My Life before Buddhism
My personal path towards Buddhism began several years ago after realizing that my mind was rarely at peace. Instead of inner peace, my mind was constantly burdened with anxieties, worries, and wants.
While I had stretches of bliss and happiness, the periods were always brief and usually ended abruptly. As cliche as it sounds, I seemingly had it all. A good education with a good paying job, a loving family and a house in the suburbs. What more could a person ask for?
Despite my fortunate and privileged station in life, I was still constantly looking for new jobs with higher pay and more prestige.
Always searching for nicer and bigger homes or secretly being jealous of a neighbors new car or truck.
When I wanted some new possession, sometimes I would be able to tell myself “No”, but I would still inwardly crave it. I couldn’t ever really let it go.
Despite wanting to be happy, I found it impossible to find sustained contentment.
I couldn’t understand why I was constantly unsatisfied. I would just tell myself that I needed to get just a little more of something.
Then I would be satisfied.
With the prospect of losing those closest to me with my bad attitude and contagious unhappiness, I set out on a journey of self improvement. I didn’t know how to change or even if I had the resolve, but I committed to at least try.
Discovering Buddhism
After many failed attempts to find peace, I eventually found Buddhism. I was initially very intimidated by the religion and nearly gave up on it several times.
To those unfamiliar with Buddhism, the religion has a stereotype of being ancient, complicated and boring. most think it is a religion that only monks in temples can practice.
These are common misconceptions that people unfamiliar with Buddhism are likely to have. These same people believe that the pursuit and temporary enjoyment of sense pleasures is what makes life worth living.
Upon closer examination of Buddhism, the truth is the exact opposite.
Buddhism is as relevant and applicable to our lives today as it was 2,500 years ago. Buddhism is also a religion and way of life that is available for anyone willing to put in the effort.
It’s absolutely not just for the elite or the monks in temples. Also, finding inner peace can be extremely rewarding and exciting.
To me, it’s one of life’s biggest ironies that most of us spend our entire lives trying to find lasting happiness through the acquisition of wealth and power.
When in fact it is our very craving and wanting that causes our unhappiness. I can certain relate if you are skeptical of the powers of Buddhism, but what do you have to lose by trying?
Why start yet another Buddhism website?
I decided to create this website for two reasons. The first is somewhat selfish: to keep myself focused and disciplined by continuously thinking and writing about Buddhism.
The second reason is less selfish: I wanted to share the gift of Buddhism with others. When I began my search for inner peace, I struggled to find an clean, simple website that provided the basics of Buddhism.
All I could find were bullet point blogs filled with fluff and advertisements or treaties on Buddhism that were way over my head. Often these in-depth treaties on Buddhism would use non-English terms that difficult for beginners to understand and remember.
So I decided to create a site that could help the serious beginner not only launch their journey but also grow while staying interested in the subject matter.
The articles on this site are all summaries of longer, more detailed treaties written by world-renowned monks and authors.
The goal is for our articles to be a little easier to understand and a little more engaging than the original source materials. But if you are interested, you are always encouraged to visit our bookshelf to read the original source texts.