Extraverts in Buddhism?

[fivebells]

I am extremely extroverted. I have a great deal of energy, and humour is the bedrock of who I am. I don't mean always joking and laughing and refusing to take life seriously when the occasion is needed, but I'm light-hearted, and even in my lowest moments always see the light at the end of the tunnel. If I'm down, I ain't down for long, and I am sociable, voluble, articulate and ebullient.


I am also relatively pig-ignorant when it comes to the Buddha's teachings.

I would be devastated however, if anyone ever made this connection, and theorised that the type of person I am, blocks me from being the Buddhist I hope I am.

Wow, that's a lot of self concepts. OK, you can be a Buddhist, but you won't reach enlightenment until you die to all of them.

[Rui Sousa]

I'm curious to know though, how extraverts approach Buddhism, and whether they feel that their practice and experience of the Dhamma is different to that of introverts?

I would say that people who are extroverted might tend to focus their practice of the perfection of sila, and not so much on bhavana.

But... I am an ENTJ, according to the Myers-Briggs classification, and so I believe I fit into the extroverted basket, and I don't feel that to be the case.

Otherwise I can't think of nay difference in terms of practice of the Dhamma.

[Rui Sousa]

I am extremely extroverted. I have a great deal of energy, and humour is the bedrock of who I am. I don't mean always joking and laughing and refusing to take life seriously when the occasion is needed, but I'm light-hearted, and even in my lowest moments always see the light at the end of the tunnel. If I'm down, I ain't down for long, and I am sociable, voluble, articulate and ebullient.

I am also relatively pig-ignorant when it comes to the Buddha's teachings.

I would be devastated however, if anyone ever made this connection, and theorised that the type of person I am, blocks me from being the Buddhist I hope I am.

I hope being funny and energetic is not an obstacle in the path.

As you I feel that this way of acting is not an option, that is the latent tendency in my mind-continuum (or the bedrock of who I am), I just try to accept it and to understand it with proper attention.

[nomad]

Wow. I’ve re-written a response to this thread about 15 times now. I wish I knew why it was so hard for me to write responses for this forum… Anyway, I’m mainly an introvert, but I can turn into an extravert if I’m in a comfortable crowd of people or doing some activity that I enjoy. My Dhamma study and practice has been mainly influenced by my introvert personality side because to me, the Dhamma is the most important aspect of my life. There’s always a fear in the back of my mind that I’m going to miss something if I don’t take it seriously.

~nomad