Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Science to Buddhism. Now what?
Hello all, glad to have found this site.
"Seeker," is actually a good description of where I'm at.
I've always had a fascination with science, cosmology and theoretical physics. It is a kind of fun brain-candy for me (yes, I'm a bit of a geek!). Without going into too much detail (which, to be honest, I understand in lay terms - and not completely), made me curious about eastern religions because some of the leading scientific theories about the nature of reality/the universe/quantum physics/string theory/etc. sounded familiar. I've never really believed in the man with a long white beard version of God, and something about Buddhism got my interest. I talked to a few people, read a bit on the Internet, went to a sanga meeting (would you call that a service?), and started simple breathing meditation 3 weeks ago.
Something about the basics just ring true to be, and I think I'd like to go further. I feel a bit strange calling myself a Buddhist, because I was not raised with religion and have never been religious, but that is what I am. I'd like to go further with it. I really know very little, and I'm kind of wondering what direction to go in. Like most people where I live, I did not know there were so many flavors of Buddhism. Which is what? I feel like I have to make a choice on which direction to move in. I think I’m more partial to a flavor where I could learn from a teacher of some sort.
Reading about it is great, but I'd also like some human interaction. We are, after all, social animals.
Also have a few questions. I'm still a bit leery of the concept of re-birth. If you are re-incarnated, but you don't carry your memory or your personality at the time of death, what is exactly is re-incarnating? Also confused about the six realms of existence (Hell worlds, the realm of the hungry ghosts, the animal world, the human realm, the realm of the jealous gods, the heavens). Is that metaphorical (with the exception of the animal world and the human realm, which I can see) or are we talking about actual places?
Thank you!
"Seeker," is actually a good description of where I'm at.
I've always had a fascination with science, cosmology and theoretical physics. It is a kind of fun brain-candy for me (yes, I'm a bit of a geek!). Without going into too much detail (which, to be honest, I understand in lay terms - and not completely), made me curious about eastern religions because some of the leading scientific theories about the nature of reality/the universe/quantum physics/string theory/etc. sounded familiar. I've never really believed in the man with a long white beard version of God, and something about Buddhism got my interest. I talked to a few people, read a bit on the Internet, went to a sanga meeting (would you call that a service?), and started simple breathing meditation 3 weeks ago.
Something about the basics just ring true to be, and I think I'd like to go further. I feel a bit strange calling myself a Buddhist, because I was not raised with religion and have never been religious, but that is what I am. I'd like to go further with it. I really know very little, and I'm kind of wondering what direction to go in. Like most people where I live, I did not know there were so many flavors of Buddhism. Which is what? I feel like I have to make a choice on which direction to move in. I think I’m more partial to a flavor where I could learn from a teacher of some sort.
Reading about it is great, but I'd also like some human interaction. We are, after all, social animals.
Also have a few questions. I'm still a bit leery of the concept of re-birth. If you are re-incarnated, but you don't carry your memory or your personality at the time of death, what is exactly is re-incarnating? Also confused about the six realms of existence (Hell worlds, the realm of the hungry ghosts, the animal world, the human realm, the realm of the jealous gods, the heavens). Is that metaphorical (with the exception of the animal world and the human realm, which I can see) or are we talking about actual places?
Thank you!
0