RE: Why did buddhism appeal to you?
for me the traditions of teachings that have followed the historical buddha have so much to appeal to the seeker today.
i always found great difficulty in the competing arguments of those that believed in a spiritual reality and those that believed that all things were merely matter.
broadly speaking thisbecause the tradition does not require faith in any named god or fundamental existence of a material universe. in fact the buddha simply refused to answer questions about what fundamentally exists.
the buddhist teachings are not so much about what exists or what does not exist; they are tools to gain in skill and understanding. these teachings have helped me to "get on with it" and not get stuck in asking the question of "what really exists".
some later traditions come to the point of realisation that all things spring from mind but this is then just seen as another means of gaining understanding... no buddhist would agree tha "all is mind" and would not accept that they followed a school of philosophical idealism.
on this path (mahamudra)the meditatormight recognise that all that can be saidthat is beyond refute is that "there is awareness", and would then rest in this awareness as the key practice.
slowly out of resting inthis awareness, experience brings understanding. we have moved beyond the debate of discussion of "what is" or "what is not" and for me, this has been a great release from trauma of trying to resolve the conflicting views of those who assert "such and such is real" and "such and such is not real".
after some time of resting in this awareness we begin to gain in skill and learn that; in undestanding the illusory nature of all things, we are then free... to be free from the limits we set upon ourselves and become masters of our experience and what manifests in our bodies and the world around us... so long as it is for the benefit of all... and we do this by seeing ourselves as perfect... just pure enlightened mind... a mirror of loving kindness and compassion
in my opinion, when this is correctly understood,thisencompasses all the paths of all religions that establish their faith in a limitless loving God, whether named or not... and what is expressed through this god; expressed in human form, is limitless also and may focus attention to aspireon establishing the infininite in living now.
so this is why buddhism appealed to me and became more and more appealing along the way.
from not being concerned about what is, it then embraces what is: reality!
peace and love
Its simplicity x
ONly now
I'm only now beginning to explore Buddism - to want to learn more about it. I've always heard of it but it seems now to hold more that will allow me to find peace with my life, to let go of things.
Re; Why did Buddhism appeal to you
Norbu,
You said:
"slowly out of resting inthis awareness, experience brings understanding. we have moved beyond the debate of discussion of "what is" or "what is not" and for me, this has been a great release from trauma of trying to resolve the conflicting views of those who assert "such and such is real" and "such and such is not real".
This really sums it up for me. I get too phased by heavy philosphical discussions and my brain just blanks out eventually. Meditation and just relaxing into the natural state are, for me, essential. Good when practising therapies too, it helps to relax the client when the therapist is relaxed!
Kind thoughts,
Elen