I’ve been seeking a spiritual path for most of my life without finding it, turned 40 late last year. Recently I’ve been studying various Buddhist teaching, mostly via audio books on the way to work and some reading. Its an amazing concept but Buddhism as a belief system is very widely distributed and there are a million flavors of it.
I’m hoping to find some advice on which of the many varieties of Buddhism might be a good fit for me. I am not seeking something very traditional with formal ceremonies and that require extremes of living like strict fasting or traveling to Tibet. From what little I have read a common thread seems to be that the journey mostly happens where you are right now and in the life you are living right now.
Most recently I’ve listen to an audio book called “After the ecstasy, the laundry” which was very good but left me with more questions than answers. I’m very much hoping someone on this site may be a practicing Buddhist that wouldn’t mind fielding some novice questions.
I personally like the approach of Chinese (Mahayana) Buddhism, which was originally a synthesis of the Theravadin variety and native Chinese Taoism. MB is not nearly as austere as Indian Buddhism, at least that’s not my recollection. Plus, as you noted, there are many schools including Japanese Zen but also purely devotional branches such as Pureland.
I’m afraid however that you probably will need to pick a path since the focus is going to be either on attaining enlightenment in this life through the rigors of meditation (e.g., Zen) or on building up good karma so as to be reborn on a higher plane that will be better suited to attaining enlightenment (e.g., Pureland).
Of course if you’re not ready to bet the ranch on Buddhism like moi and just find it fascinating, you can try reading some of the original sutras like the Lankavatara or Prajnaparamita Sutras.
Excellent advice, thank you. I just read some good summary material and so far it seems that in the west its zen that is the most popular. Tonight I’m going to focus on the original core teachings (4 truths etc) and go from there. Its quite an experience so far.
You might want to search around your local area for a Buddhist temple or learning center. There are a surprising number of them and in some surprising places. You could probably get many of your questions answered there. In my experience, Buddhists aren’t at all evangelical about their particular “brand” of spiritualism and will generally direct you based on your interests.
In fact Buddhist’s are forbidden from converting others.
The recommendation of looking for a temple is a good one. Finding a community, no matter how small, can make all the difference. I get so much out of attending, even though the one near me is actually Vietnamese!
Of course learning is learning however you make your way to it, so it’s not like you can get it wrong. When I first began it was just read, read, read. Then I found a community ! It’s so awesome when it happens.
I came in here to say this about Nichiren Buddhism. I met this guy who invited me to come to a service, and there was a lot of chanting. The chanting was pretty cool, but the group I met with was very pushy, and the guy told me that if I chanted enough, I would get whatever I wanted in life - like a new car - I remember he specifically mentioned a new car. That is so far outside my normal understanding of Buddhism that I was pretty turned off.
OP, you sound pretty Zen to me. I love Zen, because, if you’re into it, there can be a certain degree of ceremony, but generally speaking it is a very irreverent religion. The thing about Zen is, in order for it to work, in order to really understand the teachings, you have to meditate. And when I say ‘‘meditate’’ I mean just sit there a while and pay attention to whatever comes up. If you do this regularly I think you will find it makes a significant difference in your life. It certainly does for me. I will say, though, it takes a lot of discipline to sit every single day and meditate. I am a rather sporadic meditator myself… closer to once a week than once a day. It’s like exercise in the sense that you avoid doing it for so long and then when you actually do it, you think, ''Why didn’t I do this sooner?" Actually this thread inspired me to go meditate right now.
The beauty of it is, as long as you stay with your experience of the moment, there is no right or wrong way, you can’t screw it up. I have a lot of anxiety about larger existential questions in life, and focusing on the moment, and understanding that the moment is the only thing we really have, gives me peace of mind. It helps me to not get so involved in the mental chatter that so many of us struggle with. And there is scientific evidence indicating that this type of meditation raises your baseline mood and alleviates depression and anxiety, even allowing your brain to produce new cells and to change its structure.
The first book I ever read about Zen Buddhism was ‘‘Being Zen’’ by Ezra Bayda and it does a good job of introducing the concepts in a simple way. He has a sequel, ‘‘At Home in the Muddy Water’’ which is also good. And you can never go wrong with Thich Nhat Hanh.
I’m no expert, but I’ve been a regular ol’ lay Buddhist for about 10 years now. I would be happy to answer any questions you might have.
If we’re going Zen, I recommend ordering two things-
#1 Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. A friend gave me this book in college. Some of the parables and koans you’ll get right away. Others will take years to understand properly.
#2 an empty box. When the box comes, open it and see nothing. After a while, you will understand nothing. Then, carry out nothing to the recycling bin.
It’s been a long time so perhaps I’m mistaken, but I don’t think that koans are supposed to “mean” anything. In fact, I think a koan is supposed to be designed as a meaningful contradiction - something that makes sense on some level but on a deeper level is actually a contradiction.
Wikipedia states that it “is a story, dialogue, question, or statement, which is used in Zen-practice to provoke the “great doubt”, and test a student’s progress in Zen practice.” So perhaps many of them fall into the “test” category and therefore have to make some sort of sense of necessity since the person being tested will not have attained enlightenment.
But as I recall, provoking what wiki calls “the great doubt” always involves a contradiction since enlightenment cannot be expressed through language. In fact there are sutras that are nothing but contradictions, one after the other.
It was my understanding that generally, a koan’s purpose was to occupy and lock up the rational mind so that a person can be aware of understanding when it arises from the unconscious.
That is actually another school of Zen. I can’t remember the Japanese names but the Chinese name are Lin Chi and Tsao tung. It’s the former that uses koans while the latter uses a technique they call ‘quiet sitting’ that is very much like what you are describing.
