How did you come to Buddhism? (poll)

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?

How did you come to Buddhism? (see post for elucidation)

1) Through meditation
35
30%
2) Through Dhamma
72
62%
3) I can't say I adopted Buddhism as a religion
9
8%
 
Total votes: 116

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samseva
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Re: How did you come to Buddhism? (poll)

Post by samseva »

Was interested in just basic meditation, then learnt about Zen (which I still deem in high regard), meditated daily and a few years later joined a Zendo. Learnt a bit about the teachings from a really good but short book and from Dharma talks at the Zendo. I enjoyed meditating, but I found that the theoretical aspect was missing. Bought some books, looked up the history of Buddhism and the different divisions and then found Theravāda was the closest to the original teachings. Studied, continued meditating, here I am.
dagon
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Re: How did you come to Buddhism? (poll)

Post by dagon »

Born in a Buddhist country to European parents. Brought up by Buddhist servants. Earliest memory was been taken to Swedagon Pagoda and been told repeat after me. :smile:

metta
dagon
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Wri
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Re: How did you come to Buddhism? (poll)

Post by Wri »

I came into Buddhism because of suffering and a gift from my mother.

LIFE STORY ALERT:

My first two years of university started by losing all the things I depended on for happiness my whole life. Making friends and finding a new girlfriend was proving impossible. I never had to make friends, I just always ended up with friends and girlfriends in high school. It was two years of nearly complete social isolation living in a small, filthy dorm room commonly infested with bugs that I had no compassion for. One day I crushed a moth though, and I actually cried. Small bugs and roaches were no problem to kill, but for some reason squishing a moth in my hand just hurt me so much.

Near the end of those two years I had lost a lot of control over myself. Hurting myself with my nails in public, hiding it. I didn't want anyone to notice, I was just losing control. I would come back to my dorm room and throw everything around and lay on the dirty hard fake tile floor and just weep, trying to suppress any sound so the neighbors wouldn't hear. I was ready to go to the hospital...after finals.

But my mom got me a book by Thich Nhat Hanh. "Anger" It brought Buddhism into my life. I researched more, came into Theravada. All my issues were gone in less than a month. I made it through finals. I spent every day that summer watching BuddhistSocietyofWA on Youtube; Ajahn Brahm and the gang. I spent that summer doing nothing but researching and meditating. It was wonderful. The next two years of University held some of the most beautiful moments of my life. I reached Jhanas (or what felt like them), socialized again with some absolutely wonderful Buddhists, became a leader to people, gave money a homeless man whom I saw become a hired man, and more. It was a wonderful awakening. I'm almost brought to tears at how beautiful it all was. Gosh, having insight meditations, slipping into a deep meditative state that lasted for hours, coming out of it and just writing and writing what I learned and then being able to share it with an audience of compassionate wonderful people.

So I'm three years a Buddhist now, and it's pretty much just another part of my life and I don't feel a solid "identity" with it anymore. It's just part of my life. But it gets me through everything :) And you've all been very awesome :heart:
Keep your mind steady and rest within the winds of experience.
May I show unconditional love to all beings.
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dhammafriend
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Re: How did you come to Buddhism? (poll)

Post by dhammafriend »

My journey to Buddhism

Largely raised by my Muslim grandparents, I never felt much of a connection to theism in general. Having bible study in public school and then attending madrassa in the later afternoons just raised more questions. I was never deeply invested in any form of theism.

I went through deism, atheism, new age yadda yadda. Being a troubled teen (weren't we all?) I came across Diamond Mind by Rob Nairn in my local library and tried meditation on my own. I was hooked on meditation from there. Meandered through 'Secular' Buddhism (a deeply unsatisfying experience) then Joined a Theravada focused group in my early 20's. From there, I eventually took refuge from a visiting Bhikkhu from Myanmar.

I've had the good fortune to meet many Thai folks living in my town and observed and participated in a living Buddhist tradition. Songkran, Magha Puja etc. I've been humbled by the sheer vastness, depth and complexity of the Buddhist tradition(s).

