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Why did you become interested in buddhism?
slowmichael
Explorer
This is my first post on this forum, so hello everybody.
Well i guess i f you live in Tibet, Thailand or so it is something obvious. The majority of people there are buddhist and as a child you will probably follow the path of your parents.
My question is more pointed to people that live in countries that have no buddhist majority. I live in Belgium and believe me there are no sanghas around the corner. What we do have in Belgium is a lot of actors, singers whatever SAYING ooh i am so zen so buddhist thats why i am such a sunny shiny person. I think these people have no clue about buddhism, it just sounds so popular to say that.
Well i think i made my question clear.
Please give me some answers.
Thanks.
Slowmichael
Well i guess i f you live in Tibet, Thailand or so it is something obvious. The majority of people there are buddhist and as a child you will probably follow the path of your parents.
My question is more pointed to people that live in countries that have no buddhist majority. I live in Belgium and believe me there are no sanghas around the corner. What we do have in Belgium is a lot of actors, singers whatever SAYING ooh i am so zen so buddhist thats why i am such a sunny shiny person. I think these people have no clue about buddhism, it just sounds so popular to say that.
Well i think i made my question clear.
Please give me some answers.
Thanks.
Slowmichael
0
Comments
I'm a gelug tibetan buddhist which the Dalai Lama sometimes calls 'Nalanda buddhism'. This is because gelug is for the most part the same as how they used to train in the ancient indian mahayana monasteries, Nalanda being one of if not the most famous. How is it that they train? They rely on logic, debating, critical analysis and meditation over a significant period of time.
So, I guess the answer is these people were the first I met who could actually logically explain the function of compassion and awareness (mind).
My interest was initially sparked by Hofstadter's discussion of koans in Goedel, Escher, Bach.
From that day on I lost my faith in the Catholic Church and in Priest(or Minister or Monk or whatever)\Psychologists. :buck:
Later, I started becoming aware of all the research on the benefits of mindfulness meditation and started practicing more. I just recently started going to a Sangha near my house.
And that's how I started leaning towards Buddhism, which has much less dogma and which encourages one to find things out for oneself, rather than relying on "holy" books and people. It hasn't been easy, as Buddhism doesn't make such beautiful promises and awesome explanations as other religions do. Due to my cultural background, I sometimes find Buddhism too dry and even empty. But after periodic inner struggle I always end up admitting that no worldview makes more sense.
I still don't consider myself buddhist but I do find the writings and teachings compelling and fascinating.
O, yeah, Kung Fu (the Legend Continues sequel, actually) produced a profound impression on me when I saw it for the first time at the age of 18. I definitely felt a connection there.
I spent 17 years believing I was an atheist, but that wasn't doing it for me, so began many more years searching for a spiritual path. Zen Buddhism was the first in a long series spiritual investigations. Due to a lack of real understanding, I never got the Zen Buddhism message, got very confused by the kaons and peculiarities of Zen, and moved on. My journey took me through, among others Judaism and the Ba'hai faiths, and finally I revisited Buddhism again in the form of Tibetan Buddhism. This time, I got the message, and realized this was what I had been searching for all these years. Too bad really cuz I wasted a lot of years, but there's no Buddhist community here, so it wasn't easy to get exposure. But I'm here now, trying to make up for lost time.
Les
I'm attracted to Buddhism because I don't have to believe anything unbelievable.
Even in the Zen phase, I could tell that meditation was essential and the activity itself was more important than the enlightened end result. I still don't really care about enlightenment or "kensho" or whatever. I just want to stop suffering and I don't want to have to try to believe ancient fairy tales to do it.
I was dissatisfied with the options the world or society offered me so I left my country (Australia) to travel around the world seaching for who knows what.
One day, I walked into a Buddhist monastery as a tourist, I bought a book on meditation that said inner peace (Nibbana) is readily available and I said to myself: "I want that peace".
I left the monastery one year later. The book was correct.
Kind regards
DD
The book was merely Buddhadasa's Anapanasati: Mindfulness with Breathing - Unveiling the Secrets of Life.
Kind regards
DD
Hakuin used to comment that his students' reasons for studying Buddhism were better than his. Never underestimate the power of a bad reason. :-)
As has been said earlier i felt there was more that our way of living wasn't telling me, but religion seemed like a psychological defense strategy from the idea of death etc. I recently has a health related episode that sent me into a spin and a psychologist suggested the idea of viewing thoughts as events that were not me. That came from Kabat-Zinn's book and from there i picked up Thich Nhat Hahn's JHeart of Buddhist Teachings. I went to a meeting of a sangha under his direction recently and found lots of people like me. To this group thinking about death is looking deeper at the things we already know. We come from our ancestors, we move into out decendants, our body tranforms into other forms. When you think about it the idea of birth and death as start and end are misleading andf that is comforting.
