Western Buddhists--why did you become a Buddhist?

Great Debates
1

This question is NOT for those who were raised in a predominantly Buddhist environment–it’s for those who converted from Western Judeo-Christian religions or who were areligious.

I was just curious about what made you decide, “Yep, that’s the way the world works.” Specifically, as an atheist, I get a lot of Buddhists who tell me, “well, you don’t have to believe in God to be a Buddhist.”

True. (Leaving out the 9,000 Hindu gods and demons that may be believed in, but not worshipped.) But you do generally have to believe in an endless cycle of reincarnation–a leap of faith as enormous as believing in God.

So, for me, I can never make that mental leap from the Western (God’s in charge, good vs. evil, etc.–even though I don’t believe it…) view to the Eastern (endless cycle of rebirth=endless suffering…?) one. What pushed you over to the other side?

2

You don’t have to believe in reincarnation either, although many Buddhists do. Siddhartha Gautma, himself, made some comments baout reinacarnation that would sem to indicate that he didn’t believe in it either.

Some Buddhists believe in gods and spirits but uit’s not a requirement to believe in those either.

There are many different kinds of Buddhism with even more diversities in doctrine than Christianity. Not all Buddhists believe the same things.

To answer the OP: I was vey attracted to Zen because of the cleanness of its philosophy and its over all rationalism. Zen requires no supernatural beliefs at all. Some would say it’s not even a true religion but a pure philosophy. Whatever you want to call it, I’m fascinated by it’s insights, I have benefited from meditation and simply feel a personal affinity for it. It suits me psychologically and asthetically. That’s about all there is to it.

3

I am not claiming that I know more by any means… but you might want to educate yourself a little more on Buddhism vs. Hinduism. They are not one in the same. They have very distinct characteristics, toadspittle.

As FYI… I know a lot of people that converted to Hinduism because they hate that other religions are just plain wrong from the Western fundamentalist viewpoint. I don’t know of anyone who is claiming to be Buddhist, though. But I know that Hinduism and Buddhism are considerably different. Damn… now I have to go get my world religions book out and re-educate myself.

4

I consider myself a Buddhist, and have been trained in the Tibetan Mahayana tradition. The draw to me was immediate; I was raised by Californian biologist/scientist parents (the state does make a difference, as to the 60’s-70’s time frame), and trained, in the best spirit of that time, to observe nature, and appreciate all creatures and the environment; a very literal interpretation of the world.

At 12, I was drawn to the writings of Thoreau, was obsessed, and then to Ghandi. I remember at that age, the concept of Heaven and Hell seemed simplistic, and I was looking for other answers. I started reading Buddhist writings at 15, but it didn’t really click until my mid-twenties. The main appeal was that Buddhism encourages you to always examine the world, and yourself, at the moment, to understand the world. That jibed nicely with the scientific upbringing.

In the past decade, I’ve learned more of the devotional side of Buddhism. I’d tried Zen, but it didn’t take too well. Tibetan clicked immediately; it utilizes a panoply of visual techniques that are more suited to my mind. I’ve got a really active “hummingbird” mind, and have found Tibetan teachings to help calm that. The Mahayana teachings of the bodhisattva ethic are what I hope to have a glimmer of.

As to your question about accepting reincarnation as a Western mind: it varies. Sometimes it makes way more sense than the Heaven thing. At a younger age, I felt reincarnation was THE way in belief: “Me” just carries on and on ad on…Now, I am trying to understand the finer points of that belief. One of the best explainations I’ve found is by Huston Smith, I’m paraphrasing: In Buddhism, reincarnation is like the flame of a candle. One candle can light another, but it is not the same candle, nor the same flame. This makes a lot of sense. You may come into another human body, but unless you really made an exceptional effort to educate yourself on the nature of reality, it’s not the same you you thought you were.

To be honest, with all Buddhist meditation technique, I sometimes ask that Western God questions, too. That’s a part of examining all influence and environment. Buddha said there were 80,000 paths. He had some kinda badass cable, no?

5

When I was about twelve, apparently for no reason, I saw the light. For about five years, I strongly believed in God and Jesus.

Then, someone turned off the light.

I was kind of in limbo, so to speak; I couldn’t honestly believe in God, but that lack of belief left a gaping void. You know, late teens: who am I? what am I doing here?

Around that time, I took an English lit. class on the beat generation. The teacher spent quite a bit of time talking about Zen and Buddhism. In retrospect, he didn’t know as much as I thought he did then, but he made it seem very interesting.

From that point on, I liked to tell people I was agnostic leaning on Buddhist. Of course, my only source of Buddhist teachings was the works of Snyder, Ginsberg and Kerouac.

One day, I found myself in an argument with a rabid fundamentalist born-again Christian. It dawned on me I knew jack squat about Buddhism. But I was determined to win the argument in the end, and that very evening I bought myself an intro to Buddhism-type book.

It was a great “revelation”. Somehow, the Buddhist philosophy managed to address most of my deep question, and managed to do so by trotting around my lack of faith or belief.

A few weeks later, I contacted the local Zen centre and started my practice.

In Buddhism, it is said there are three kinds of knowledge: that which you know from word of mouth, that which you know from reasoning and that which you know through experience.

Science is one of mankind’s greatest achievements, however, no matter how many books you read on acoustics, music theory, music history, and violin technique, you won’t be able to actually play the violin until you start practicing. And that is how I see Zen Buddhism: practicing the skill of being. You can master logic all you want, it’s not going to be of much help in the face of old age, disease and death.

And, fyi, I do not believe I will be reincarnated. Or resurrected. Or annihilated. For the simple reason that I’m not quite sure what that thing “I” is anymore.

6

please forgive the typos: my keyboard is refusing to capitalize certain letters in certain places.

Why not?

I may not be an according-to-Hoyle buddhist (atheist with zen tendencies might be more accurate), but I’ll chime in. My mother introduced me to Alan Watt’s The Wisdom if Insecurity when I was in (roughly) 9th grade, and it (along with subsequent readings) just rang true . . . much more so than what I learned in Catholic school from grades K-12. It is, for me, a more appealing way of thinking about the world. That’s all.