Expert: Justin Choo - 9/26/2008

Question
I am a 30 year old woman from the United States.  I recently moved to Dubai.  I
have always searched for a religion that feels right, and I think I may have found
it in Buddhism.  There are no temples here in the UAE, so I am interested in
traveling to another country to learn about Buddhism, as a beginner.  Is there a
place where beginners might go to learn more?  Thank you

Answer
Hi Amber,

Thank you for asking me.

Welcome to the path of inner peace and happiness.  

The best place is to start with the Buddhist sites in the internet. Please take your time to surf through the sites below, which are mainly Theravada. The "mother" of all Buddhist sites is www.buddhanet.net which gives you all the worldwide links on different traditions and the locations. Having done that you can identify the temples nearest you. Visit them and feel which one appeals to you and go from there. I would recommend that you spend serious time studying the various traditions to know their differences and similarities.

The journey will be a long but rewarding one. As we travel along the path, we learn to experience happiness and inner peace through the three processes of learning, practising, and experiencing the positive results. With this experiencing, it further encourages us to put more effort to continue learning and practising. The destination may be unreachable but the journey itself is a lesson in life. Have a pleasant journey, and if you need more info please come back.

Countries having good English medium temples can be found in UK, USA, Australia, NZ, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore.  

Smile from justinchoo :-)

[I like to invite you to visit my blog:]
http://lifeislikethat999.blogspot.com/

[And this blog by Rev. Dhammika:]
http://sdhammika.blogspot.com/

You can spend some time going thru the following sites as well:

http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/whatbelieve.pdf
"What Buddhist Believe" by Ven. K Sri Dhammananda. This book explains the Buddhist perspective on life's general questions.
Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda was my revered teacher. His writings have benefitted countless people throughout the world. He had recently passed away (18 Mar 1919 -- 31 Aug 2006)

http://youtube.com/user/dhammatube
Short Buddhist talks.

http://www.justbegood.net/index.htm
http://www.geocities.com/wave_books/index.html
You can obtain excellent publications from them.

http://www.buddhanet.net (The “mother” of all Buddhist web sites)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism
http://www.dharmanet.org
http://www.buddhism.about.com
http://www.parami.org/buddhistanswers/index.htm
http://www.nibbana.com
http://www.triplegem.net
http://www.buddhistchannel.tv
http://www.bswa.org
This site is in Western Australia where Ajahn Brahmawamso resides. He is an English monk and is a very popular speaker. You can listen to his talk through this site.

http://www.foresthermitage.org.uk/
http://www.amaravati.org/abmnew/index.php/about_us/getting_here/
Ajahn Sumedho is the most senior Western monk, trained under the Thai forest monk tradition. He is an American and is resident in England.

(Ajahn Sumedho and Ajahn Brahmawamso are disciples of the well-known Thai forest monk Ajahn Chah)



http://www.lioncity.net/buddhism/
E-Sangha Forum
This is a very active and highly authoritative forum.


http://dharmaavenue.com/home.htm
http://www.thebuddhistsociety.org
http://www.budsas.org/index.htm
www.fundamental-buddhism.com
http://www.maithri.com/index.asp
http://www.parami.org/buddhistanswers/
http://www.abhayagiri.org/
Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery, the first monastery in the United States to be established by followers of Ajahn Chah, was founded in 1996 in the mountainous forests north of Ukiah, California.
http://www.watnongpahpong.org/indexe.php
www.dhammasukha.org

Just a reminder:
[You are invited to visit my blogs:]
http://lifeislikethat999.blogspot.com/

[And this blog by Rev. Dhammika:]
http://sdhammika.blogspot.com/