Expert: Laurie McLauglin - 3/22/2011

Question
Dear Laurie,
I am doing an essay for school and I would really like to ask you some questions about your beliefs. I have recently studied Buddhism in my World Religions course and find it very interesting. I very much appreciate your time if you can help me out!

1. how would you define religion and what does it mean to you?

2. When and where did you realize that Buddhism was right for you?

3. What rituals do you endeavor on a daily basis?

4. How would you defend your beliefs if someone doubted its truthfulness?

5. Have you ever had a person of another belief try to stray you away from what you now believe?

6. Was there ever a time where you struggled at practicing Buddhism?

Thank you so much for you time! I really appreciate you!

Sincerely,
Janie Smith

Answer
Hello Janie -

Thank you for letting me answer your questions.

It sounds like by the way you are asking the questions that you want personal answers not answers from books.

So I will answer the questions from my own personal experience.

1 - Religion to me is defined as an organized group of people who basically believe in the same way as to how to find peace or salvation or nirvana or help and who turn to the same spiritual deity or thing or set of beliefs in order to gain that peace or savlation.

What religion means to me is an organized group of people that believe roughly the same thing that follow roughly the same dogma and find solace in roughly the same god or deity or dieties or spiritual belief.

2 - I realized Tibetan Buddhism was right for me in 2001 after 5 years of going through some really bad karma.  I had been looking for a spiritual practice since I left the Catholic church when I was in my late 20s.  Catholisicm did not work for me because although I believed that the best way to be was to try to be like Jesus, I did not know how and could not get past my own ego and bad habits in order to be like Him.  So I had been searching for a road map on how to be a good person and tried a lot of religions to find it such as Bahai, Wiccan, and Nichiren Buddhism but none of them quite did the trick for me.

So in 2001 I was in Kansas working on research for a book I was writing and ran into a fellow researcher from California who was practicing Tibetan Buddhism and he gave me a book by Lama Yeshe and I found the roadmap I had been looking for to be a good person.

3 - The rituals I endeavor to do every day are the six session guru yoga which is a requirement for those who have taken highest yoga tantra empowerments and to practice mindfulness. About three times a week I meditate and more often when I can.

4 - If someone doubted the truthfulness of my beliefs, I would try to understand what makes them feel that way and address that.  If I felt it would benefit the person who is doubting my truthfulness, I would try to explain why Buddhism is important.  If it appears that they are not interested in hearing what I said, I would just bless them and hope they find a spiritual practice that works for them.

5 - Actually, no one has tried to talk me out of my  Buddhist beliefs that I can recall.

6 - Actually I struggle every day with practicing dharma. Practicing Buddhism correctly from my side means always being mindful of my actions of body, speech and mind.  So I am always struggling to subdue my ego and put others first.

If you have any further questions based on what I have written or anything else, please don't hesitate to ask.

I wish you much success with your essay -

Namaste - Laurie