Many traditions and several schools of Buddhism

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I’ve been trying to study Buddhism since September, or roughly about four months. At the beginning I had a difficult time with terminology, the different traditions and several schools of thought.

So, I realized, everybody follows the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, AKA Siddhārtha Gautama. On top of said teachings, the different schools add what their particular leaders discovered via years of practice.

The Mahayana people believe in Amitabha Buddha. Someone they claim lived at some point and now presides over a so-called Pure Land where those who believe in him will go to practice and become enlightened upon death.

All Chinese Buddhists seem to believe in Guan Yin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. They pray to her, and she is said to perform miracles.

All the Mahayana mythology is a bit much for a former atheist, agnostic like me. So I have decided to ignore all that and concentrate on those teachings which seem more rational, more probable, less made-up. The Four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold Path seen rational enough and helpful to me, so I study that. In fact, the psychology of Buddhism is quite powerful and hard to argue against.

Truth be told, if I could I would join the Theravada tradition. It seems less dogmatic than the others. But there isn’t anything like that in my area, so I have to go to Mahayana temples and cover my ears when they start talking Pure Land.

Chanting

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The question of what chanting is and what it does for you is answered differently depending on who you ask. Some say that by chanting Amitabha Buddha’s name, you are guaranteeing yourself a spot in his Western Pure land upon your earthly departure.

Others will tell you that it is just meditation, that chanting helps calm your mind, which is, perhaps, the ultimate goal of Buddhism. You calm your mind so your buddha nature can shine through. You calm your mind to tame your ego. You calm your mind to be happy.

In my experience, chanting is somewhat magical. I still haven’t been able to comprehend what it does for me. I go to temple and chant for 2 plus hours. Or I go on a weekend retreat. After that, I feel as if I’ve been sleeping for days. While “sleeping,” I forgot who I was angry at, what I was worried about, people I thought had hurt me, and situations I had found frustrating.

Truth be told, while chanting the mantra, I am unable to completely void my mind of thoughts. A good effort is put forth, yes, but thoughts still linger about like flies around honey.

However, something was accomplished. Sometimes I think that in the process of doing the, often, body crushing rituals, like prostrating repeatedly for 20 minutes, or sitting with my legs crossed for 45 minutes, my mind just becomes too tired to think. Between hurting because my joints aren’t used to the cross-legged position and struggling to remember to open and close my fists while prostrating and still chanting the Buddha’s name, the lingering thoughts have no room to establish themselves in my mind.

It is almost as if by annoying the buddy one quiets the mind. While I am at it, I could swear nothing is being accomplished, because it is a continual battle. “Oh yeah, my hips hurt. Shoot, I am supposed to be be chanting O Mi Tuo Fo. Has it only been 15 minutes since we sat to meditate? Chant, chant, don’t forget to chant.”

I am told that some people actually enjoy it. I am afraid I am not there yet. I enjoy how I feel after. I enjoy how it is changing my life. But it is still a struggle.

How is it changing my life? Well, I find myself “magically” less negative. The negative thoughts rarely come to mind. I don’t do it on purpose. I don’t go around repeating, “think positively.” No. I just find myself thinking peacefully most of the time.

So, yes, I do recommend going to temple to chant. Who knows? It may change your life, “magically.”

How I got to Buddhism

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I have always been spiritually oriented. I am one of those people who probably was taken to church a week after being born.  I then went to Sabbath school every Saturday until I was about 13.  At that point, my mother for reasons of sin had to leave the church. Consequently, my siblings and I had to stop going as well.

As a small child I was always devoted. I remember memorizing the ten commandments when I was six. I was the poster child of Sabbath school, the pride of my teachers.

No longer going to church, I backslid from the faith a bit. But I always believed that my church was the only true one and hoped to one day be back. I did when I was 19.  But I had changed too much  and their dogma didn’t ring true to me anymore.

I decided then to become a Baptist. Then a Mennonite which is a bout the same. From this group I learned pacifism, so I renounced the Baptist feistiness. As a Christian I was the Bible thumping type. I did read the Bible several times and spent many hours praying. Prayer was my favourite devotion and the one activity I would most miss later.

After 25 years of Baptist-like denominations, I discovered to my great dismay, that I could not believe in their version of God anymore, or any other version for that matter. Having adopted pacifist ways of living, I could no longer believe that a God of love could send people to hell, or order genocides like the Old Testament ones, or be rude and cruel.

I, then, reluctantly so, became an atheist. For five years I wrote angry blog posts about how Christianity had lied to me.

However, the lack of spirituality in my life sent me into a deep depression. In such state I decided to imagine that there was a god and pray to it. It helped a little, not much. Then I read all kinds of Deepak Chopra books and other similar authors. It helped a little more. But affirmations and visualizations felt fake.

All the reading helped me reach a point where I understood what religion does for people. I understood that we can be helped by religion even if our God is imaginary. In other words, having an imaginary God to pray to beats the $100+ you have to pay to a psychotherapist to do the same, to spill your guts out, to get the pain out of your chest.

At this point I decided to try Hinduism by going to a nearby Hare Krishna temple, just to discover that they were just as religious and dogmatic as the Christians I knew. They followed their guru to the death, even when his teachings were questionable.

Desperate to find a place to go meditate and enjoy some fellowship, I decided to visit Buddhist temples, knowing quite well  that the chances of them speaking English were slim at best. Luckily, I live in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where the percentage of Asians is quite high, especially in the city of Richmond, where a number of Buddhist monasteries and temples can be easily found by just driving around the city’s outskirts.

Buddhism, I found, is rich in literature that one can devour. It is full of wisdom as well, wisdom I need in my life. I also found that Buddhists share my pacifism, my concern for the environment, my disbelief in a God Head figure, my interest in vegetarianism, my conviction that money adds no happiness to one’s life, and many other lessons I have learned in life. Buddhism is also quite organized and structured, which in my view, reduces the chances of being taken in by a charlatan.  

And so my journey into Buddhism starts. I will be sharing my glorious moments and great disappointments on this blog. Stick around for my brutally honest posts.