Why Did You Turn To Buddhism, And In Particular, The Sect You Chose?

[rockyysdt]

I often wonder why people turn to Buddhism.

The difference between Mahayana & Theravada for example is quite marked, offering different appeal and requiring different levels of faith.

Personally I've suffered chronic health issues/symptoms for most of my life.

A lot of suffering and very little meaning or purpose.

In my case there don't seem to be alternatives with which I can make sense of my life.

With the passing of youth time has become a luxury so action was needed.

Buddhism also fits into my belief that reward comes through effort.

For me, Theravada was more appealing as it 's closer to the Buddhas original teachings.

The possibility of personal experience in this lifetime was critical.

Christianity has two great flaws.

Firstly it is one of many faiths (which one do you accept as the real one), and you must die to realize its promise or lack of one.

What was it in life that sparked the interest?

Also why gravitate to a specific sect?

[Xangsamhua]

I don't claim to be a Buddhist, or anything really any more - just another dewdrop on Indra's Web - but being married to a Buddhist for 39 years I've had to take some interest and learn a bit. Living in Laos and Thailand for 17 years obliges one to learn a bit, too, out of respect for one's hosts if for no other reason.

I think a more substantial reason though was meeting with Bhikkhu Khantipalo in Melbourne about 1983 and then spending some days with him (and others) at Wat Buddha Dhamma, a lovely, peaceful place near Wiseman's Ferry, west of Sydney.

In recent years, being a bookish and curious person, I decided to embark on more substantial reading of Buddhism as a follow-through of my MA in Theology. That has kept me busy and I've found the different traditions and schools of thought interesting. I now practise sitting zazen daily, having settled (for the moment) in the Ordinary Mind school of Soto Zen. Joko Beck had an impact on me, and now I connect with the Treeleaf online Zen community.

So I guess my interest in ("turn to") Buddhism is based on curiosity, and later a wish for a meaningful practice. I've led a fortunate life in which suffering has been a very minor player. I live with angst though, knowing that things can change at any time. Buddhism helps one to live with that. It's not the only philosophy that helps (the philosophy of Schopenhauer is a gift, too), but it is very sensible and is accompanied by the helpful, perhaps life-changing practice of mindfulness, both in sitting and in everyday life.

[rockyysdt]

I see two levels of benefit with practicing Buddhism.

The first is the improvement of ones daily life simply by practicing Mindfulness as well as the calm and poise which permeates ones being through stillness of mind.

The second is to have a practice which has the potential of revealing the meaning/purpose of life.

I'd say your passion for literature as well as your partners influence has been very rewarding.

Zen sounds very appealing to me due to its simplicity although I haven't examined it enough to know how deep beliefs go when gauged against Vipassana & Mahayana.

If Buddhism is what the Buddha claimed, then your curiosity and environment, and my lifes aversion have helped us onto the path.

There are probably scores of interesting reasons for many to be attracted to the path.

I also see very many more who are enfaticaly averse to Buddhism.

The difference is perhaps subtle but can have powerful effects.

I don't claim to be a Buddhist, or anything really any more - just another dewdrop on Indra's Web - but being married to a Buddhist for 39 years I've had to take some interest and learn a bit. Living in Laos and Thailand for 17 years obliges one to learn a bit, too, out of respect for one's hosts if for no other reason.

I think a more substantial reason though was meeting with Bhikkhu Khantipalo in Melbourne about 1983 and then spending some days with him (and others) at Wat Buddha Dhamma, a lovely, peaceful place near Wiseman's Ferry, west of Sydney.

In recent years, being a bookish and curious person, I decided to embark on more substantial reading of Buddhism as a follow-through of my MA in Theology. That has kept me busy and I've found the different traditions and schools of thought interesting. I now practise sitting zazen daily, having settled (for the moment) in the Ordinary Mind school of Soto Zen. Joko Beck had an impact on me, and now I connect with the Treeleaf online Zen community.

So I guess my interest in ("turn to") Buddhism is based on curiosity, and later a wish for a meaningful practice. I've led a fortunate life in which suffering has been a very minor player. I live with angst though, knowing that things can change at any time. Buddhism helps one to live with that. It's not the only philosophy that helps (the philosophy of Schopenhauer is a gift, too), but it is very sensible and is accompanied by the helpful, perhaps life-changing practice of mindfulness, both in sitting and in everyday life.

Edited June 29, 2011 by rockyysdt

[fabianfred]

I started out reading the books of Lobsang Rampa which talked about Tibet, but after visiting Thailand became interested in studying more about their Theravada, and ended up preferring its simplicity.

[RickThai]

Hello rockyysd;

I started looking at Buddism after almost dying from End-stage-liver disease. After regaining my life, I had become more spiritual and realized that there was much more to life, than self-gratification and getting things. I studied Hinduism a little and then turned to Buddishm because I liked the fact that it was concerned primarily with becoming a better person through practising its precepts and was more focussed on an individual's spirituality, rather than building up the religion to make it more powerful (and profitable).

As to your comment : "The second is to have a practice which has the potential of revealing the meaning/purpose of life."

From my limited understanding of Buddhism, the Buddha preached that searching for those kind of answers was bacially a waste of your time and counter to his teachings. The primary goal was to obtain enlightenment whereby you realized that life (and death) was impermanent and merely transientory.

