I have been a bit On Jan 7, 2012 5:40 AM, "dan_guzy" <[email protected]> wrote:
I seem to be having trouble with this. I'm new to buddhism, just recently starting reading up on it the past several months, although technically I've been exposed to it for many years through a variety of tv shows, movies, etc. My favorite was Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. Don't know why, but the scenes with the shoalin temple and buddhist monks were always my favorite. Although I haven't come right out and said to my family (except for my sister) that I'm learning about Buddhism, they've seen the books and notes I leave to myself pertaining to it. So far, it has not been encouraging. They kind of give a disgusted look or a groan when they see it that suggests that they are not happy about it. They are catholics. I'm an atheist (which they've known for years). When I finally told my sister that I'd like to visit a temple in town, she got disqusted and said "why? You'll never go with me to my church, but you'll go to a buddhist church?" I didn't know what to say, so I told her the truth, that I didn't feel anything for catholicism anymore, and that it didn't feel like the right religion for me. She wasn't pleased. Then today I was having a chat with a co-worker and boss at work. I get along great with both of them, known them for several years. My co-worker mentioned she and her husband were atheists, so I told her I was too. We both got a kick out of it realizing that we never knew that about each other. Then I mentioned to her that I had been reading up on buddhism lately, and she gave the same kind of groan I've been hearing from my family. My boss just sort of gave a look of shock and disbelief, didn't say anything. I couple of weeks or so before that, I was discussing various books with another boss that we like to read, and I mentioned one I'd been reading called the Peaceful Warrior. He asked what it was about so I told him, and when I mentioned it has a buddhist theme to it, he gave a funny look. What's funny about all of this is that I've always figured buddhism to be one of the most revered and highly respected forms of philosophy and religion on earth. Even growing up I felt that way. When I go online to Yahoo Answers R&S forum to ask a question pertaining to it, I haven't had any bad replies over a single question, and if any of you have ever been on there, you know they can be harsh sometimes in that section. So it really threw me for a loop seeing all these crazy reactions from people I know. Did any of you get these same reactions from the people you knew when you were first learning about buddhism? ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links
