools of thought. I do, however, think Sufis are awesome. lol
  • karastikarasti Breathing Minnesota Moderator
    I was born into a Christian (Lutheran) family and was baptised and confirmed Lutheran, but it was never really any sort of regular practice or part of our lives. I don't really consider myself a convert because Christianity just never "spoke" to me, it didn't make sense and it just wasn't for me. Once I had the freedom to explore, I became interested in Buddhism in college but didn't have the time to ponder it and take up any practice (full time college, part time job, full time mom) and then a couple years ago my teenager got interested in it and I jumped in with both feet.
  • ZenshinZenshin Veteran East Midlands UK Veteran
    I was into Pagan Mysticism for a long while, then rational determinism, I read Jo Durden Smiths The Essence of Buddhism on my GFs sofa one Saturday afternoon while reclining on her sofa. The four noble truths really hit me when my GF started crying about her dead father. It brought it home to me that I had found what I had been looking for all my life.
  • I was exposed to Buddhism when I was studying Tang Soo Do when I was on active duty. I was curious so I did some book work, and moved on. After I got out, and started working as a town cop, I had a desire to become a Franciscan priest. I even went to the descernment weekends at their home monastary in Maryland. I almost had the paperwork signed, when I got a call from the comm center at my home at two in the morning to assist an officer on a possible home death.

    I got there, it was early ninties, and February. I got there, and the story was the paper boy discovered that the ladies papers were backing up. The house was in total darkness and the temprature was below zero. Couldn't get into the front door because there was no steps. Got to the back and into a enclosed porch, and the heavy smell of amonia almost kicked me back.

    ****graphic details ahead****

    Dogs were barking and going nuts; and the officer wanted to call the fire department to gain entry; I told him lets see first but get the ambulance here. I banged on the door, and yelled, Police who's in here. The other officer had a smirk and repeated she's dead. the lights came on, (and I have no idea why we didn't explode from the amount of amonia) His smirk dropped to an oh sh(*. The woman was elderly, and yelled out shes coming down and wants help.

    The ambulance arrives, as she's coming out, old around seventish, only wearing a very worn night gown. She opens the door, and I get to see around seven dogs yelping and tearing to get out; and the remains of two chewd up.

    Got her out, and left message to state dog warden, and my chief. I get in for the four to midnight shift. Chief is jokingly livid; "What the F(*& did you give me!? It turns out that there were at least ten dogs, and several litters of puppies. Over three inches of dog feces throughout the house, and no oil in the tanks, the stuff was frozen. No one noticed here for at least two months, including the family. The dogs had to be put down, and she was court ordered out of her families care.

    I did some of the back ground investigation; she was a very avid church gower, but not a giver. I asked the Priest when was the last time he saw here. He was very ...condescending. When I told him what happened, his reply. "Oh so that's what happened to her."

    I called him everything but human; and left the faith. I grew more attatched to Buddhism. And I got caught on that Satanic Occult crimes craze then. And it did several things. I learned the tennants of Buddhism was more to what I did as a cop. And, a specialization in Child Abuse, Spousal Abuse, and sex crimes. So, hopefully I did something right. :facepalm:
    JeffreyMaryAnnemusic
  • MaryAnneMaryAnne Veteran
    edited December 2012
    I was born into an Italian- American, very Roman Catholic, family.
    However, by the time I was a young teen, I was ready to reject that particular religious path for something much less patriarchal / rigidly misogynist.

    So I would say my real "conversion" was deciding to be a Wiccan/Pagan -- but with some Buddhist influences, for sure. That was my spiritual path for a long long time (35+ yrs).

    Then again at some point a few years back, I re-evaluated my spiritual path and concepts, acknowledged my spiritual needs and beliefs had evolved again, and decided to slide the other foot over the line into Buddhism wholeheartedly; leaving behind the Pagan Goddess deity, the delusion of witchcraft/magic and just BE a Buddhist.

    It really wasn't a profound 'conversion' or a huge leap, it was more like a slippery slope. ;)


  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran
    Roman Catholic, atheist, communist, anarchist, humanist...Buddhist ;)
  • Raised Adventist missionary kid in a Buddhist country. We'll call it a strategic backfire, or fair trade ;)
    MaryAnneDairyLama
  • Brought up Pentecostal Christian(caused me to need a great deal of therapy), wandered into Wicca in my late teens-early 20's, humanist from about 23-25, and these past 2/3 years been semi- buddhist and at nearly 28 I finally became a Buddhist.
  • Tired of atheism and left wing musician youth culture so switched to the Dharma.
    Silecazmaarten
  • I was raised an evanglical christian, and even though really bad things happened at church I kept my faith in God until I was out of college, even though I had long since stoped going to church and had a list of grievances with organized Christian relgion.

    I considered myself a neo-pagan for awhile, but I didn't like the lack of organization and the fact I had no one to practice with. I felt like I was just making stuff up, and that didn't sit with me intellecually.

    What I did for the next few years is I sat alone trying to figure out the meaning of life, truth, etc. but I go no where. Looking back I can call it a sad mockey of the Buddha's journey, only mine didn't go well.

    I was always a nerd about Japanese language and literature, and I found there was a Nichiren-Shu temple right behind my apartment building. I went there once, and I've been going ever since. No need to try and invent the wheel from scratch when other's have already put so much effort into getting things figured out. :)
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