Any Buddhists here?

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The principles of Buddhism (more specifically, the book Be Here Now by Ram Dass) have practically saved my LIFE... For the longest time I've just been "struggling" in every way possible... struggling for approval, struggling both to attain and control my desires, struggling to do the "right thing" and so much more... And now that I've learned to simply give up, to stop struggling and accept things as they are... wow, it's a great feeling. A huge burden has been lifted from my mind and "spirit." Anyone else had success with this?

By the way, I *highly* recommend Be Here Now for anyone struggling with any anxiety or depression issues. It doesn't matter if you're an atheist or Christian or anything else, you will get plenty out of the book (it doesn't really commit to any particular idea of a deity, except the "divine mother" which can simply be thought of as nature for you secular types )

There are different kinds of alteration in conciousness other than depression.

I am a Christian but I think Be Here Now is a really neat book, especially visually. Buddhism is more of a philosophy than a religion, so I think its neat to apply the ideas---one doesn't have to give up the belief in Jesus to recognize the wisdom in some Buddhist ideas, I don't have to beleive in reincarnation. I do have a friend who is really into Buddhism and has "spirit guides" and some evil around him, so I am careful about it. I don't do the meditation stuff (I had a bad experience with it and it came from this friend) but I think that as long as one is applying the principles to life, it can be a positive thing. I do think one must be careful and not go too far into buddhism.

I'm hybrid

I Buddhist/ LaVey Satanist/ Jainist

I sort of pick the concepts I like from each.

Well, if he believed spirits were contacting him during meditation, he wasn't a true Buddhist, because the Buddha warned that people often feel they are receiving visions, hearing messages, etc. when deep in meditation, and the Buddha instructed us to ignore them for they are merely distractions preventing us from reaching the goal of enlightenment.

well considering I only mention two times, and you do not know the situation or occurences, and because you come at this with the automatic assumption that the supernatural can't be real (I mean, what if it actually is?), maybe two times when I believe supernatural things happened in my life, I guess thats enough to be labeled schizophrenic. Well geez.

But actually Ive felt a supernatural presence a few more times at church where I could really feel the spirit of God in me. Well, I guess those people that feel the spirit of God talking to them every sunday must be schizophrenic as well.

You have no idea how skeptical a person I am. Not skeptical in the sense that I refuse to believe things that are hard to beleive, but assuming natural causes is always my default assumption. I am careful not to assume anything I don't understand comes from the spiritual world because if it is real, I don't want to make a mocker of it. I know people that see a demon behind every bush, and they aren't even schizo personality disorder, they just are irrational and perhaps uneducated. Hmm, sounds like a lot of native people who are animists. You would have to call entire tribes as sufferers of schizo personality disorder. They believe everything has a connection to the spiritual.

But I remember one conversation on wp with some people that thought that they caused electrical surges because every time they would drive past a street light the light would go out--you were in the conversation and said that the people that thought this were schizotype personality. I would agree with this. There are certain delusions that go past simply being uneducated like primitive people or those who follow a certain religion that teaches that certain phenomena are due to spirits. You would have to call an awful lot of religious people schizo, people that are extremely rational and extremely intelligent and other than perspectives based on their religious beleifs, people that do not draw irrational conclusions in areas that are not reinforced by a prior acceptance in the spiritual. I do not beleive I have had spiritual experiences just because it seems that way. I believe I have based firstly on the assumption that certain spiritual phenomena are real---perhaps they are not, but i have reason to based on my religion---heck, even if I've been brainwashed, at least I have A reason to beleive, even if that reason were faulty. Secondly, I apply this prior belief to a situation that seems to fit the bill. Its not like I just heard a bird chirp one day and thought it must be God for no reason. And if an excessive amount of irrational belief in connections between spirits and things that happen is the qualification for schizotype personality, well I don't see things everyday, every week, or even every year. period. its been extremely rare occurences and completely contradicts my VERY rational and even minded thought processes, which also happens to include a belief in the spiritual world.

I have more respect for Buddhism than I do for other religions. Buddhism actually makes a certain amount of sense. However, I don't consider myself a Buddhist because I don't actually do anything that would identify me as one.

I used to practice Buddhism, but I don't anymore.