I am intersted that many people here started with Zen and got put off by it. T.N.H is Vietnamese Zen and his teachings seem so simple and practical. I have heard of the use of Koans and various other things but I wonder if different types of Zen have different levels of 'mysteriousness'.
Well it was THAT book (addressed in another thread on this forum) that put me off Buddhism the first time. Suzuki certainly didn't do this beginner's mind any favours!!
I used to be that way too; religion was just a label for me until I read the book "Maha Nidhana Suthra" which has a detailed explanation of "Dependent Origination". I knew about "suffering", "impermanence" and "non-self" from my childhood school text books but when i read the detailed description of "Dependent Origination" as an adult, it shocked me. It was so shocking that I changed a lot, almost 180 degrees.
That is how I became a "real Buddhist" who sees that the Buddha's dhamma is all about ending this round of births and deaths by slowly detaching your defilements that bind you to the round.
Btw, this is the book I read. Google search gets you there:
Great Discourse on Causation, The Mahanidana Sutta and its Commentaries by bhikku Bhodi.
Different strokes for different folks. I read one of T.N.H.'s books years ago and could never bring myself to read another. On the other hand, I've gotten a lot of benefit from Yuanwu's sarcasm.
Any form of Buddhism is mysterious if you view it as an intellectual puzzle. Imagine trying to make sense of Aaron Shearer's "Classic Guitar Technique: Vol 2" without having done the exercises in Vol 1 and under the misapprehension that mastering the concepts presented in either volume (as opposed to doing the exercises) will lead to the ability to play the guitar. Or imagine trying to play the guitar by consciously thinking about all the instructions you've read. Mastery of the guitar would seem very mysterious and out of reach of ordinary people.
Thanks for the many answers.
Why did i get intrested in buddhism? Well since a was 16 years old i had a sence of being an outsider. Society has a way of showing sunny shiny people and situations, well i was not feeling like that. It did not help that my parents saw this state of happiness as a the normal mindset, whilst it was very obvious to me that they and my sister had big difficulties with life. when i became older i used to have discussions with my mother, i said that she was suffering from the "Doris Day" syndrome. Doris Day had a TV show and she was perfect here kids where perfect......... . I said mother you are feeling unhappy because your father died, because of all the things that did not turned out the way you wanted them. Comparing your life to a "perfect life" makes you more unhappy.
Well as i became older i was suffering to from all kind of down situations i always felt very responsible and thus guilty. I went to search professional help, it helped but still.... .
There was tis lady that did yoga and i went to do some yoga. Mmmh i felt like this could be something. But it was not the best of yoga teachers so i stopped.
Somebody gave me a book about buddhism, first noble truth life is suffering. What?? It was shocking but so true and of course there is more than one noble truth. Acceptance and so on, this was realy a path that was clear and possitive.
I was about 25 years old then. Did i do something with it NO. STUPID ME.
I became a workaholic and had my ups and downs, i became richer, i climbed up the ladder of the company i worked for. I did just that for about 17 years i felt powerfull, unbeateble.
Untill.......... i woke up one morning and all i could do was cry. Burnout 3 months at home, since then i am in to meditation, yoga, buddhism well i read a lot about it and find great comfort in the wisdom of buddhism. Unfortenatly no sanghas over here. Well there is a zen sangha but zen it seams such a hard school. I am on a path i will use the facilities that i have and not wish for those that i don't have.
Slowmichael
Kind regards
DD
Just noticed that your profile picture is so cute
There is a dharma center in Paris lead by Tith Natch Hahn, but well with all respect for other people on this forum i also read some books from him and i had to struggle my way true them.
But still a great suggestion i will gather information, with the internet that should not be to hard.
Of course if somebody would now of a dharma center in europe all information is wellcome.
Then getting older, the subject of happiness led me to western concepts.. christianity, then more diversely quick fixers like NLP and 'the secret' (Law of Attraction)
One thing was common throughout though, that positivity and optimism made a better life for yourself and others. This lead me to a wonderful person and communicator, Matthieu Ricard who happens to be a buddhist monk and french interpreter for the Dalai Lama, but previously a scientist with a PHD. Son of a famous french philosopher and artist, his happiness comes through in every word of his book and video.
Having read his book Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill I want to learn how to meditate.
