Belief is, however, where one has to start
In my experience, Tilt, that isn't true. I began in disbelief, distrust, suffering, etc. If it weren't for the Buddha's advice to the Kalamas, I wouldn't have undertaken to "test the system" to see if it worked. I'd already had decades of what I'll kindly call religious nonsense, all of which failed, so I was primed for Buddhism to be just another failure of promises. I had begun to believe the pop comment that, "life sucks and then you die." - that suffering would always win out in the end, no escape from it.
What drove me to try Buddhism was wanting relief from the suffering. What drove me to work at it was the advice to the Kalamas (badly summarized here) to not take the teachings on blind faith or the words of others, but to try it - come and see.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html for the Sutta in English.
So I started trying to live the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. In time I discovered that the Buddha was right, the Dhamma is true - it works. Suffering was defeated when I worked the program. Not only that but suffering was not all-powerful and destined to win - that was a very freeing experience. I began to understand some words I had read in Dhamma, like unbound, and liberation., and I could see how that could really be possible!
Two years later (almost) and I am still practicing. I've added things to my practice, like taking refuge daily and Metta meditation to "incline my mind," mindfulness and the Brahma Viharas, and emptiness practice. I have begun to call myself a Buddhist even though I don't accept everything that's out there. But I practice the Buddha's teachings - so what else would I write in the blank on the form I'm filling out?
Belief eventually became part of the picture, but it was far down the road from the starting point.
Hoo