Over the past few years I've come to realise that my 'race' and cultural context played a big (albeit invisible) role in how and why I practice dhamma. This has now began to colour how I approach dhamma.
Metta
Dhammafriend

Natthi me saranam annam buddho me saranam varam
For me there is no other refuge, the Buddha is my excellent refuge.
Etena saccavajjena vaddheyyam satthu-sasane
By the utterance of this truth, may I grow in the Master’s Way.
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Crazy cloud
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Re: How did you come to Buddhism? (poll)

Post by Crazy cloud »

Through deep and painful experiences with the three characteristics, I slowly woke up to the eightfold path

:smile:
If you didn't care
What happened to me
And I didn't care for you

We would zig-zag our way
Through the boredom and pain
Occasionally glancing up through the rain

Wondering which of the
Buggers to blame
And watching for pigs on the wing
- Roger Waters
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Tex
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Re: How did you come to Buddhism? (poll)

Post by Tex »

I came to Buddhism through a college course called Non-Western Philosophy. In reading Nagarjuna, Shunryu Suzuki, and some others (but not a word by the actual Buddha), I knew there was something there that I wanted to explore. But I got busy with other classes (and other distractions), so Buddhism got filed in the Read More About This Someday folder.

Several years later, in 2007, I started revisiting a lot of the philosophy that had intrigued me in college. I read a bunch of Buddhist writings of all types and joined esangha.com and started digitally talking with Buddhists of many traditions. I settled on Theravada, fairly quickly, because of the unquestioned authenticity of the Pali Canon and the frankly less clear authenticity of the Mahayana texts.

So I came to Buddhism through study. Meditation was a later addition.

:buddha2:
"To reach beyond fear and danger we must sharpen and widen our vision. We have to pierce through the deceptions that lull us into a comfortable complacency, to take a straight look down into the depths of our existence, without turning away uneasily or running after distractions." -- Bhikkhu Bodhi

"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." -- Heraclitus
FutureBhikkhu
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Re: How did you come to Buddhism? (poll)

Post by FutureBhikkhu »

Zom wrote:
Zom, how did you come into contact with Buddhism?
My story is quite intriguing one. First time I heard the word "buddhism" when I was 15, in a funny context though. One guy said he was going to pretend that he is a buddhist because this way he wanted (somehow) to escape a conscription (perhaps appealing to ahimsa idea). Don't know if he succeeded though )) The second time I heard something about Buddhism in the University when I was (I think) 19 - however, I didn't pay attention and the only thing I remembered is that there were some "trance stages" (these were probably jhanas) and so called "4 truths", but at that time I paid no attention and couldn't even say with what topic these "truths" were dealing with.

However, "one lovely day", some 5-6 years later, I was sitting in my room and a really obsessional idea suddenly came to my mind: "The way you live your life is incorrect, you must find the way which is correct". This was a bit weird, because you know I was not Angulimala or something. I lived like all other people around me did. However the power of this single thought was so strong that the second thought came after: "If I'm to find the way, I should direct my attention to a religion, because it is this area which deals with such things". Internet was on hand, so I googled a bit. Before googling I realized that the only thing I knew on the topic - is that I don't believe in God so no need for me to look for Christianity. It was not that I had been a Christian before, actually I had never been interested in a religion at all - any religion. Just the very idea of God seemed unrealistic to me. On the other hand I recalled someone speaking about "eastern wisdom", so I decided to try that direction and googled for Hinduism - only to find something about "Krishna love" and "repeating mantras". I didn't like what I found so I switched to Buddhism - and the first information on the first page I found were just these Four Noble Truths - explained not in details though but just in some sentences - one per each Truth. I read these four lines and was thunderstruck. I was like --> :shock: I even remember that the next morning after that I awoke in fear that it was just a dream - all these "four truths", etc.

That's it - from this moment I immersed myself deep, full and wide in gathering any information I could find about Buddhism. I read a lot, every day, many many books, and this everyday reading continued for several years (we had almost nothing on Theravada at that time - only some Mahayana books and a lot on Vajrayana). So it took some time before I met Theravada and (later) before I could draw a difference between the schools. My wife at first was a bit frightened, because she saw something had happened to me - probably I was shining with a blissful neophyte aura :D Many years have gone since then but I'm completely satisfied and glad with what I've found. But, looking back - that was a weird day, a weird moment. There was no special event or smth for this to happen - but it did happen, suddenly and unexpectedly.
Thank you, Zom, for sharing your story. I hope your aura is still radiating!
Keep on developing the causes of the Ultimate. Moreover, use your ingenuity to find novel ways to do acts of Goodness.
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TheVeganBuddhist
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Re: How did you come to Buddhism? (poll)

