Hi there! Just thought I'd introduce myself.
I'm a 27-year-old journalist and website programmer (I actually work for Yahoo!, haha...) from Toronto who's new to the group and to Buddhism. I've long been a 'searcher' of sorts, and have been trying to find my spiritual path for quite some time. I was raised in a Christian family, but could never really get behind the idea of the trinity. While I was in university, I flirted with both Judaism and Islam, and even took a course on Buddhism, funny enough. Nothing seemed to click, really, and I considered myself an atheist (as I still do, a Buddhist atheist) until this past year when I started doing some serious self-reflection and recovering from some trauma I endured in my childhood. I'd attempted to meditate several times in the past, and had become highly frustrated and abandoned the practice, but started wondering if I could perhaps learn something from it at this point in my life since I was doing so much work. I've now been meditating daily (sometimes twice daily) for about a month. I no longer look at it as a way of calming me down or as something I can 'get something out of,' but have come to look at it as part of my practice. I'm attracted to Zen, and have been reading works by Philip Kapleau, Thich Naht Hanh and Shunriyu Suzuki, but am also interested in what Tibetan Buddhists like Pema Chodron, the Dalai Lama, and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche have to say. I'm attending an introductory session at the Toronto Zen Centre on Saturday, and am really excited about where this path will take me. Very glad I found this list, and looking forward to learning from all of you, and, hopefully, making friends. Cheers and be well, Kate
