Yo!
KrackosStorm
South Carolina New
Hello everyone, my name is Andrew, but on the internet I usually go by my middle name William. I'm 19 and I live in South Carolina which is in the south-eastern United States. As far as religion goes I was raised by a Christian mother and a Theist father (he believes in God, but believes that it can be anything and that any religion could be right). I went to church off and on for most of my life and I never really questioned anything until I got older and more skeptical. When I was about 14-15 I became Agnostic and really didn't think much about the subject. But here recently I wanted more peace in my life so I turned to Buddhism. I started reading a book called What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula to help get into it. I'm at the final chapter and thus far it's really cool and pretty much exactly the kind of thing I needed.
That long windedness outta the way. I guess I'll say a few things about my personal life. Well, I guess the main thing is that I'm a big fat nerd; I like to collect and play video games. I work at Little Caesar's Pizza, and next year I'm going to college for Computer Engineering. I wanna be a game designer, but if it doesn't work out Engineering is a broad enough field that it shouldn't be difficult to find a job.
Welp, this went on longer then I expected. Looking forward to meeting you all!
Comments
Nice to meet you @KrackosStorm You'll find quite a few of us here have a Christian background. There's more than one other member from the South as well.
G'day @KrackosStorm and welcome! There's all sorts of people from all over the world here.
Look forward to conversing with you.
Hi nice to meet you and welcome to the forum. A lot of my friends and family are Christian and I have thought about my own beliefs as a result.
Retired Roman Catholic here (if it's ever possible to get the church upbringing behind you).
Hi Andrew - welcome.
You started with a great book. I have read it a few times.
Computer gaming nerd eh ...
You might like
http://.be/GhaT78i1x2M
... I was just looking again at the Nim programming language, ideal for games but hey ...
We are here for the pizza not the Buddhism ... eh wait ... got it wrong again ... gotta get my mind in shape ...
Welcome.
After I finish that book I'll probably need to read it again. It was a lot to take in.
But, after that what should I do next? There's a lot of books that I've seen and I know there are dozens of suttas in the Pali Canon. It's a tad overwhelming.
South Carolina? It's what my grandmother used to call the best part of the world.
I enjoy reading Ajahn Chah from the Forest tradition. Practical, free of erudition, and free or very inexpensive to download from Kindle or whatever other e-book sources you may come across —or on the WWW.
Dunno. I am overwhelmed every day ...
You could start a journal/blog/game
'BuddhaHoody'
One guys journey from wherever to somewhere else ...
Reading the dharma is bit like eating. Eat slowly and digest.
After all you would not want to be enlightened in three words ... that would be ridiculous ...
http://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/patrul-rinpoche/tsik-sum-nedek-root
mmm ... where to start ...
http://www.zenforuminternational.org
have a 'ask a teacher section' that might be a good plan
Might stick with 'dunno' ...
Yo. 'Sup? Nice to meet you.
Welcome Andrew/William. Hope you find something useful here.
I thought this was going to be a yoism thread.
www.yoism.org
Nice to meet you.
As you're new to Buddhism, it may be good just to dip your toes in a few schools of thought before deciding on any one in particular.
It's a bit daunting when one sees all the suttas, sutras and/or discourses but the wheel has eight spokes (Right or harmonious view, aspiration, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration) so it could be best to see which one you could use the most help with and research meditation styles and teachings that sound helpful.
There's no rush but it has to be now.
Nice to meet you.
Hello,
Welcome and nice to 'meet' you.
Carry a sense of humor, be a sponge, kick back, and enjoy.