(Hope this goes smoother than the Mormon roll call ). Are you Buddhist? What variety/sect? Were you born into it, and if not, how did you come to Buddhism? What does "being Buddhist" mean in terms of your practice and your day-to-day life?
I consider myself a Buddhist. I am a western secular Buddhist. My practice is breath awareness, Nembutsu or Buddha name recitation and mindfulness. There was another thread where AikiMac and i were distilling Buddhism down to it's bare bones. Thinking about what I posted I feel a need to change what I said. The heart of Buddhism is dependent arising or dependent origination. I have read sutra comentaries that have said as much and I have to agree. All Buddhist teaching is supposedly derived from this teaching. At least this is what I have read and I feel that it is true. IMO of course, as the Buddha said there are 84,000 Dharma doors so your beliefs may be rather different than mine.
I have recently been greatly influenced by Theravada and Soto Zen (koans mostly annoy me -- sorry Rinzai), to the point where I feel a true affinity toward Buddhism. I've been writing a book about the cross-over between Christianity and Buddhism; hence, the questions to Mike. I see Zen as a distillation of Theravada down to the really important parts. It's nice to spend some time in that essence, in the part that you're really supposed to pay attention to, and then pull back up to Theravada for the bigger picture and context. I read with pleasure the Long, Middle, Connected Discourses, the Heart and Diamond and Platform Sutras, the Dhammapada, and my subscription to Tricycle Magazine, and reflect on them at length. Lots of reflection. Lots of thought. Outright Soto meditation is very, very difficult for me but sometimes I try that too. I know that I need to do it more. I know that it's good. Ideally, being Buddhist means living the Eightfold Path, or at least the "right action" part. I put that first because of the emphasis on people. I see Buddhism (again, ideally) as trying to help the people you bump into every day.
I was heavily interested in Soto Zen in college and studied Buddhism in a few classes, though never self-identified as such. I was part of a non-denominational zazen (sitting meditation) group. I wasn't raised Buddhist; I was raised atheist. I self-identified as a Reform Jew for several years after college and went to services and the like, but eventually moved away from that. Now moving back toward Soto Zen. I'll agree with aikiMac that I can't get into koans. Nor can I get into the more complex metaphysics of Tibetan Buddhism; my high school girlfriend was a practicing Tibetan Buddhist and it wasn't for me. Reading (or more properly, digesting) Shinryu Suzuki's essays and practicing zazen daily are the real manifestations for me. Obviously the eightfold path is critical, but I don't like to place my conscious emphasis on it. If I had more time, I'd join up with a group in a nearby town for some more group zazen, but time is a precious commodity with two kids, a law job, and fencing. I sure hope this isn't for the "devout" only!
I don't think I'd count as a Buddhist these days but when I was a teenager I attended meditation sessions and classes with the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order. I was never really a part of that group but it did help to kindle an interest in Buddhism and so from there I went on to practice Zazen regularly with a variety of Zen groups and began to study about the different varieties of Buddhism. I ended up studying Buddhist traditions and history (and learning classical Tibetan) at university and from through my studies became quite disillusioned at the popular portrayal of Buddhism in the West and eventually gave up my practice. I did, however, become hooked on exploring the social, historical and cognitive aspects of religious traditions and how they develop and spread. I continue to study Buddhist communities and religious groups (currently completing my PhD focusing on ritual) and I continue to regret giving up my meditation practice as regardless of all the misrepresentations and dubious claims I always found meditation practice to be extremely rewarding. Maybe not entirely relevant but it might explain why I often chime in on Buddhist discussions.
I've spent just about more time in Buddhist majority countries now than I have in the west. So in a sense I've haphazardly and very randomly adopted many of the views and ways of dealing with day to day life that Buddhist people do. Though, it's not without it's trials, tribulations and reversion to and conflict with being raised in New Mexican Catholic culture. Having spent some time studying Tibetan Buddhism and living among Tibetan and other peoples who mix and match similar belief structures for extended periods I still can't say I pretend to understand much of it - much less really earnestly practice it. Though I do find it somewhat comforting (today while out training I ran across a Tibetan ringpoche and his students - addressing them in Tibetan always gets a big smile and is a great intro to convo - they were immensely interested in my training - you could see they wanted to have a go). I'm always particularly drawn to Zen Buddhism and the teachings of D.T. Suzuki and Thich Nhat Hanh. I arrived at that point in some ways through the talks of Allan Watts - the man who in a sense is responsible for bring Buddhism to the western world. As a kid he his talks were broadcast on the radio and his sense of humor (dry/ironic English) and his accent were pretty interesting to a young American kid. I couldn't agree more with the sentiment in CKava's second paragraph as it pretty much matches my sentiments and path only without the university.
Are you saying you are a Buddhist with a curiosity in Christianity? Or are you a Christian with a curiosity in Buddhism?
The latter. I was raised Christian. Very Christian, in fact: my mother was the church's music director and youth director.
My parents are really cool about everything. They raised me in their church, but they've always respected my right to make my own decisions. I haven't talked to them much about Buddhism yet (mostly because I'm still in the early stages of looking into it myself), but I don't expect any uptightness.
Since this is a Buddhist thread I would like to get anyone's thoughts on the concept of emptiness and the teaching that there is no independent self. I just read some very interesting material on this, including the heart sutra, and it has been the major part of my meditation lately. Anyone interested in discussing?
I would certainly enjoy seeing a conversation on that play out! But, if I may make a suggestion, we should probably do that on a separate thread. There are some other great issues that people touched on here that would be fun to explore (M1K3Job's understanding of the nembutsu as a secular Buddhist, CKava's research on ritual, for example). But it would be easier to find and organize with separate threads. (Is that too anal-retentive?) As for this topic, I don't self-identify as a Buddhist, but practice zazen and read a fair bit about Buddhism in general. I resonate most with Zen, and like others here favor Soto Zen. This is not only because of the koans in Rinzai, but some of the other emphases as well. That being said, I have sat in a Rinzai monastery and appreciate their hardcore, hard-hitting approach.
