Any other bhuddist sympathisers out there?

[poshsinglemum]

Ten years ago i went travelling around Nepal and I was touched by the bhuddist religion. I loved the peaceful nature of the people, the beautiful imagery and the resiliant stoicism that bhuddism brings and is absolutely the right attitude needed for living in the harsh himalayan envirnment.
I have three bhuddist statues in my room and they do make me feel at peace.

I went to a bhuddist centre in glasgow for a while and I used to practice meditation. This didn't prevent me from having a bad nervous breakdown (due to abusive partner) but I am still drawn to the religion.

My mum might have cancer and I can feel myself turning to bhuddism again. I also love the book 7 years in Tibet. It's also on eof the only religioons that hasn't caused a war. It makes sense to me? Anyone else? Also, the Dalai Llama is a dude!

Not buddhist although I like thier sentiment. More pagan and connected to the turning of the seasons etc Tis nearly the summer solstice.

Being English, I find it much easier to comprehend.

I agree funnyinthegarden. While I can see the appeal of Buddhism and incorporate some of the meditation and mindfulness into my Pagan practice, it is the connection with the Earth beneath my feet that is important to me.
Everyone has their own path though, psm, so follow your instincts. Paganism is not a spiritual path that encorages others to convert, though I do have to stop myself from saying, Go on try this, it's great!

(I can't spell proselitising or even pronounce it!)

Didja know that if you study meditation for long enough, you can learn to self-induce trips (by that I mean hallucinogenic trips akin to being on LSD)just by meditating...

I do agree with many pagan concepts as I think that the connection with the earth is important especially in times of ecological collapse. However, I am also interested in Bhuddism becaus eit forces us to focus on what happens to us once we leave this earth.

I think that one things that Bhuddists do through meditation is to acknowledge change, decay and death. They also confront suffering head on. They believe that humns suffer when they become attached to the material world and resist change. By acknowledging change and decay we can find peace with it.

I love the pagan notion of the goddess and spirit being in all living things. I just cannot believe in some divine being that determines life and death down here. I prefer to believe in the sacrednes sin nature and evolution of the mind.

I have Buddhist leanings that I haven't explored fully yet.

I have a favourite quote which is:

'I believe in nothing; everything is sacred.
I believe in everything, nothing is sacred.'

• Tom Robbins

That sums it up for me. But then I am a bit odd

Hi PSM,
We used to have a meditation thread going but it's kind of dropped off in recent months. However, over the year or so that the thread was going lots of people recommended various books on Buddhism. One of the favourites was: Buddhism for Mothers by Sarah Napthali.
A really good resource is the Tricycle magazine which has lots of interesting articles... You can also subscribe to a daily email - which is sort of a "thought for the day".
www.tricycle.com/

Enjoy
WW

I don't know a great deal about Buddhism, but there are two things connected to it that I do have an interest in.

First of all - Karma - cause and effect (what goes around comes around) even though it may not be instant and may take many years to work its way out. I actually believe this. Very recently I have two instances of karma happen completely out of the blue (good karma for me but bad karma for the people concerned) and throughout my life I have had experiences of it. If you do something bad, somehow or other it comes back to bite you in the bum ... and if you do something genuinely good with no thought of reward or kudos .. then again, you do somehow some benefit from it somewhere along the line, through luck, an event, or the kindness of others. Might sound bonkers to some, but I can only go on my own experiences.

The other thing I am very interested in (don't believe it as such but think it's a fascinating subject) is reincarnation. It makes as much sense to me as heaven and hell, or nothing - that we are hear to learn something and keep coming back until we've learned it. This kind of ties in with astrology as well (not the crappy horoscopes you read in magazines) but the theory behind astrology that the soul goes through phases - from its birth as Aries the baby through to Pisces the old souls. I know it sounds daft but nearly every Pisces I have ever met has that 'old soul' aura about them.

I sound like I half know what I'm talking about here lol - and I really don't, just find it interesting is all.

Buddhism has helped me immeasurably over the last 5 years, especially the wonderful book 'Buddhism for mothers' by Sarah Napthali. I go to Quaker meetings and love their silence and stillness (no Buddhist groups in my rural area)!