Thinking of taking up Buddhism ?

A very large number of us human beings are fascinated by Buddhism and admire the life state of those who practice it. There is also wide acceptance of the idea that Buddhism provides a key to genuine happiness.

In our quest to find such happiness, many of us spend a great deal of time reading about Buddhism or Buddhist philosophy and come to realise that practising a religion that makes sense to us would indeed transform our lives for the better.

Sometimes we get "hooked" on our study of Buddhism because of the intellectual satisfaction it brings. After years of this we may come to realise that although we know a great deal about Buddhism and have striven to understand it to the best of our ability, it has made little difference to our lives in real terms. The reason is often because we have not actually put it into practice, perhaps because we still have some unsolved theoretical problems with it.

There is a well-known illustration of this situation in Buddhism in which we are asked to imagine that we are dying from having been shot with a poison arrow which is still embedded in our body. What would we do? Would we start trying to save ourselves by finding out the identity of the person who shot the arrow? Would we examine how the arrow was manufactured? Would we speculate on the performance of the bow that shot the arrow?

The answer is obvious. We would do none of these things. Instead we would immediately extract the arrow and tend the wound. Once we have taken these practical steps, there will be plenty of time available to us to ponder the above questions.

To obtain true benefit from our religion, we simply have to practice it, starting now. Understanding will grow with our practice. Forget our intellectual problems for the moment. Just do it!