The Buddhist Experience

Last week, William took me to his Buddhist temple along with Jamie. It was a small building with nothing (which I saw) on the outside to indicate what was going on inside. When we walked inside he asked me to take off my shoes, and place them next to the shoe pile as you walked in the door. When we arrived we sat down with a group of 15 who were already in the middle of a discussion. They spoke about the problems in the world, and how we all need to know peace, and not to hate, even your enemies. After about 20 minutes, the discussion was over and it was time for meditation. We each picked up a pillow to sit on, and a meditation book showing what we will be reading for the day. The meditation was fascinating. The room was so quite, and I began to enter, what I thought was a type of Zen mode (even though this was Tibet Buddhism), where I closed my eyes, listened to the monk, and came to peace. After meditation, we put back the pillows and had tea and crackers while William showed Jamie and I the different areas of the temple (which was a lot smaller than I pictured). Jamie and I had the chance to ask many of the people there about their thoughts on Buddhism. What I found most interesting about their statements is that with all religions, you almost feel as if you being overwhelmed with other people trying to covert you, while with Buddhism, they even say that "it's not for everyone".

I enjoyed going to the temple, and I would like to point out that I too, am a fan of karma.