Now I'm in a little turmoil, there is a meditation centre only 5 minutes away, but it is a NKT centre, and I'm worried I will be told I can only study the work of Kelsang Gyatso. I don't believe that following only one person runs with my own philosophies of freedom to be exposed to the world and then make my own judgements. Though I am going to give it a try next week.
I don't usually encourage people to join one group or another, but if that's all that you can find locally, consider checking it out before you reject it.
I was quite moved by this post of yours.
Thanks for writing it.
Almost got em.
Buddhism came much later. My sister, who had made the move to Buddhism, was visiting from the States. On the last night of her visit (Saturday), we sat at the kitchen table talking late ... at exactly midnight I noticed the time and said I had to go to bed. My sister exclaimed that she saw a flash of light go into my aura and said it was a blessing. I felt nothing myself, and when the next few days passed in a state of stillness and mindfulness, I attributed it to the power of suggestion.
Until my sister when to a teaching and found out that her teacher had died at exactly midnight ... Saturday. "I asked him to help you through the difficult time of your daughter's mental illness" she said through her tears.
At that point I decided maybe I'd better go to the local Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Society and explore Buddhism further. Best thing I ever did.
Footnote: the "blessing" faded over the next 6 months ... no blessing can persist indefinitely in the face of our habits and imprints! The only way to achieve real spiritual growth is through our own work.
Beatifull story,
Well this is a bit of topic but i am a person that is very sceptical about experiences like you describe. Altough i had a few experiences that i could not rationaly explain.
I had a customer and he had cancer, it was somebody that i only met or spoke to very occasionaly, once a year. Somebody tould me he had cancer but i did not know how bad it was or so. I feld sorry for the guy but never gave it a concious tought no more.
About 3 months later i had a very vivid dream, he invited me to his home. I asked him why did you invite me? And he said very calmly: well i am leaving this earth and i just want to say goodbeye to some people and you are one of them. End of dream.
The next morning i woke up went to my work and my boss called me in his office and said to me i just received a phone call that customer of you died this night.
Mmhh i still don't know if this was pure coincidence or well something else?
Good advice, i wrote a mail to this sangha they are in to soto zen as you suggested. Altough i must say that i don't have a clue about in what way soto zen is different from other zen schools.
They answered my mail and do initiation for beginners. I will give it a try.
A lot depends on the style and personality of the teacher. You may not feel attracted to Zen, but discover that you like the way a particular Zen teacher teaches. Or you may feel attracted to Zen but discover that you can't stand any of the teachers. Generally, finding a group of people and a teacher that you are comfortable with is more important than finding the denomination with the "best" teachings. I know a Zen Buddhist who studies with a Nyingmapa. She can't find a Zen teacher in her area, and she thinks the Nyingmapa is a good teacher.
PRICELESS!
In my case, it's the beautiful simplicity of Buddha/Buddha Dharma. Whether it's a simple beauty or a beautiful simplicity, though, I cannot say. I was made for bliss.
I worship beauty wherever I find it. I do not believe Buddha ever condemned this; he just taught non-grasping. You suck the beauty out of the beloved when you grasp at him or her.
The truth of the Buddha is self-evident and is noble. It lifts me up and out of myself. I have been attracted ever since I can remember. However, other religions pull at me, too...
I do not, however, subscribe to any "ISM." At that level all becomes such an abstraction and people get all High and Mighty and mean-spirited in their convictions. I cannot imagine Buddha wanting a world full of Buddhists; he'd surely have settled for a couple thousand Buddhas in every generation.
Wow, i can't believe these amazing ideas could be taught by rote to a kid so he doesn't get it!
I am in a Thien sangha which is the Veitnamese word for Zen. We had a day of mindfulness the other day. I turned upa dn we sat with the breath for a while. We then walked in a circle -walking medirtation. We then ate something being aware ofg what we were doing as we did it - eg not stuffing our faces as we mindlessly chatted about gossip. We then had a chat when commwent was voluntary and people listened rather than argued. I then went home.
Nothing in that seemed hard or difficult. Don't dismiss Zen as hard - it is more the idea that you should practice meditation and enlightenment not talk about it etc.:wavey:
Sorry I didn't quite get what you mean?
I didn't really have a choice, I had a few enlivening experiences that led me on quite a journey to search for, and around, the woods of Buddhism. And many years later, I am still here, firmly knowing in the truth of Lord Buddha's teachings.
Namaste.
I'm hoping Buddhist practices may help me become a better person, as the only meaning I have found in life is helping those around me.
Flash forward to my early 30's and I was suffering from a broken heart so severe I was actually sick from it, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. A few years later, still heartsick, I hurt my back badly enough to become physically disabled and I was told it was permanent.
