On the path

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vixian
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jul 14, 2013 11:33 pm
Location: Auckland

On the path

Post by vixian »

Hi All

I am new to the Buddhist journey but everything I have read and pondered hits resonant notes like nothing else I have been involved in including the ten years of evangelical Christianity.

Most of my life I have been lost and had a searching heart but was not ready or receptive to the truth so I lost myself in stimulants and academic learning of spiritual principles but with a total disconnect to me in the here and now. I cared little for my body - I let my heart and mind control me and remained happily (I thought) in a state of unconscious ignorance.

I learned TM several years ago and while a holy word and a method of sitting helped me relax I still did not really understand the nature of truth ... I saw through a glass darkly.

I then experienced some serious vascular health problems that resulted in my having a stent placed near the heart 3 years ago and the right femoral artery in my right leg removed last year.

This led me to get serious about life as I had been walking through fog for years without realising it.
I downloaded a compendium of Buddhist writing edited by Melvin McLeod and things started to open up to me. Since then I have been reading Lama Yeshe's writings and that of other Buddhists including His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I started to care for my body after years of chronic neglect and this too has really helped me to be present and connect ...

The honesty and realism is what is so refreshing - instead of starting out from a perspective of being sinful by nature Buddhism says that we simply learn to watch the mind to learn our true nature and that the truth is not "out there" in some indeterminate future.

Practice is not as easy as words on paper but the journey has started, everything in me cries "truth" ... I feel challenged and alive like never before and this is my first foray into community ... my history is of Lone Ranger as I liked to keep myself insulated from any form of challenge.

I look forward to learning from and encouraging others ...
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Ben
Posts: 18438
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:49 am
Location: kanamaluka

Re: On the path

Post by Ben »

Greetings Vixian and welcome to Dhamma Wheel!
Be sure to also check out our Mahayana and Vajrayana sister site: www.dharmawheel.net
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

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BlackAngelPlayah
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jul 14, 2013 7:44 am

Re: On the path

Post by BlackAngelPlayah »

This is such a wonderful post! And welcome. I'm new too, but this sees like a great place to learn. :)

:namaste:
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reflection
Posts: 1116
Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2011 9:27 pm

Re: On the path

Post by reflection »

Welcome! Have a nice time with Buddhism.
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mikenz66
Posts: 19944
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 7:37 am
Location: Aotearoa, New Zealand

Re: On the path

Post by mikenz66 »

Welcome!

:hello:

:anjali:
Mike
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DNS
Site Admin
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Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 4:15 am
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, Estados Unidos de América
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Re: On the path

Post by DNS »

Welcome to Dhamma Wheel!

:buddha1:
vixian
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jul 14, 2013 11:33 pm
Location: Auckland

Re: On the path

Post by vixian »

Thank you all ... I feel like Indiana Jones on a magnificent adventure.
Amazed at the constant puppetry of my mind but more to the point how I have not seen this until now.
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