ohwilleke

II has, by my count, almost a dozen Buddhists, or people who have at least been heavily influenced by Buddhism. How did you hear about Buddhism and what about it do you find attractive?

Toto

I am not a Buddhist, but I am attracted to it, and I keep thinking that one day I might try to take it seriously and develop a meditation practice.

My inital exposure was the novel Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. I read it in college at a time of some emotional problems and found that the ideas gave me some real psychological relief. (I couldn't tell you what exactly they were, but I remember the feeling.)

Later I studied yoga intensively, and picked up some Buddhist philosophy with it, in part through reading Yoga Journal. I also read Alan Watts and listened to his lectures on KPFK here in LA.

However, I spend too much time earning a living and following some other serious hobbies that keep me out late at night, so I have never developed a meditation practice. I have also found that I can not be healthy on a vegetarian diet, (although vegetarianism is not actually a requirement for Buddhists - the Dalai Lama eats steak every other day.) In addition, I have observed that following Buddhism has not been a panacea for life's problems for some of my friends.

Bill

Personally, my first exposure to Buddhism was during the Viet Nam War when I had occasion to visit the Far East courtesy of Uncle Sam. But in those days, I was still a practicing Christian, so the Buddhist places were primarily tourist attractions. The horrid suicides, though, (usually accomplished by pouring a 5-gallon Jerry can of gas over oneself and lighting it off) made me wonder "what were they thinking?" I guess they believed that the horrible suffering of their death would be rewarded by some degree of pleasure in their next life, or something like that.

Later, after I had decided that Christianity and I weren't getting along, and that we should both "see other people" (or some such of an idea), I purchased a Book-of-the-Month Club bonus free selection called "The World's Great Religions," a six volume set devoted to Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Of that lot, the only one I wasn't ready to reject out-of-hand was Buddhism.

Ultimately, I decided that if there were any valuable truths hidden within Buddhism, they were buried under so much crap that I could never hope to dig them out, so I abandoned religion altogether and went for philosophy.

== Bill

I'm definitely a heterodox Buddhist. I was always attracted to Buddhism in my theist days, but when I went militant Atheist (which I still am), I sort of put Buddhism on the proverbial backburner of my mind; the whole thing with the idols, reincarnation, mindless chants, and praying to some shaved chimp posing as a monk made me wave my hand and roll my eyes. However, later on, I got a hold of Walpola Rahula's What Buddha Taught, and Rahula, a very pious Buddhist monk, is himself a militant Atheist.

Regardless, for me, certain aspects of Buddhism allow me to live a much calmer life. Just last night I was discussing Buddhism with a theist ex-girlfriend of mine, and she said "wow, so you're a Buddhist.. no more of that silly Atheism stuff..." She's a silly imbecile, and I explained that I'm still indeed a very strong Atheist. That being said, Buddhism helps me answer certain questions about death. What happens when we die? Nothing. We are simply dead. Is that scary? No, rather it is quite beautiful, as even after I die, the squirrels in the park will still dance their happy dance. We're not unique little snow flakes; rather we are simply waves in an ocean.

I suppose one could've gotten my interpretation of Buddhism by watching Fight Club a few times as well. That's actually a great thing about Buddhism: it's not necessary to attribute any of this stuff to an authority. I personally have doubts about the historical Buddha, but even if Sidhartha Gotama was a myth, Buddhism is still valid. That's not the case with Christianity, because if Jesus was a myth, then the whole religion falls to pieces.

[This message has been edited by Denis Giron (edited April 13, 2001).]

This comment reminds me of something from L. Sprague deCamp's _The Great Monkey Trial_ (about the Scopes trial -- he called pro-creationism laws "monkey laws").

William Jennings Bryan was revealed in it as not knowing much about other religions; according to him, his main knowledge of Buddhism was from an enthusiastic convert who said:

The nice thing about it is that you don't have to believe anything to be a Buddhist

Watching the movie Ghandi, that disney-ish flick introduced me Buddha for the first time in 1985.

I came across Zelazny's Lord of Light a year ago, a sci/fi classic about Buddha being resurrected in a distant future where a select few played at hindu gods.

I also credit the great Authur Schopenhauer's classic: World as Will and Representation. In his repeated references to the philosophy of Vedenta, i was motivated to sniff around for the 411 on Siddartha.

~Speaker for the Death of God~

After a semester class in "Western Philosophy," my teacher lent me a book of Zen koans to read. I loved them right away. Especially because I had just spent the last 5 or 6 months plowing through readings from Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Hegel, Kant, Heidegger... What I loved, and still love, about Zen riddles is they get right to the point. It was very useful, because at that point in my life I was "over-philosophising," facing all that existential blabber and freaking out about death. How could I rationalize these existential fears? The Zen answer seemed to be not to rationalize in the first place.

I'm not a Buddhist, but I was first exposed to those ideas around the age of twenty in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. I considered Shunryu Suzuki's ideas, but rejected them on epistemological grounds. "Small mind" has its value.

I have a few Buddhist tendencies, but I don't know what I am... I'm interested in Hinduism and Druidism as well, so I'm an "other" I guess.
I first discovered Buddhism as a freshman is high school. It was a combined English/Geography class. At the end of each unit, we had to do a final project. For the Asian final project, my friend and I made a video about Buddhism, with a user-friendly variety show theme. (I dressed up as a game show host for one segment and asked my friend and her dog various questions about the branches of Buddhism.)
I think we got an A. Maybe.

In college...where else..?
We are all 'Buddhas' but most of us are asleep.


If you meet the buddha on the road, kill him.
zen saying....