Click hHow I Became a Buddhist-- by Kusala Bhikshu
One of the questions I'm asked most often is ... I was born and baptized a Lutheran in Iowa. My family moved to Arizona in 1954, I was five and have many fond memories of the Southwest. I spent my high school years in Wisconsin and in 1969 moved to Los Angeles, California. Because my teenage years were spent in the 60's-- "Don't trust anyone over 30 and question all authority"-- I became an agnostic. Life and People At the age of twenty-eight, I went through what you might call an early mid-life crisis. I quit my job of seven years and went on a forty-five day road trip. Back in Los Angeles, I found a new job, and within a year my old company rehired me. I quit smoking, joined a gym, and started looking into what it meant to be a conscious human being. One day, this wonderful woman came into my life. She was beautiful, kind, and easy to be with. A selfless quality that seemed to come from her religious faith filled the air with love and warmth. She was a devout Christian, and I started going to church. It wasn't long before I realized church and Christianity was not my cup of green tea. I lacked faith, I was skeptical and needed proof. I needed something more than words, I needed a personal experience. I wasn't feeling anything sitting passively in a pew, I wanted to be an active participant in my own salvation. Read more at: http://lifeandpeople.com/how-to-become-buddhist/ I bought a book by Houston Smith, called "The Religion's of Man," now called "The World's Religions," and read the whole thing. It made perfect sense when I read the chapter on Buddhism. I knew nothing about Buddhism, but everything I read seemed to be true. I didn't know how or why it was true, but it was. I was ready to do my first Buddhist meditation. There was still a half hour left, and I took my place. It was terrible ... My knees hurt, my back felt strained, and my mind was running like an open faucet. After 15 minuets I had to move my legs, the blood had stopped and my toes were tingling. The gong rang, and meditation was over ... Shinzen began to talk, and I was hooked. In my first year of Buddhist practice, I took the three refuges and five precepts of a lay Buddhist, and was given the name 'Kusala'. My Buddhist name would remind me each day, what the goal of my practice was. Because my teenage years were spent in the 60's-- "Don't trust anyone over 30 and question all authority"-- I became an agnostic. I was ready to do my first Buddhist meditation. In my first year of Buddhist practice, I took the three refuges and five precepts of a lay Buddhist, and was given the name 'Kusala'. Shinzen explained, I was given the name Kusala, not because I was already skillful, but because I needed to become more skillful. My Buddhist name would remind me each day, what the goal of my practice was. ere to edit.
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October 2019
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