Buddhism
Posted by Anonymous on Jul 08, 2007 · Member since Dec 1969 · 11789 posts
I have noticed on the profiles here that many of you are Buddhist. I have always been interested but can't seem to get started. Does anyone have any information on the best way to get started with this? I would appreciate your comments. Thank you in advance!!
I'm NOT a Buddhist, but my best friends husband is.
I guess the first place to start is with research. You can use the web to find out about books that would be good to read. I would say get to know the history of Buddhism and find out if it is actually what you really believe. Then I would say find a Buddhist temple in your area. It might be kind of scary visiting alone, so maybe have a friend come with you when you visit.
My co-worker married a Buddhist woman and he says they're just as many beautiful, true believers mixing with hypocrites as in any other philosophy. The sect, or whatever it's called, believes they should have no free time to stray away, so she has to spend her weekends doing errands and chores for her group. I don't think they're all that extreme.
I absolutely adore Thich Nhat Hahn. He's a Buddhist monk originally from Vietnam. He now lives in France and tours the world. He'll be in the U.S. this fall. He has such a wide appeal that there will be a lot of people who aren't traditionally Buddhist attending his activities. There are a lot of monestaries that have weekend retreats. You could call a local monestary and ask if there are retreats for "beginners." At Thich Nhat Hahn's retreats they seperate you into smaller groups by area where you live, so you can meet other people living in your area and develop a support group.
His main site is http://www.plumvillage.org/retreat/html/calendar.htm, from there you can get tour information.
Here are a couple of Buddhist centers not too far from you Gammon:
http://www.rimecenter.org/
http://www.pitch.com/search/locations.php?oid=5578
Here is a new book I find it easy to read even for non- Buddhist to start. You can find out what is the main practice (meditation) or purpose (compasion) for or become Buddhist. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307346250/104-7347748-4938327
Okay. So I got my head out of my arse and looked at your profile. I'm not sure where you are in Kansas.
Wichita
http://www.meditateinkansas.org/
The Kalpa Bhadra Meditation Center in Wichata has beginning classes and would be a good place to start. They have classes at their place and last month they had a couple of lectures at a Borders Bookstore.
Kansas City
Both of the ones firefightress listed are in Kansas City, I think.
http://www.rimecenter.org/retreats.cfm
They have a beginner's one day retreat coming up on July 12.
http://theamericanbuddhistcenter.org/
I decided to add the link for Deer Park Monestary. It's in California, but it posts Thay's (Thich Nhat Hahn's) lectures in podcast and video. He's simply amazing. MLK, Jr. nominated him for a nobel peace prize way back when, but he didn't get it. I'm not sure who it went to that year.
http://www.deerparkmonastery.org/
On the left hand side of the screen there's a toolbar. If you put your cursor over "Dharma Talks" you get the options.
I decided to add the link for Deer Park Monestary. It's in California, but it posts Thay's (Thich Nhat Hahn's) lectures in podcast and video. He's simply amazing. MLK, Jr. nominated him for a nobel peace prize way back when, but he didn't get it. I'm not sure who it went to that year.
http://www.deerparkmonastery.org/
On the left hand side of the screen there's a toolbar. If you put your cursor over "Dharma Talks" you get the options.
I'm so glad you posted that humboldt_honey.
I have deep admiration for Thich Nhat Hahn too. Recommend that you read his book, "Peace Is Every Step" http://www.amazon.com/Peace-Every-Step-Mindfulness-Everyday/dp/0553351397/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-8456819-9046463?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183943268&sr=8-1
which is a favorite of mine. He doesn't load you down with unfamiliar Buddhist terms, or anything like that. The Vietnamese monk writes simply - yet profoundly and eloquently - about embracing mindfulness in everything you do, breathing, eating, washing dishes.
I also suggest that you, or anybody else on this board to come to Los Angeles on September 29. He will be leading a Peace Walk(free event) at MacArthur Park at 9:30 a.m. that day, and giving a talk at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium(need to get tickets for) that evening at 7 p.m.
I went last time he was here and it changed my life.
As many buddhist teachers have attested, much more important than reading buddhist doctrine or learning buddhist beliefs is one's meditation practice. This is where the benefits of buddhism come from. Everything else, in my opinion -- all the books and doctrine -- are just to slightly improve your meditation experience and help you retain your calm once you've stopped meditating. So if you want to "get started" with a buddhist practice, it's as easy as sitting down and focusing on the feeling of your breath for ten minutes each day. That will serve you better than reading any hundred buddhists text without a meditation practice. Toward that end, here's a great (and reasonably short) buddhist meditation guide. I have read and reread it -- it is wonderful.
http://www.budsas.org/ebud/mfneng/mind0.htm
Good luck!