Post by TheVeganBuddhist »

A video game.
“Here, O Sariputra, form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form, the same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness.”
- Heart Sutra
SarathW
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Re: How did you come to Buddhism? (poll)

Post by SarathW »

TheVeganBuddhist wrote:A video game.
A video game to a monk is a quite a leap!
Can you give bit more info about how did it happen?
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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TheVeganBuddhist
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Re: How did you come to Buddhism? (poll)

Post by TheVeganBuddhist »

SarathW wrote:
TheVeganBuddhist wrote:A video game.
A video game to a monk is a quite a leap!
Can you give bit more info about how did it happen?
The video game? I simply turned it on and was captivated by their nature, it lead me to seek information in the real world which eventually lead me to my first Temple.

I was then pointed into the direction of a monastery, I was told I needed formal study abroad so I ended up in Nepal. Years later I was ordained.

I still study everything I can find.
“Here, O Sariputra, form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form, the same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness.”
- Heart Sutra
Maitri
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Re: How did you come to Buddhism? (poll)

Post by Maitri »

I was reading about world religions in school and came across Buddhism. The seminal book that I connected with was World Religions: The Great Faiths Explored & Explained published by DK.

When I read about the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path I just remember thinking, "This is it." The profundity and simplicity of the Buddha's teachings drew me and I've been studying, practicing and trying to live the Buddha Dhamma ever since. I didn't actually start learning and practicing meditation until maybe a year or two after learning about the Dhamma. I did take refuge very quickly, however.

Something about how the book covered religion as an entire aspect of life as opposed to merely an intellectual construct immediately appealed to me. I had read other books, but it was very dry and academic and didn't engage me. Seeing the details of art, music, history and material culture was a profound shift in how I thought about religion as a whole.
"Upon a heap of rubbish in the road-side ditch blooms a lotus, fragrant and pleasing.
Even so, on the rubbish heap of blinded mortals the disciple of the Supremely Enlightened One shines resplendent in wisdom." Dhammapada: Pupphavagga

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/
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ihrjordan
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Re: How did you come to Buddhism? (poll)

Post by ihrjordan »

I found Buddhism through an online questionaire as to which religion would best suit me. I wanted to be in a religion because of a rap video about new age spirituality and weed...I find it all quite funny. 1. That I enjoyed music (let alone this coarse track) and 2. That my Kamma had manifested in such a way as to reveal to me the path to freedom in a hip-hop music video. Samsara is ridiculous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=205K9Pim2oE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Warning Vulgar language.
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dhammacoustic
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Re: How did you come to Buddhism? (poll)

Post by dhammacoustic »

Through Kurt Cobain, and the word nirvana.

I remember the first time I read the Buddha's words, I just sat and read for hours, like 10 hours straight. Took refuge on that day.
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No_Mind
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Re: How did you come to Buddhism? (poll)

Post by No_Mind »

Zom wrote: 3) I can't say I adopted Buddhism as a religion

You learnt about Buddhism somehow, however you don't accept core (one or some) Buddhist dogmas (as they explained canonically):

- Rebirth,
- Kamma/karma,
- Buddha's full enlightenment and his superhuman knowledges,
- Jhanas/dhyanas,
- Other planes of existence (which we don't see).
Thank you Zom for giving recognition through your poll to the third variety of Buddhists (Buddhism-lite as I like to call it).

I have always found it ironical that the only regularly visiting Indian "HinBudd" (my personal syncretic religion made of Vedanta Hinduism and Theravada Buddhism) in this forum does not believe in rebirth, karma, enlightenment, jhana, etc (is strong agnostic regarding them).

I learned about Buddha's life quite early .. maybe in kindergarten. I came to know of 4NT and 8FP as a 12 year old (in Grade 6, a two page lesson on Sramanas was part of history textbook). My current intense interest in study of Pali Canon is from summer of 2013.
"The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”― Albert Camus
new.antonio445
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Re: How did you come to Buddhism? (poll)

Post by new.antonio445 »

Through the dhamma and now starting meditation. Hello all :hello:
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