Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hey, My name is Tim and I'll be 23 by the end of the month.
My path has been long and confusing so far but I was born Catholic and was very involved but not by my own choice. I eventually met a Buddhist when he tried out for a band I was in and we became life long friends. I didnt pay much mind to Buddhism then but it continued to come up in my life so I read into it more and found it nearly perfect for me, even though I do not consider myself Buddhist.
I do a lot of energy work and focused as well as unfocused meditation. I believe in Synchronicity and listen to the signs that are shown to me as I walk my path.
But overall, I'm glad to be a part of this guild and hope to learn and teach whenever possible. I consider you all friends with common interests so if you ever need anything or want to carry on intelligent convo at 3 in the morning, feel free to contact me. Thanks

Hello. My name is John and I was raised in a christian home. I'm 23 and a single father. I've been interested in buddhism for a while and have been considering taking the 5 precepts. I don't have a local sangha, but I'm always looking.

Welcome, John! The 5 precepts are a great place to start your journey. I took the five precepts when I first became interested in Buddhism as well. Of course, now I'm under about 16 precepts, but that's because I chose a different form of Buddhism. If you have any questions about Buddhism, anyone here would be MORE than happy to help you! Welcome, my friend!

Haha. It's not as bad as you think, old friend. Here, let me give ya the run-down:

10 Grave Precepts

Do not kill
Do not steal
Do not engage in sexual misconduct
Do not lie (false speech and whatnot)
Do not abuse intoxicants
Do not speak of others' errors/faults
Do not elevate yourself & blame others
Do not be stingy
Do not give vent to anger
Do not defile the Three Jewels of Refuge

3 Pure Precepts

Do not create evil
Practice good
Actualize good for others

Take the 3 Jewels of Refuge (counts as 1 precepts per Jewel)

Buddha
Dharma
Sangha

So as you see, not quite as difficult as it originally sounded. Zen Buddhism is some good stuff, really. 3nodding

Um... hello everyone... My real name's Vedrana and I'm from small country called Croatia. Croatia is a European country with 88% of people being Catholic. I am NOT one of those 88% percent nor do i have a wish to be. At the moment i don't exactly have any beliefs nor religion i am part of. I am agnostic.

Buddhism is something i heard of from my beloved mother when she started to practice some alternative 'stuff'(i don't exactly know how to say it). I researched a lot of religions and Buddhism is the ONLY one that actually made me interested, therefore i decided to learn more about it; and what's the better way of learning then from other people?! biggrin

Oh... right... I'm 21, single and going to college; Mechatronics one... not that it matters... :/

Anyways... I'm looking forward getting to know you all better and to learn more about Buddhism. I also ask of your patience with me for i tend to get 'hard to handle'. Thank you! biggrin

Hi my name is Bill I have learned already that Buddhism has some of the same ideas as Christianity but I am willing to learn more.

Do not be worried of our patience, Ragnarok, for Buddhists are quite patient people. =]
Welcome to our wonderful guild and I hope your stay is full of knowledge and joy.
Namaste!

My name is Marie, though most just tend to call me Twila on here. I'm 30, living in east texas, and likely to be a lifelong single. (Don't worry, it's what I prefer. biggrin )

I was raised Mormon, but have fallen away in recent years due to questions and concerns that couldn't be answered to my satisfaction. I presently regard myself as an agnostic theist.

My road to my interest in Buddhism actually started about 13 years ago, during a similar 'apostate' period in my life. Apparently I'd allowed myself to be quite sheltered, religiously, and the notion of people practicing paganism or any religion outside of the familiar judeo-christian set up was novel and strange. And different, of course. So, I began researching and exploring, much to my mother's dismay.

Somewhere along the lines, I discovered Shinto, which lead to an interest in Japan. Now, I knew about Buddhism.. it's difficult to read the amount of folklore and mythology I did as a youth and not have heard of it, but I never really looked into it. Regardless, Shinto was still much more of interest to me.

Buddhism only really came to be of firmer interest to me after a trip I took to japan with a friend. We were able to take a couple of trips to Chion-in in Kyoto, and a couple other buddhist temples, and the atmosphere was... quite peaceful. Suffice it to say, it sort of stuck with me.

All this aside, I never really did learn anything much about the religion. I should rectify that..