Sand Dancer
Crazy Cat Lady
How does one figure out which school of Buddhism is best for them? I just can't decide.
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What school of Buddhism for me?
- Thread starter Sand Dancer
- Start date
Secret Chief
nirvana is samsara
Presumably you have read something about the major traditions and schools? What are your sticking points? They're not mutually exclusive...
I don't recall making conscious choices, my "path" just happened naturally over time. I think one should at least begin with some looking into the Theravada, it being the earliest tradition.
I don't recall making conscious choices, my "path" just happened naturally over time. I think one should at least begin with some looking into the Theravada, it being the earliest tradition.
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Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Just sit. Go from there.
Most of my instruction has come from folks in either the Zen or Insight/Vipassana traditions. In the West, that seems the least prone to woo.
Tibetan Buddhism, in my limited experience, is more New Agey and supernatural, which I find unhelpful.
Sand Dancer
Crazy Cat Lady
I don't want any supernatural heavenly deities involved. I will start reading the Pali Canon. That's Theravada, right?
Sand Dancer
Crazy Cat Lady
Yes, I am not very interested in Tibetan Buddhism. Not fond of Nicheren or Soka Gakkai either. After being a Christian, I don't care much for proselytizing.
You will find otherworldly entities in the Pali canon.
Secret Chief
nirvana is samsara
Yes it is. More accurately, the Theravada is based solely on the Pali Canon, the Mahayana incorporates later writings. Vajrayana (so-called third vehicle or else considered part of Mahayana, commonly called Tibetan Buddhism) has more focus on deities than most. Personally I think that is because it is influenced by the regional Bon religion. FWIW, my deity aversion led me from Theravada to Soto Zen and probably secular Buddhism.
Sand Dancer
Crazy Cat Lady
Ah, okay.
Yazata
Active Member
In Asia people are basically born into a tradition. Here in the West, it might be a question of your personality type and what style of religiosity you are most comfortable with.
Pure Land (found mostly in China, Korea and Japan) is probably closest to Christianity. It's very focused on faith and involves belief in various saving Bodhisattvas and cosmic Buddhas who will save those who call on them. Prayer kind of takes the place of meditation.
Zen strikes me as kind of anti-intellectual and that puts me off. But it works for many people. It's all about meditation and (at least in the West, less so in Japan) involves very little doctrine or study.
The Tibetan traditions are the most scholarly and philosophical. If that's the direction that your mind goes, you might want to give them a look.
And equally, Tibet preserves late Indian Tantric Buddhism, along with shamanistic and magical traditions peculiar to Tibet. So there's lots of mystical/magical currents and arcane initiations. That puts me off, but it might be attractive to others.
As for me, I'm most attracted to a modernist sort of Theravada. I think that the Pali tradition presents a very pure sort of religiosity with just the right mix of philosophy, study and meditation practice. While many of the Pali suttas refer to deities and supernatural phenomena of various sorts, it isn't necessary to believe in any of that to follow the path.
The core religious texts of Theravada Buddhism are the Pali Canon. This is difficult and almost impenetrable for new Buddhists because it is thousands of traditional discourses attributed to the Buddha himself in no particular order. You can't just open it up and read it cover to cover.
So the best thing to do is seek out a good commentary that organizes things in a topical manner. A good one for beginners (like me) is Bikkhu Bodhi's 'In the Buddha's Words'. I like this one because it consists of discourses from the Pali canon placed in a framework that gives structure to the whole thing. I like how it starts with Buddhist ethics, a subject that the Buddha himself spent a great deal of time on but is often skipped over by Westerners who want to jump right to meditation. (The contemporary 'Insight' movement does that.) The thing is that behaving 'skillfully' is a form of meditation that leads directly into thinking 'skillfully'.
https://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Words-Anthology-Discourses-Teachings-ebook/dp/B003XF1LIO
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Sand Dancer
Crazy Cat Lady
Scholarly? Sounds interesting. Must you adhere to the Tantric aspects to be a Tibetan Buddhist?
Thank you. I will check that out.
You don't even have to follow a particular school. You can call yourself a Buddhist as long as you follow the 4 seals (Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta, Nibbana)
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
That's a lifetime spent reading. ;0]
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
My first book was Buddhism for Dummies.
The thing with Buddhism: eventually, you are going to have to face your aversions (to woo or whatever) and resolve the dukkha behind it usually by developing understanding about it (enlightenment.)
Buddha gave examples of practices that would lead to the overcoming of fear and terror, etc. However, Buddha emphasized developing your methods for overcoming your own dukkha through quiet observation, identification of dukkha, observation of how the dukkha interacts with your mind, and finally developing a practice tailored to your situation that would resolve the dukkha.
Buddha gave examples of practices that would lead to the overcoming of fear and terror, etc. However, Buddha emphasized developing your methods for overcoming your own dukkha through quiet observation, identification of dukkha, observation of how the dukkha interacts with your mind, and finally developing a practice tailored to your situation that would resolve the dukkha.
Sand Dancer
Crazy Cat Lady
This is encouraging.
