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Hi Everyone...this is something I wrote in response to another similar request:
I found buddhadharma and the KTC (the Karma Kagyu lineage of HH the 17th Karmapa, Orgyen Trinley Dorje) because I had foot surgery.
Oh, I need to elaborate?
Most people know that I'm a voracious reader. Knowing I was to be laid up for about a week after my foot surgery, I knew I'd have a wonderful chunk of unbroken reading time.
At the time I had been reading some books on writing. I had just finished Natalie Goldberg's “Writing Down the Bones” and found her voice interesting enough to pick up her memoir, “Long Quiet Highway.”
In “Long Quiet Highway,” Goldberg talks about her career as a Zen practitioner and her close relationship with her teacher, Katagiri Roshi. At the time my life was in a particular iteration of crisis and Natalie's story resonated with me and I wanted to learn more.
So before my foot surgery, I headed to the main library to see if any of Katagiri Roshi's books were on the shelf. So, I found myself in the extensive collection of Buddhism titles and I felt like a kid in a candy store! I went up and down the stacks tossing books into my bag and by the time I was done I could hardly carry it. I recall I had a quite a variety of titles including Katagiri Roshi, Suzuki Roshi, His Holiness Dalai Lama and a funny little book by Dinty Moore (really!) called “The Accidental Buddhist,” which was very helpful as an amusing survey of the different traditions of Buddhism.
So I had my surgery and found myself in bed mowing through a couple of dharma books a day.
Now a tangent: I grew up in Yellow Springs, Ohio; the little bastion of tolerance. My Dad was raised in a large Catholic family in upper New York. My Mom was a first generation Russian Jew in New Jersey (hey, that makes me Jewish!). They met at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, became Unitarians, got married and had my two older brothers and I. By the time I came along six years after my older brothers, there wasn't a lot of church-going happening. So I didn't really have any church background to speak of, which was fine with me. As a result of absence of a church life and growing up in Yellow Springs, I considered myself an agnostic. But a pretty intolerant one. To me, church seemed okay for those who thought they needed it, but I felt that I could find my own ethics and morals to live by and didn't need them prescribed for me, especially by those purporting to be speaking on behalf of an invisible boss. Religious institutions were anathema to me and I still don't have much use for many aspects of them. I also remain pretty impatient with those who try impose their religious views on others, but I'm working on it. We're all just trying to be happy and not to suffer, right?
So back to the story: It's late 1998 or early 1999 and I, the agnostic, am recuperating from foot surgery and reading dharma books from the library. What was I thinking as I read them? Two things: 1) “That's what I think!” and 2) “That makes total sense.”
I think the immediate appeal for me was the precise logic that surrounded all the assertions I encountered in my reading. That same clear, rational, kind, and loving thinking in the dharma continues to inspire me.
Whenever the topic of meditation came up in the books, the authors were adamant that it is best to learn meditation from a teacher, not from books. So, since I was mostly interested in meditating, I went in search of a place to learn. At that point, the search engines weren't returning the KTC among the results for “Columbus + Buddhism.” And in truth, I was most interested in finding a Zen center. I didn't think I could find a home amongst the trappings and rituals of Tibetan Buddhism and I wasn't looking for much beyond meditation instruction anyway.
As my foot was healing, I couldn't drive my car with its stick shift, so my wife would drive us both to work downtown. For reasons not worth explaining, she chose to drive down Sullivant Avenue rather than using the highway. So each day we drove past Grubb Street and sat at the light at Rich Street. I thought this was silly, so when I was cleared to drive her car (an automatic), I started going down Grubb Street so I could make the right at a stop sign instead of waiting for a light.
So, let's rewind. At this point I'm actually looking for a place to learn to meditate and I'm driving past the KTC for weeks!
Finally I managed to look out the window and notice the sign on the building at 231 S. Grubb Street and thought, “that sounds kind of Buddhist,” and wrote down the phone number. As soon as I was off crutches, I came to KTC and joined the Beginning Meditation class and met my first meditation teacher, Amy Wells. Amy was so funny, open and honest that I thought, “Are there people who are really like this?” I was hooked.
I stayed with the meditation classes and the beginning Buddhism course and encountered many more amazing people who helped me work with some of my doubts. The hour-long meditation on Sundays were both challenging and inspiring, but I was sure I was on the right track.
Finally, after hearing Lama Kathy's name and glimpsing her a couple of times, I decided to start sitting in on her teachings. Some of the most important and enduring things I've learned at KTC were imparted by Lama Kathy and meditation instructors in some of my earliest visits.
By fall of '99, I met Bardor Tulku Rinpoche and received refuge vows from him. He has been my guiding teacher for many years.
So, that's my story...sorry ya asked? ;-)
Hello All,
Well the group has grown quite a bit in the past few weeks so I thought perhaps we might all introduce ourselves so here I go.
I came to Buddhism after a long search. I have travelled all over the world and talked to many different people. I first studied Zen Buddhism when I was 11 as part of my martial arts training. I continued to practice meditation but did not consider myself Buddhist. Many years later, while living in Japan, I studied once again. After going back into the Corporate world I did not have much time to mediate. A few years ago I retired and was able to rethink my life and now I practice Theravada Buddhist at the Wat Dhammaram in Chicago. My teacher is the Ven. Boonshoo Sriburin, Ph.D. (see pict)
You can see more at http://watdhammaram.org/
I look forward to meeting each of you and if you have any ideas for the group please let me know.