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buddhism?
I am 17 almost 18 and wishing to learn more about the religion so that I might practice it. Please only people with expierience with the religion only.
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Maybe give some free advice about: Spirituality?
Hi, I am a Buddhist and have been one for 10 years now. I'm so happy you asked this question. :)
Okay so first off there are many different Buddhist sects. The one that I happen to be part of is of the Mahayana school and it is called Nichiren Buddhism. It is based on the teachings of Nichiren Daishonin, a monk who lived in the 13th century. I am a memember of the SGI (Soka Gakai International). This translates to Value Creating Organization. Our practice focuses on the Lotus Sutra which was regraded as the highest teaching of "the buddha" who people know as Siddhartha Gautama. The Lotus Sutra teaches us that we all have buddha nature within us. In other words all people posses all the ingredients to become happy or enlightened. The SGI is devoted to the individual happiness of all people and our goal is the realization of world peace. In order to become happy we chant the phrase "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo". This phrase enables us to reach our highest potential and become truly happy.
I'm probably not the best at explaining this but we do have a website as well and it has a lot of information and ways for you to become connected to the organization.
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
I really hope that you learn more about this wonderful religion. It is such a precious part of my life. Take Care <3. If you have any more questions about this feel free to inbox me :).
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well i study buddhism and there is a book called "What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Sri Rahula" and this was the first book that the monks gave me to read. There is also one called "Buddhist Bibile" and that one is really good. I am not 100% sure about the title of the last one, but I will edit my answer tomorrow after I check. That is a really good one. That is where I suggest you start...and just work on understanding it. The next thing I worked on was the breath meditation where you sit and you focus on your body from top to bottom and then you just breathe in and out and focus only on your breath, if you start to think or your mind starts to wonder, you gently pull it back to listening to the breath and you work on doing this for an hour or more. The challenge from what we talked about was to have perfect quiet in the mind for at least 5 min which is pretty hard for me but you get better, the more often you do it the better. I just do it casually throughout the day. Here is the site to the monks I worked with, they have some cool chants you can listen to to meditate with... [Link](Mouse over link to see full location) you can always call them too and ask to speak with sankicha and he will give you some good advice.
*It's called "A Buddhist Bible-Edited by Dewight Goodard, Introduction by Huston Smith. Also, adding to what the other person said...Talk to the monks and ask them to give you a rundown of what they believe, cause the basic principles are the same but different traditions teach different things...Like I know tibetians typically deal with multiple gods/buddhas...The monks I deal with don't deal with an All Mighty God...but they aren't athiest either, where as I have met monks that are athiest...then you have some that are ascetic. You gotta see what's right for you. :)
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