Return to the Bodhi Tree

 

I cannot believe that it has been five years since I have written anything here. If I am being honest, I thought I was going to find a bunch of unpublished material but nope, there was nothing waiting in the wings to be published.

I do not even know where to begin. It really has been a long strange journey and the road has been rough and ragged.  

The best way to handle my return to this blog would be to actually split some of the events into different posts. 

I am going to start with my return to the Bodhi Tree. After a lot of time spent studying, focusing, attending services, and having deep conversations with a Philosophy Professor who lived in a Buddhist Monastery for approximately twelve years I realized an inescapable truth. 

This inescapable truth is that to truly follow the eight fold path and some of the other edicts of Tibetan Buddhism with guilt or feelings of failure, one would need to live in an monastery or another similar environment. I am actually reminded of a conversation I had with a Jewish Rabbi and during the conversation I asked him why they do not have missionaries or proselytize. I am paraphrasing the Rabbi's response but he basically explained that it is extremely difficult to be a good Jewish person and the requirements are high - so a lot of guilt comes along with it. The Rabbi continued to explain with that being said, if the Jewish faith calls to you we won't turn you away. 

After coming to this realization I was in an interesting situation as I aligned with a lot of the philopshy aspects of Buddhism. So, I did what I always do - I hit the books and sought out people who knew more then I did about the subject material. This lead me to lots of late night research and talking to spiritual leaders of various Buddhist sects. 

This eventually led to me discovering Shin Buddhism, Blue Jean Buddha, The Tao of Pooh, and Dudeism. The philosophies of Tao and Dudeism really aligned with me and is very digestible.