What brought you to Buddhism?

other people actually. all my life ive been rather neutral on pretty much every topic that people spend their entire lives debating, and when they asked me my point of view, id simply say an opinion that didnt really conform to one side or the other (except for murder, rape etc, and im still working on those), so everyone kept saying "what are you a buddist?" - so eventually i started reading books and researching it, talking with others that followed the same train of thought, and here i am. what i like about it is that it doesnt conform to anything, and i think in order to think with a truly open mind thats essential, as soon as you take a side, the other automatically seems wrong, and i dont want to do that. plus, budda has a pot belly, and is still laughing, whereas other gods are chisled muscle and always mad.

a religion that combines them all....mankind..

Buddhism takes the middle way.....not too regimented & not too loose ....it also doesn't take itself too seriously

I just want to say I highly respect buddhism. I am spiritual, but my personal truths are almost identicle to buddhism. The only difference is that I see myself as Part of the whole. Not parts of the whole. But part of the whole.

I went to buddhism when the stillness of the flow of my life had finished it's turn, and movement was to come back into my world. I started practicing buddhism - and slowly and successfuly I made it so that I live now in a new country, in a long term relationship, with beautiful people around me.

Buddhism and Taoism come and go from me in turns, like inhale and exhale. now taoism manifests as a me that likes to sit alone and do nothing, buddhism comes with a desire to positively change the world and help others escape.

I was just a kid, trying to be "spiritual" which by that time in my understanding was translated mroe to "coolness" than something useful. I dont mean cool like being cool to others. But I was so inspired by things that looked psychedelic and all the stories I had read about LSD, Psilocybin, Mescaline and DMT.

I started smoking pot, that's when the real "change" came. Cannabis brought some positive things to my life in the spiritual nature, it awoke me to the fact that life is spiritual. I Used other nature drugs like Morning Glory seeds and other LSA containing seeds. I still was very naive and just wanted to be like Jim Morrison or something similar.

One day I went to the library. I am not sure why but I decided I wanted to read something. I borrowed the book "Journey into Nature" by Michael J. Roads. This one opened my eyes more, I recognized alot in the book and started to develop a deeper understanding for the nature as well as my true nature.

I later when I was 18 I think borrowed the book "The Tibetan book of Living and Dying" by Sogyal Rinpoche. Although I'd been interested in the Asian continent since I was 13 and tried to learn Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, well, (most of the languages there for shorter or longer periods until I gave up :P )

I had a break from weed after a very bad trip on LSA. But later when I was about 21 I took it up again. And together with it came the hunger for knowledge. I watched everything from movies like "What the bleep do we know", "Atom" and other mind blowing documentaries about our micro and macro cosmos. Soon I started to watch more Buddhist documentaries as well as reading more books on Buddhism.

Weed didn't do anything but giving me a headache anymore, and I grow tired of always being tired, so I stopped.

I read the book "Jesus and Buddha as Brothers" by Thich Nhat Hanh, and opened my eyes for what I would call "real" Christianity as well, and how similar Siddharthas and Jesus original words (or the version we got of them) where.

I opened up even more and read alot about Muhammad, and alternative stories about Jesus (like the story that he died in kashmir, and that he spent his lost years there in his youth practicing in the Buddhistic monastary, which doesn't seem too unlikely to me, after all, 3 wise men/kings from east where supposed to have come and give him gifts. And we all know the Tibetan tradition of astrology and finding the incarnation of some great former master.

I later learned more about Vajrayana and Zen, and today I wouldn't call mjyself a Buddhist, although I read sutras daly, practice Yoga, mindfulness and Meditation. But to me that is the true teachings of Jesus as well as Muhammad, Lao Tzu, Jalaluddin Rumi, Siddhartha, padmasambhava, Dogen or even more recent masters like Gandhi, Dalai Lhama, Dilgo Kyentse Rinpoche, Dharma Sangha, Dan Millman etc.
"All roads lead to Rome"
Authentic Sufism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christianity, Pantheism etc. They all carry the same message of liberation and of peace, wisdom and compassion.
It's when people start to view those masters as supernatural and something more than themselves the typical Religion is created. In Reality they all carry the same goal, just have different words and cultural differences between them
And a statement on God. many people say there is no God in Buddhism, but that's not entirely true.
First of, there are many deities in Buddhism, but they are only symbols of states hidden within us, states we all can reach and become, they are ment to be inspirations.

Then someone in the movie "Oh my God" said a very wise thing on god, the dialog went something like this:
Reporter: "Do you believe that God exists?"
A Guy: "No"
Reporter: "So you don't believe in God?"
A guy: "I Do..." .... "I just don't think existence is something that you can relate to God"...

In the same way Buddhis, doesn't deny any God, they simply put no weight on it, and they completely deny a God that would be somewhat similar to a human and judgmental and someone who you should fear and follow blindly.
Everything = Consciousness
God = The sum of everything.
Aum... The universal vibration where everything rises from.

At least that's my understanding on the subject.

[FindingMyself]

Honestly, one of the big things that leads me to hesitate considering myself a full-out Buddhist, other than being very new to it, is the fact that I do not feel connected to the Asian culture of its origin. So, for now, I consider myself "Zennist", one who studies Zen Buddhism without being Buddhist.

Star Wars!

Old Ben Kenobi was my childhood hero and serves as my role model for how to be peaceful and one with nature (along with Yoda). I later read that alot of the Star Wars teachings were of Buddhist origin.

Also, I was looking up inspirational quotes and quotes about fear and other negative things, and the quotes that I liked the most for overcoming negativity where from Buddha or well known buddhists like Dalai Lama.

I have a respect for Buddhism and I have been recently quite intrigued by it's ideals. I have researched Buddha and also the laughing Buddha of China and I enjoy researching it's messages. I think with a bit more of a nudge I would definitely consider completely converting from an agnostic spiritualist to a Buddhist as I'm starting to think that we cannot ever really know 'the answer' and the only thing we CAN do is to find peace within ourselves as individuals - or 'awaken'.

[Samana]

Originally Posted by Castles

I have a respect for Buddhism and I have been recently quite intrigued by it's ideals. I have researched Buddha and also the laughing Buddha of China and I enjoy researching it's messages. I think with a bit more of a nudge I would definitely consider completely converting from an agnostic spiritualist to a Buddhist as I'm starting to think that we cannot ever really know 'the answer' and the only thing we CAN do is to find peace within ourselves as individuals - or 'awaken'.

Hi Castles,

The 'laughing Buddha of China' is a Chinese folklore deity and shouldn't be confused with the historical Buddha Shakyamuni or his teachings.

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

with kind wishes,

Samana