Welcome to Gaia! ::

Introduce yourself here.

I'll start it off.
My name is Robert, and I'm 20 years old. I became interested in Buddhism around the same time I lost faith in Christianity, and found a new calling and some better answers from Zen Buddhism. I am still fairly new to the religion, albeit more of a way of life....

I'm very interested in learning more, and hearing stories and some good questions that I hope I can answer for you. I am by no means an authority.

I live in Fountain Hill PA and I work for Cetronia Ambulance Corps. I'm an only child, and have a girlfriend named Jennifer, who I've been seeing for a little over a year now.

my name is flowering waterfall.... sweatdrop goofy name aint it anyways I am a buddist, i became interested in the religion at a very young age at the age of ten I am now currently 16.

My name is Rich(How Original! sweatdrop ) I am interested in Buddhism and would like to learn more about it. I am shinto in belief. I became that after I lost faith in christianity. I am interested in Buddhism now.

My name is Danielle, I'm 29 years old, and I'm a neo-pagan reverend with strong buddhist tendencies (the fact that it can coexist alongside other religions works very well for me, as I tend to mix and match nowadays). I've been studying the Zen school for a while, in good part because that's the tradition that the monk who gave me the books follows. I may look into the other schools more deeply at some point, but right now I'm swamped. x.@

I'm a freelance illustrator, married and have a live-in girlfriend/aide as well, and live in Southern California. I'll be moving in a few months, though, to Sedona, AZ- sooner if a pending comic contract goes through.

I almost became a catholic nun (I had started the process at the age of 16), but had only decided to settle for that after being denied a chance at priesthood. I decided against it, however. I was a wiccan for about eight years after that, but gradually lost my connection to it. At this point, I seem to have difficulty accepting any one religion as absolutely satisfactory, since they all seem facets of the same thing to me. At least, though, buddhist beliefs tend to ring true for me. smile

Hello, my real name is María Paz, I live in Santiago, Chile in Southamerica, I'm 19 years old and I'm in second year of Design at University. I got interested in Buddhism around 13 years old... that age when you begin to question about human existence and the sense of life (well at least for me sweatdrop ) I wasn't satisfied with Christianism answers, so I asked my mom, who had a vast knoweledge on Buddhism, to explain me this things in a different way, then I got more interested on it until today and I still want to learn a lot more whee

P.S.: I'm sorry for my broken english, I hope you could understand what I post... if not,...........ask me sweatdrop

My names Brian, I am 16 and I have been a Buddhist for about 3 years. I first really learned about it online, and have been practicng ever since. I have to keep it a secret though, because my family is of a very close minded protestant faith. I live in pensacola, Fl, and I am currently a senior in high school.

My name's Joseph, I'm 18 years old and I live in Whitley Bay (the North East of England)
I was brought up a Christian - not by my parents, but by the school system (and looking back, it's almost as if they were ramming it down my throat)

I can't remember when I lost my Christian faith - probably when I discovered some of the horrible things that have been done, and learnt that there are religions other than Christianity.
From then on I was kindof bouncing around alot. I was aetheist, agnostic, satanic, and had started to hate humanity and it's constant speciesism.
Yet, despite that, I'm not a vegetarian.

Anyway, I studied Philosophy in 6th form (I had always strangely enjoyed R.E classes) in which there were two students, who were close friends, and both Buddhist (one is Zen, the other is Tibetan I think)
The Tibetan Buddhist (Adam) started teaching me about it, and I started getting quite intrested. I wasn't as intrested in Zen, for it seemed to have no real spiritual significance for me (What does this bowl of sand represent? Oneness? The inter-connectedness of all things? No, it's a bowl of sand.)
I went to Adam's Mitra ceremony at the local Buddhist centre, where I got my first real taste of meditation (which was very suprising. I suppose I was straining myself too much)

From there my intrest grew, and on Adam's recommendation I bought and read the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying (up to the practices for the dying section)
I find that the meditation it describes (Dzoghen) is a bit too difficult for me to manage so far, and so I am currently looking for other variations (e.g. I have been taught one involving a blue sky, a yellow square, a white circle, a red triangle, a green semi-circle, and a rainbow raindrop, and I am wanting to look into Tantric Buddhism)
I think I will try most - after all, Buddha didn't acheive enlightenment by only training with the ascetics.

We've all been doing Martial Arts together for a while (Tai Chi Chuan, Lohan Chi Gung, Wing Chun) but feel the lessons lack the spiritual and meditation aspect.

I am getting my A-level results on thursday, and if all goes well I will go to study Philosophy at Durham University.

In my life I want to see as many things as possible, particularly those of spiritual significance (Mt Sinai, Lhasa etc) aswell as, if possible, training for a while at Wu-Dan Mountain (or another such Shaolin school)

Also, I have come to the decision that all religions are just different interpretations of the same fundamental truth (i.e. Dharma/the universal conciousness = God/Allah) though not too many people tend to agree with me.

My name is Jess, i am 23.. My mom taught me chruch wasn't the only place to whoship, so i've always been open minded. I went from that to Christain/Protestant/Cathloic religoins and managed to be unfulfilled by they rules and pratices..I kept coming back to Buddhism, mixed with Pagan/Native American beleifs..forgive me if the terms aren't pc^^, no offense is meant. I have been studying Buddhism for roughly 2 years, it seems to be a more reasonable, and even pratical set of teachings..Not so much a religion as a life-style, i guess. Anyways, i seem to be rambling but felt like sharing after reading everyone's introduction..this concludes mine, good luck in The Way, or what ever path you choose^^.