Thanks for the link, Cephi. I've browsed it and look forward reading it more thouroughly.
I have a hard time slowing my mind down. Part of what it said at the link is, "All meditation procedures stress concentration of the mind, bringing the mind to rest on one item or one area of thought. Do it strongly and thoroughly enough, and you achieve a deep and blissful relaxation which is called Jhana."
I have a super hard problem with that because I'm a tightly wound Type A personality. I find that if I read or listen to a bit of Thay it calms me down and I can procede with my attempt. I can say honestly that I've never accomplished deep and blissful relaxation, but I get closer to it if I'm around someone who is calm, so I use his writings or recordings as proxy.
You seem like such a cool person. :) Think about your exact opposite and that's about where I am.
Buddhist practice can bring so much peace to your heart and life. I think that the studies are as important as meditation, that both go hand-in-hand and are much more helpful together than apart, but whatever works for you is what you should do, and that's where I find the true beauty in buddhism.
Also, there are so many kinds of buddhism. It doesn't mean you have to choose, but it helped me to understand some of the essence that runs through all buddhist teachings when I looked at the differences (Nichiren, Zen, Tibetan, etc.).
I also have to say that community can be really helpful to get you going where you want to go in Buddhism. I really enjoyed sharing with a buddhist groups on campus and visiting with various buddhists that I have met throughout my buddhist time. At some point I also realized that some people are buddhist at heart without knowing it, but I listen to them and I know they have a lot of the peace that I am looking for in buddhism, but they never looked for it under that name.
If you are really interested I feel that you should learn about the conception of Buddhism, begin in the beginning, here is one source....
http://www.serve.com/cmtan/LifeBuddha/buddha.htm
If you search for: Siddhattha Gotama
You should find all of the historical information that you need. I strongly urge you to read about his life and what he went through to attain nibbana. ;)
You should find all of the historical information that you need. I strongly urge you to read about his life and what he went through to attain nibbana.
Ok, I've been resisting, but now I just can'thelp it.
What's with the spelling changes???
I was somewhat confused to see what I thought was Dharma and Karma from the descriptions on the one site, but spelled differently. and like the poster above, you are referring to nirvana I'm guessing??
Japanese romanization is on it's third version now. :P I HATE having to search through archives that have only romanized Japanese. It's a nightmare because of that. So are these the new official romanizations? And if you happen to know, when did this change occur?
thanks!
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Ferret Research: http://ferretknots.blogspot.com/
Ferret Resources: http://nippynihon.blogspot.com/
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You should find all of the historical information that you need. I strongly urge you to read about his life and what he went through to attain nibbana.
Ok, I've been resisting, but now I just can'thelp it.
What's with the spelling changes???
I was somewhat confused to see what I thought was Dharma and Karma from the descriptions on the one site, but spelled differently. and like the poster above, you are referring to nirvana I'm guessing??
Japanese romanization is on it's third version now. :P I HATE having to search through archives that have only romanized Japanese. It's a nightmare because of that. So are these the new official romanizations? And if you happen to know, when did this change occur?
thanks!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ferret Research: http://ferretknots.blogspot.com/
Ferret Resources: http://nippynihon.blogspot.com/
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You can use any variation for the words that you would like, the meanings are still the same. I added the link to only one of the many different sources for the story of his life.
I am in the process of writing a book in which I am using Pali terminology which for Nirvana (Sanskrit) is Nibbana. I am only researching back to 600-500 BCE so unfortunately I cant tell you anything about the other versions or changes made after those dates. :(
What's with the spelling changes???
I was somewhat confused to see what I thought was Dharma and Karma from the descriptions on the one site, but spelled differently. and like the poster above, you are referring to nirvana I'm guessing??
Japanese romanization is on it's third version now. :P I HATE having to search through archives that have only romanized Japanese. It's a nightmare because of that. So are these the new official romanizations? And if you happen to know, when did this change occur?
thanks!
You can use any variation for the words that you would like, the meanings are still the same. I added the link to only one of the many different sources for the story of his life.
