A Filipino Christian, Interested in Buddhism

SecretGirl

Hi. Hello to everyone. I am 'SecretGirl' and I am from the Philippines. For almost a day, I have searched on the internet about Buddhism because I have lack of knowledge about Buddhism.

By the way, I am Christian. I was baptized as a Catholic. I have lots of questions about Catholic, but every time they answered my question, I was not satisfied and for me, it seems that there was something wrong with their doctrine when suddenly, 'someone' told me that he believed in 'reincarnation' so, I was interested in 'reincarnation.' What I know that Buddhism teaches about 'reincarnation' and from now on, I was searching about Buddhism on the internet. I have read 'some' of the Buddhism and I want some more information that would answer my questions like, is Buddha a God or a philosopher?

Will anyone help me? I live here in the Philippines and I am looking an 'institution' that would teach me all about Buddhism and I am also looking for a 'temple' here in the Philippines. I found on the internet that the temple resides somewhere in Tondo, Manila --- but I am from Marikina city. How could I go there which is very far from here in my hometown?

I am interested all about Buddhism. I want to know some more and I am not satisfied if I am just going to read it on the internet because for me, even if we are too much dependent on the computer, there are still lacks information on the internet.

Dazzle

Hi SecretGirl,

There is a worldwide search facility for centres for all Buddhist traditions around the world at the Buddhanet site.

http://www.buddhanet.info/wbd/

If you fill in the country on the right hand side and tick organisations, meditations and teachings and then tick all the traditions, you should get a list of about 22 centres and temples.

I did it myself but wasn't able to transfer all of the link to the search over here, for some reason. Hope it might be of some help.

With regard to the basics of Buddhism, I suggest "What is Buddhism " by Bhante Vimalaramsi
for a simple non-sectarian explanation.

http://www.dhammasukha.org/Study/Talks/Transcripts/WHAT-MAR03-TS.htm


Kind wishes,

Dazzle

TheDoctorDonna

Welcome !

Here is a good place to start.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama | The Office of His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Nios

Kumusta po SecretGirl

Buddhism is a rarity in the Philippines. Buddhist materials are even more rare. Most temples in the Philippines are more geared to the ethnics of other countries. For that reason, if you go to a Chinese Temple, you'll find the whole thing is conducted in Chinese. I've been to the Chinese Buddhist Temple in Davao. It was really nice, and although closed to the public, the security guard let us in.

The only Buddhist book that I know of in Tagalog is this one: http://www.bdkamerica.org/default.aspx?MPID=53 and, as far as I'm aware, it's free I have a copy of both the English and Tagalog, however, my Tagalog sucks, so I found it difficult to read. (I'm not Filipino by the way)

I have spoken to a few other Filipinos currently living in the Philippines and interested in Buddhism. Some have even gone through the trouble of learning Chinese so they could understand the services. Some temples offer programs in English. If the temple is too far, you might like to try one of their study days, where you spend the day at the temple learning Buddhism. The link below lists all the temples in the Philippines and gives their websites and emails.

Here are a few links to get you started;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_in_the_Philippines
http://www.buddhanet.info/wbd/country.php?country_id=55

Hope it all goes well for you.

Nios.

Nobody

This is a very good document that will answer your questions about Buddhism:

http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/gqga-4ed.pdf

[DeletedUser]

If you truly understand the God stated in Catholic is yourself and all sentient beings, then you would not develop conflict of interest within yourself.
At the meantime, you may like to meditate on breathing, or meditate through oral invocation of Om Mani Padme Hum, or Namo Amitabha or Namo Nembutsu or Namo Amida Bu to entirely rid out your internal hormone imbalance of reincarnation within you :thumbsup:

Simonthepilgrim

Do you know Fr Anthony de Mello's book "Sadhana", Secret Girl?

mai_chop_gohok

hi secretgirl, it sounds a bit strange, when u say, that u r from marikina city and have no chance to visit manila.

on that small map on wikipedia marikina looks nearly like a part of manila :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marikina

in manila I can recommend this 2 tibetan groups :

http://palyulph.org/

http://www.nedobodhicenter.org/

I remember, that the second group has very good contacts to an organisation I feel could maybe be more useful for u than tibetans, but I cannot find anything about it on the web, it´s called something like "filipino buddhist christians" and I recommend u to contact the members of the kagyu tempel (nedobodhicenter.org) and ask about that, don´t worry to ask, they are very nice and helpful ppl.

best wishes for ur search,

Karl

xmarkclx

Hey SecretGirl! I'm also pure Filipino and am also born Catholic.
We have this facebook group called "Filipino Buddhism". It's over here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=59655725986

I think it would be cool if you would join there.

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For temples, I would recommend the Mabuhay temple. It's huge, high tech and classy. They also have a young adults group called YAD, which is kind of like YFC, with almost similar-sounding music too. This temple is really cool with lots of activities and free vegetarian food! (Malate, Manila)

http://fgsphilippines.org/

They have a facebook here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=59655725986#!/fgsphilippines

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I also hear about this Zen center founded by a catholic nun:

http://zencenterphil.wordpress.com/zen-center-philippines/zcp-a-zen-story/

They have a center in MARIKINA!
http://zencenterphil.wordpress.com/zen-center-philippines/where-we-are/marikina-zendo/

---

If you want a classroom where they teach Buddhism, meditation, etc. I find Ocean Sky Zen Monastery one of the best. (San Juan, Manila)

http://oceanskymonastery.blogspot.com/

---

And vipassana meditation, brought here by a catholic nun, which I've been to 2 times (1 sit 1 serve). Free food when you join a course! This is best if you want to learn meditation. (Cavite course, many member-led mini meditation sessions at their homes everywhere)

http://www.dhamma.org/

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There's a lot more but these have been what have helped me the most.

You can also just friend me on Facebook(send me your email then I'll add you) and I might be able to answer most of your questions. Since we're also almost on the same situation except that I started about 4 years ago and has been to a LOT of places since then.

I would like to end this comment with a quote from the Dalai Lama:

"Don't try to use what you learn from Buddhism to be a Buddhist;
use it to be a better whatever-you-already-are."
- Dalai Lama

With metta,
- Mark Christian