Why Buddhism?!

I'm Buddhist. This often surprises people, especially Korean people who seem to think that all white Americans are Christians. Of course, a lot of Americans also seem to think that Americans should be Christians, but that's a different topic. So... why Buddhism?

I grew up Catholic, and faithfully attended our local church. Once I became a adult, however, I seldom (never?) attended church. I did not cease being Catholic, it just wasn't something that I often thought about.

After I graduated from high school, I went to a local community college to bump up my grades a bit before attending university. It was there that I first encountered Buddhism in a real way.

Everybody knows a bit about Buddhism, right? Meditation, fat guy with a smile, the Dalai Lama. And that was all I knew too. Then I took a course called something like "World Religions 101". We learned about Judaism (yawn), Christianity (yawn), Islam (yawn), Hinduism (hmmm!) and then Buddhism.

The Buddha and his Dharma and Sangha arrived with an earth shattering roar. Why did Buddhism appealed to me so strongly? I have no idea, but it did. It revolutionized my life. I was never quite the same after that class. Becoming Buddhist felt like ... coming home. Like becoming the person I wanted to be.

I began to meditate, visit local temples, read and write Haiku, became vegetarian, and read Buddhist book and Buddhist book (one of my early favorites was "Zen Flesh Zen Bones" by Paul Reps). I even thought seriously about becoming a monk someday. That never materialized, but I no longer think you need to be a monk to follow the Buddhist path. In 1997, I found myself taking a job in South Korea, a country with a substantial Buddhist history and culture. I couldn't have been happier.

It's been some 20 years since World Religions 101. I'm still in Korea and still Buddhist. I'll always be grateful to that class and teacher. Perhaps it was destiny: perhaps I would have become Buddhist without that experience, but on the other hand, perhaps not. Buddhism is now thoroughly fused with my mental structures and the way I conduct my life: I would not be myself without it.