I am in the process of writing a book in which I am using Pali terminology which for Nirvana (Sanskrit) is Nibbana. I am only researching back to 600-500 BCE so unfortunately I cant tell you anything about the other versions or changes made after those dates. :(
So there's really no standard?
With Japanese also, you can find 2 of the 3 romanizations still in use in the laymans arena, but
I more curious about a scholarly perspective. I can't imagine it's just a spelling free for all. ;)
I thought there was a linguist here on veg web. Where is s/he lurking?
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Ferret Research: http://ferretknots.blogspot.com/
Ferret Resources: http://nippynihon.blogspot.com/
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Thank you all for the info! I have picked up a couple of the books that you recommended and have been reading about this on different web pages. I have got alot of good information. Thich Nhat Hahn wrote a book titled "Anger" I have picked this up as well and it is very good. Thanks again for all the help and I appreciate everyones friendship on here, it is nice to know that you can just get on here and talk to friends. You will never know how much that means to me right now!!! It's always good to see the familiar (faces) names!!!
Just to add... for books and authors. Anything by Pema Chodron is usually really good. She has so much insight, and even though I'm not technically a buddhist, I found a lot of very helpful things in her writing and some others.
Just to add... for books and authors. Anything by Pema Chodron is usually really good. She has so much insight, and even though I'm not technically a buddhist, I found a lot of very helpful things in her writing and some others.
I second that.
I was going to start a new thread for this, but it's pretty on-topic in this one.
I don't call myself a buddhist, but I study buddhist doctrine and practice buddhist meditation. I have felt conflicted about one particular issue. I have a very hard time accepting the Dalai Lama as a spiritual guide... on account of his omnivorism. For me, it comes down to the basic point that omnivorism is an important moral error, and I have a hard time accepting a spiritual guide who indulges in important moral errors. What do y'all think about this? Is anyone else troubled by it? Do spiritual guides need to be moral beacons? Or maybe is omnivorism not immoral, or just not in the Lama's case, or what?
I also find it difficult to accept that his health truly does require that he eat meat.
Thanks Cephi. Good point. I am still really new to this but as far as I was concerned, The Dalai Lama is not so much the spiritual guide as much as the Dahrma and the teachings of the Buddah. I could be off base with this but that is what I understand IMO. You have a very interesting point though, thanks for the topic!
Cephi,
From what you wrote I can tell you are not Buddhist. If you do not take refuge and presets, you can’t call yourself Buddhist even you practice Buddhism. So it is fine to question Dalai Lama’s omnivorous. I hope I can response to your questions. All Chinese monks and nuns are required to be vegetarian. And Tibetan lamas are also moving toward it too. HH Gyalwang Karmapa required all lamas under Kagyu lineage practice vegetarian. Under Buddhist teaching do not require lay people become vegetarian but it come naturally when cultivate compassion to all being (not just animal, also people you hate and your enemy.) It all comes from when we take the preset of no killing. No killing of all beings and no harm to all beings including bugs. This kind of compassion and escalate to Bodhicitta and achieve Buddhahood is a very long path. Sometime it takes many reborn. A Buddhist lay people do not question monks, nun, and lama’ s “moral error” because they are suffering human beings just like me and the different is they wear robs. Also it depends on if they break any presets, it will be deal within the shangas. It is not for me to judge Dalai Lama. He calls himself “just a simple monk.” Also we saw people call themselves Buddhist but behave badly or I heard hypocrites, give them compassion. Buddhist are not saint or be held higher standard otherwise we don’t need to practice at all.
I offend a friend of mine when she asks me a question. If you only have $100 US dollars, you can save 100 children in Africa from starving to death or a dying dog right in frond of you (we all know how expensive vet bill here?) I said the dog. She is so furious because I value a dog’s life over 100 human beings. I want to explain there is a “karma distant” when we make choices and we responsible for the karma afterwards. There is a reason (connection) that this dog is right in front of me, 100 children is intangible to me. For human beings, there is fortunate one like us without hunger (even can choose our own diet), disease and war. There are unfortunate ones suffer from them. There are animals lucky enough to come to our home and treated even better than a lots of human beings in the world. There are unfortunate animals raised and slaughtered as food. This is all our karma to lead us to what and where we are. We do our best to save them all. We dedicate merits to all beings including these animals slaughtered soon to reborn and free from suffering. Now answer you assumption “basic point that omnivorism an important moral error’” actually is “emptiness.” My English is not so good, and I hope I express a Buddhist point of view clearly.
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