I was at my lowest at this point. I didn't know how I was going to survive in such a horrifically cruel and thoughtless world. I felt like I was hobbling around life without any skin. Everything hurt and everything enraged me.
Although I followed no specific religion at the time I had always had a deeply dependent relationship with 'God' and talked to him all the time, mostly begging him to let me come home. I thought he answered me a couple of times. Not verbally of course, but in powerful ways nonetheless. I remember a few years before hurting my back I was walking the 2 miles home from work and I was sobbing my heart out, in desperate emotional pain. I was screaming internally, begging 'God' to make the pain go away even for just a few minutes so I could catch my breath. I climbed the stairs to my apartment still sobbing my heart out, opened my door, threw my purse down on my bed, closed my door, sat down, and all of sudden, out of nowhere, I felt complete relief. My crying stopped, the pain in my heart vanished, and I was okay with the world. I was convinced 'God' had taken the pain away for a few minutes, just like I'd asked him to.
Flash forward to my late 30's again and I'm physically disabled with constant pain in my body and my broken heart still hasn't mended fully. I'm a mess and I'm wishing I could kill myself but for some reason I've believed in reincarnation since I was a teenager and 'knew' that killing myself would solve nothing. I thought I would just be reincarnated and have to suffer the whole situation all over again until I got it right. I also couldn't put my parents through the pain of it.
One day I sat up in bed and said to myself, "I can't stand the pain anymore. I can't stand it for even one more minute. There has got to be a way to survive in this world and be happy. There are people who have suffered real tragedy, horrific tragedy, physical and emotional torture, and somehow they survive. If they can do it, why can't I? I've got to find a way to do it. I have no choice now. I can't go on like this. I insist on being happy. I insists on finding a way to be happy. Who are the happiest looking people in the world...?...Buddhists!"
That's how and why I became interested in Buddhism. And now I'm happy.
Much happier than I ever was before.
Bless the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.
Brigid,
Your story is very open and honest. I also was as a roman catholic, i was born in 1959. In those days religion was a big part of my schooleducation. My teachers mostley priests or very catholic people liked to tell us stories about hell and that we had te be realy good catholics to avoid this. They where very realistic in descrebing how hell was like. I was realy scared!
As i became older i hated everything about Roman Catolicism. Now i respect everybodys religion, but i still hate the institution an all the representatives.
The pope,..... give me a break. The Dalai Lama, well always looks optimistic can give answers to difficult questions with humour, intilligence, inspiration.
I had my share of emotional pain. But since i was young i observed that some people where able to overcome very painfull situations in a very possitive way and that other people like my parents certainly my mother became depressed about litle things.
The thing is some people seem to be able to manage these problems others don't. I think the more you expect a life witouth troubles, the less you will tolerate these situations and the emotions that come with it. Wich makes it all much wurse. Buddhism shows us all to go in the other direction.
I had dabbled in meditation off and on for several years but never stuck with it consistently. I did however enjoy the tranquility and relaxation it provided (that plus an inordinately low blood pressure).
I was also a therapist and I noticed that guilt is not the guiding principle that healthy individuals adopt. What I did notice however, was the power of acceptance. The power of some flexibility in one's thinking helps. Being free to question and examine thoughts has a powerful effect on people. I stumbled onto Acceptance Commitment Therapy which holds many principles dearly that resemble Buddhism but there was still something missing. In spite of that, I found the approach to be extremely rewarding and I found I actually started seeing some amazing results with people who questioned their own thinking in an accepting, open way. Being open to permit themselves to be real and nonjudgemental really brought about some shifting of both their paradigm as well as mine.
The missing piece and the one I have discovered in Buddhism, is opening of self to love. Of not only opening your world to truth and logic, but also to love and harmony. Buddhism is more than a channel to acceptance of the world around, but also a channel to loving the world around. Not just a path to contentment, but a path to fulfillment through love and kindness. To quote Jerry McGuire, it completes me. LOL
Anyway we got back together, then things started to fall apart right away and I knew it wouldn't work so, I did what I had heard and I found freedom from suffering. I sat in a meditation on the feeling of the warmth of my hands and i no longer felt the need to hide the knowledge that she was going. I no longer need to be distracted. I didn't need to do anything to be happy. That was it, I went from wanting to die to feeling content in one sitting.
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.[/FONT]"
Being raised Catholic all my life hearing this quote was a breath of fresh air.
Christianity just raised questions for me. Buddhism answered alot of them and continues to do so. To go slightly off subject, I envy Thai/Tibetans etc because I feel my Christian conditioning gets in the way of my practise.