Buddhism

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I was raised as an atheist but as I grow older (I am 25 now) I find myself drawn more and more to Eastern religions such as Buddhism. I was diagnosed with mild Autism at age 7 and was abused by my parents my entire life (physically & emotionally by my mother and neglected by my father). I think those combination of events are contributing to me seeking outside sources of comfort that religions have historically provided.

Is anyone else on here a Buddhist? Is there anything you have found about Buddhism that conflicts with your identity as a Autistic person?

Hi didgeridoo.

I don't think you'll find a lot of Buddhists on this forum.

One of the reasons may be because one of the main tenets of Buddhism concerns the revered place of the "sangha" (Christians might use the word "congregation" here) in the Buddhist life. I don't have (for example) the social skills the average Buddhist might require to interface well with a sangha; for me this turns out the same as interfacing with a group of other strangers.

It's also strongly recommended you have a formal Teacher to observe and instruct you; unfortunately most I've found have little understanding of autism and, living in a rural area, it's not easy to develop contacts with "non-online" teachers of broader understanding. I suppose I could work harder at this.....but not right now.

You said you were: :.......seeking outside sources of comfort that religions have historically provided."

I'm not sure what you mean by "comfort" here. The idea of Buddhism is to help you find yourself. If this seems like it might help and comfort you, then go for it. If you're hoping to find that you will be born into a new body and better conditions then you'll find a sect of Buddhism that promotes this viewpoint, as well as those that oppose this idea. Across about 25 to 2,600 years Buddhism spread from it's birthplace in India through China and other Eastern countries and eventually throughout the rest of the world and, as you can imagine, was transformed in each new country. There are those folks that hew only to the oldest of the teachings and those that embrace the very newest ideas and they all seem to have mutual respect and get along just fine.

What many do is spend some time investigating the different beliefs of the various groups, and investigate more fully when they see or hear something that draws them to that particular group belief. If you investigate online sites you'll find plenty of knowledgeable people that will take the time to "fill you in."

Some of the online sources I'd recommend visiting would be:

Zen Forum International http://www.zenforuminternational.org/
Dhamma Wheel http://dhammawheel.com/
Dahrma Wheel http://dharmawheel.net/

The above groups all promote beginner interaction.

There are others in this forum who've had greater experience than myself....I hope they will contribute to your thread.

I'm confused as to what you mean by "identity as a Autistic person". It's not something I define myself by as such, more it's an aspect of myself that I strive to understand and accept. That seems very much in line with Buddhism, to the extent that I understand it.

Based on my very basic understanding of the noble truths and eightfold path, I find nothing in Buddhism that causes me concern.

I am not an ist of any kind.

Buddhism is 3 things...a philosophy, a religion, and a culture.

All 3 are fine, it depends upon your intention.

Do you want to go to a temple, participate in rituals and learn a bunch of Pali words?
Do you want to act like a Buddhist? hold Buddhist moral values?

Those things are Buddhist culture and religion and they are fine.

Do you want to realize your true nature? experience liberation? be Buddha ie. be one who is AWAKE ?
That is Buddhist philosophy.

Buddhism is an intellectual delight and can remain as such or it can be skillful means used to go beyond MIND!

What is your intention?(rhetorical)
Probe yourself for the answer.

Be well.

Just wanted to throw in an excellent beginner's site: http://www.buddhismwithoutboundaries.com/forum.php

Have fun.

My cousin is a Buddhist who lives in Nepal.

From the Buddhists I've met, I've had nothing but positive things to say, plus the Dalai Lama seems like a nice man.

kewl
do you know his teacher's name, by chance?

I think Buddhism has influenced me in a lot of ways, even though I'm Christian. I suppose it's more the philosophy that has helped me get through life... I'm having a really hard time figuring out how to describe it at the moment, but I do really like Buddhism. I often feel like they're more Christian (Christ-like) than most Christians these days...

Buddhists do not regard Buddhism as something which must be exclusively held.

One can profess to be Buddhist and Shintoist, or Buddhist and Christian, they would not view that negatively.

The Christians, however, may.

Well... I don't think a lot of Christians like my views anyway

You can also fuse the two and go Rosicrucian or Western Hermetic. It's a bit like applying the Eastern theosophic story to the western cultural mythos, or really finding it already stashed within that narrative and excavating from it.

So is The Kybalion to your liking techstep? I presume it isn't just a Freemason's booklet.

Two of its three authors were WW Atkinson and Paul Foster Case. Paul Foster Case founded one of the two orders I'm in, BOTA. Essentially if you look at either the BOTA or the Rider Waite version of The High Priestess - the seven laws are right there.
It takes a while for things like that to go from platitudes to things you fully see moving through your environment - for that reason I have to just say that lots of people swear by it, I can't yet because I haven't fully experienced it.

I've definitely experienced a construct of sorts behind matter that's very interesting but I've only had glimpses of it; technically what I'd think people in the occult world like to call the 4th dimension or the dimension of existence that comes in at right angles to our 3D experience. The best way I can explain what I've seen - think of the possibility that matter is waves in cross-section and those waves are across a gradient that you'd call 'multiple-universes'. In that sense life gets easier for a level 3 multiverse because you don't have to have factorials of all of the subatomic particles in the universe boiling off every plank second - it's just different oscillations of a wave and as you could have nearly infinite (from our standards at least) divisions of an inch if integers don't matter I could see nearly infinite divisions of such a wave. That which isn't going cross-sectional to us but with our 3-D environment would be what we'd classically consider a wave. Aside from that IMHO it's the only way matter would fit in anywhere on the electro-magnetic spectrume; otherwise if that's not the case we have to just get down to it and say that the claim that matter is on the electro-magnetic spectrum is BS until shown otherwise. As it stands atoms commonly oscillate in the 10^13 hz range so to say that they hang at the bottom end of the electro-magnetic (as I've heard some schools insist - and the Kybalion for that matter) doesn't seem to fit that motif unless there's a longer sequence of sorts within that which just isn't being accounted for.

techstep, thanks for the reply. I've had to read it through a few times and will again to get understanding.

It seems to me that language, or lets just say words make up for a lot of our differences. The fundies insist on certain words and hate things like "God is mental", or "The All".

a level 3 multiverse

could you explicate the different levels or link to an explanation of same?
i've not heard that terminology and am curious