I Think I’m a Buddhist?

This post may be a little controversial. I am just going to start by saying I 100% respect all religions & beliefs as long as you’re not using your religion as a reason to harm or take rights away from others. It’s that simple.

Like many people, I was raised Christian. Not hard-core Christian, but we went to church every now & then, and I went to a Catholic school up through 3rd grade. I quickly realized I was not a Christian & then defined myself as agnostic atheist (I think in very early Middle School), up until I would say the last 3-ish years. Then I realized I was more spiritual than I thought and had just been ignoring/denying my own spirituality all together. So over the last 3-ish years I’ve defined myself more loosely as “spiritual”. Although, I never really told anybody that. I don’t talk too much about religion & spirituality in my personal life, only with my husband and a friend or two. People can get very judgmental & heated when it comes to religion/spirituality, which is too bad. I would love to talk about it more, more openly. I love learning about why people believe what they do.

Even more recently, I’ve realized that I want a bit more structure again when it comes to my spiritual practice. I decided to look into Buddhism more, since it seemed to be (based off of the tiny amount of knowledge I had about it) the religion that aligns with me most.

To a lot of people, Buddhism isn’t actually defined as a religion, but rather a “way of life” or “philosophy” or “a set of fundamental beliefs”, which I prefer.

Now that I’ve read up a bit on Buddhism, it turns out I am an accidental Buddhist & already believe/practice most of the core principles of Buddhism. -This was a shock for me. I of course am not perfect and need to continue to learn & grow. I also want to point out, I am absolutely not following the rules of the Buddhist monks, that is another whole level that sounds very extreme & challenging (to me).

Here are some links I read to learn a bit more about Buddhism: Buddhist Core Values & Perspectives and History.com.

I deeply agree with The Three Universal Truths, The Four Noble Truths, The Five Precepts, & The Eightfold Path, which are the core principles of Buddhism.

There are many different forms of Buddhism, so I am not sure what type of Buddhism resonates most with me, but they all have the same core principles. Just like other religions, such as Christianity & Islam.

Even if you don’t plan on practicing another religion (or religion in general), I suggest looking them up & learning more about them. It will help open up your mind a bit, help you be more empathetic, and you might even realize a different religion aligns with you, like I did! You might surprise yourself.

In conclusion, I guess I’m studying & trying to practice Buddhism now. I wasn’t expecting to learn that about myself today, but here we are!

A weird side note: As I was reading up on Buddhism & realizing this is what I spiritually align with, a bird flew into my window, the screened part & just sat their clinging to the screen with its little twig feet, flapping, & staring at me. I will take it as a sign. A sign of what, I’m not sure. Okay, now as I was typing this, another bird (maybe the same one) did it again haha. I don’t know what’s going on, but I think it’s good. I think it’s letting me know, yes, this is the right choice, spiritually, for me.