So... I've never really believed in God or other deities. My parents are Christian, but I can't believe that there really is a dude up there boasting about how great he is and creating miracles. But I think that I might try to (LOOSELY) follow Buddhism, not as a strict religion or to become a Buddha, but more as a way of life.
To understand why I might want to convert to Buddhism, you have to understand where it came from. The first Buddha was a man named Siddhartha (pronounced SID-DAR-TA) who was a prince whose father kept him inside the palace walls. But once Siddhartha left, he saw all of the human suffering and wanted to find out why humans suffer and if there is a way to stop it. So he left his wife and newborn son in a search to find the answer to his questions. For 6 years he was an ascetic until a girl offered him some rice pudding and he ate it. Then Siddhartha went and meditated under a pipal tree (now the Bodhi tree) where he battled the god of desires until he found Enlightenment and the Middle Way, and became a Buddha.
He then created the Four Noble Truths:
- All life involves suffering
- The cause of suffering is desire and attachment
- Desire and attachment can be overcome
- The way to overcome them is the Eightfold Path
- Right viewpoint: right attitude to life and understanding the Four Noble Truths
- Right values: consideration and compassion
- Right speech: avoiding aggression, exaggeration, anger, lies, and gossip
- Right actions: living honestly and not harming living things
- Right livelihood: avoiding jobs that harm people
- Right effort: thinking good thoughts in order to bring the mind to a peaceful state
- Right mindfulness: practicing calming the mind so it is free from distractions
- Right meditation: leading to enlightenment and nirvana
I don't want to become a Buddhist monk, or anything like that, but I want to follow the Eightfold Path as a way of life and just to become a better person.
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