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Where to start?
Greetings everyone. I'm extremely new to this board and Buddhism in general, and frankly, it's all very overwhelming. (In a good way) I recently decided to start practicing Buddhism because of the vast amount of unhappiness I experience in my life daily. This is a very stressful time in my life, and I decided that somehow I needed to help myself.
As a lifelong Atheist, searching for happiness through religion was the last thing to cross my mind. However, after studying up on Buddhism, I found that many of its teachings really resonated with me, plus the fact that Buddhism has nothing to do with pleasing a God for the sake of a good life after death instead of a good life really drew me to it.
But I digress. My question is, how do I begin my journey to personal happiness? The teachings of Buddhism seem extremely vast to me, and I really have no idea where to start.
As a lifelong Atheist, searching for happiness through religion was the last thing to cross my mind. However, after studying up on Buddhism, I found that many of its teachings really resonated with me, plus the fact that Buddhism has nothing to do with pleasing a God for the sake of a good life after death instead of a good life really drew me to it.
But I digress. My question is, how do I begin my journey to personal happiness? The teachings of Buddhism seem extremely vast to me, and I really have no idea where to start.
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Comments
http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96jun/buddha2.html
Then continue to post on here regularly(asking questions and also helping others). Make it your own personal Sangha, and then I believe that soon your own Buddha-nature will start to become more and more evident.
The Buddha's main message was that he came to teach suffering, and the cessation of suffering....
he outlined the precise source of suffering, the remedy and the guidelines suggested, to work this through for ourselves.
Have a read of the link provided to you, but don't expect to get it immediately.
In fact, it could take a while.
And that's fine.... if all you do in this lifetime is study the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, that's a great start.
Above all, remember this:
There is no pressure, there is no hurry, and there is no competition.
Take it slow, be patient with yourself, and just become accustomed to finding things out, which will merely provoke more questions....
Don't think you have to adhere to any one school or tradition.... and for goodness' sake, remember to smile, breathe and relax!
You will be able to see some of the dharma yourself by the workings of your own awareness. In other words by your own observations you will learn quite a bit that could not be gleaned from reading alone.
In the west we don't have a lot of the traditional beliefs on board so that is why I recommend seeing first hand from meditation. It will be immensely helpful to have a teacher when your meditation is seeming to have a problem. They can help point out your own experience so that you can understand it for yourself.
"remember to smile, breathe and relax!" = good advice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd7a9Ur2x0o&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keVDt96ufEo
Book: Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond by Ajhan Brahm
I strongly advice you not to get entangled in pools of rationalizations, debates, ideas, concepts and philosophies. Similar threads sometimes go on here in this site too
I am not saying not to seek advice from others but sometimes different opinions can be confusing and they can even mislead you. So read the basic stuff and start to follow the path yourself.
The YouTube Buddhist meditation videos with Ajahn Jayasaro which have already been recommended are excellent.
'In the Buddha's Words' by Bhikkhu Bodhi is a good introduction to the Buddha's teachings.
'The Four Noble Truths' by Ajahn Sumedho can be read here:
http://www.buddhanet.net/4noble.htm
A nice book for anyone interested in a Tibetan Buddhist approach to meditation with the addition of some scientific research :
'The Joy of Living' by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.
.
Buddhist podcast on "Surviving stressful times."
Buddhist podcast on "Ideology and Wisdom"
The meditations described in those podcasts are an excellent place to start.
Welcome! Yes, buddhism is perhaps the first, and best, type of cognitive psychology ever developed, and it has the ability relieve your stress and bring about your happiness. And you dont even have to quit being an atheist.
How do you begin this journey? FIND A TEACHER. The teachings of Buddhism are so profound, so deep, and so contrary to anything a Westerner can imagine, that to try to understand it without a competent teacher is inadvisable. It is too easy to read a book and think you understand, but a good teacher can see where you are getting snagged, and smooth the path of understanding. You dont have to stick with the first teacher you run across, and dont ever drop your questioning mind. Dont know how to find a teacher? The internet is the first place to go looking, but not we here are not a good substitute for a teacher.
Concerning online resources, I'd advise Access to Insight, especially their section for suggested entry points to their site entitled Beginnings. Concerning books, I'd advise Bhikkhu Bodhi's The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya, Richard Gombrich's How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings, and the co-authored Buddhist Religions: A Historical Introduction.
I hope that you find some of these suggestions helpful.
Palzang