However, I could be wrong, and I'm sure there are more qualifed individuals than me to digress on this point.

With Respect,

RickThai

[chutai]

Personally began when it all seemed to start in the West on a large scale - the 60's when searching for something other than post WW2 affluence became almost the norm for many of my generation. Along with using a key that took many , too far, too soon I'd always have a copy of Zen Flesh ,Zen Bones on hand and read DT Suzuki and Christmas Humphreys.

Around the end of the 1960's I had a friend who's been introduced to the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin, and although it wasn't my time to take take it up seriously, the mantra of Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo was never buried too deeply in my karmic storehouse to be forgotten and periodically arose almost involuntarily.

The journey from there took me into some involvement with Tibetan Mahayana and a largely intellectual conviction towards Theravada. Neither though actually made much difference to my habitual life-state , or deeply ingrained karmic tendencies. It was only when I picked up chanting again - this time seriously - and along with study did things start to change to take me beyond only the level of appearance and form - a gazing at the moon , not directly , but as an image reflected on water. It has been the case over the past fifteen years that my human revolution/mental transformation has coincided with a more simple - but no less profound - understanding that Buddhism = everyday life. Ridiculously easy and simplistic as that seems, it nevertheless escaped me for decades and takes an awful long time for many to realise, The shedding off trappings of religious transcendentalism that has been so part of our philosophy and has been ingrained from the formative years of childhood is no easy thing ; anymore than is still holding an inclination towards theism in some guise : sometimes more subtle, sometimes more overt.

It can be a long and arduous journey, yet the essence of Buddha consciousness is still within each of us and as long as we keep polishing the mirror of practice we are sure to eventually reveal the underlying dynamics driving all phenomena - the true nature of existence.

Edited June 30, 2011 by chutai

[huli]

I wouldn't mind throwing in my two cents here. I was raised Catholic, was an altar boy, attended Catholic school for 9 years, and knew nothing else. I understood that I would go to heaven or hell depending on my behavior, and had concerns there. I could never understand or accept the idea that some African could never go to heaven because he never accepted JC, when he had no chance to ever hear about him. Then in my 20s, I read The World's Religions by Houston Smith and was blown away by the descriptions of Hinduism and Buddhism. I was relieved to hear of religions that didn't rely on acceptance of the Catholic world-view. Some time later, I read Think on these Things by Krishnamurti, and that set me off to reading nearly all of his books for the next 20 years or so. Then I got into Joel Goldsmith, especially A Parenthesis in Eternity. He's a Christian mystic, I just ignored the Christian stuff, but reading him really gave me an experience of a quiet meditative awareness. I really felt I was changing for the better.

For the past 10 years or so, I have been studying Buddhism almost exclusively. I don't think there is any need to study anything else anymore as Buddha explained the mind in exquisite detail. I don't think I completely understand it all, but enough to see truth in it. I do samatha meditation most days for the past few months, and have tasted some benefit there, enough to make me want to continue or even increase this practice.

My Buddhist interest is almost exclusively in the Theravada. I suspect Zen has some good points to consider. Other than that, I don't buy into the Mahayana conceptions. I abhor the fact that a lot of it sounds like the Christianity I left, with all the heavens and heavenly beings, for example. I really don't see why the Buddhists didn't stick with the original Buddhism and the original sutras, and just follow what Buddha said. So, naturally I am inclined to the Theravada tradition. It doesn't hurt that I live in Chiang Mai and have a Thai wife who wants to be a good Buddhist. The fact that Thailand's Buddhism is Theravada has always added to my fascination with this place.

[IMA_FARANG]

Well to make the story short...I started as a "Christian", and it was assumed that was what I would be for me while I was still young. I didn't seem to have any choice in the matter at the time.

So in college I discovered Buddhisim, and specifically Zen. It was a way to get outside of what my parents had decided for me previously.

Then "real life" intervenied. I joined the military, I got married, I had a career..etc.

In my late 30's a lot of those assumptions I had made when I was 20 something seemed hollow...they just didn't fit with my personal experience.

My almost 20 year old interest with Buddisim came back to me and I resumed studying it. The more I read and studied the more interested I became.

Now I am in my 60's and am retired and living in Thailand...and still trying to expand my study of Buddhisim as widely as possible.

My nature I guess is to be somewhat of a "rebel" and that drives my personal preference to Zen...as it is to me less "organized" and structured than other varients of Budhhisim, but that is a personal choice for me, not something I would try to force on others.

Also in my late 50's (I'm 65 now)I had some helath problems...now basially ended...that made me decide that it was time to get more serious about Buddhisim.

Now that I am here in Bangkok I am making an attempt to learn as much as I can about Theravada. I was surprised by some of the things I found in Theravada that impressed me....BUT....I still don't feel comfortable with the organized and structured feel of Theravada. As I said before, I am a rebelious type of person by nature...and when I hear someone tell say what they assume I am supposed to think...I immediately want to ask why? I want to have things explained to me, not be told why I have to believe it a certain way.

But I guess that's just my nature, again.

I also used to be a very easily angered person, with a bad temper. At least Buddhisim has helped me curb that anger...and hopefully, learn detachment. So,I've become much more mellow and easy-going these days. I guess that is a benefit anyhow.

But that's another topic.

Edited July 1, 2011 by IMA_FARANG