Editor’s note: The Daily News is partnering with SpokaneFAVS to provide content for Faith Matters, with the goal of creating a regular series of columns in the weekend Slice of Life section about faith and its intersection with culture and our communities. SpokaneFAVS calls itself an “online gathering place for nonsectarian coverage of faith and values news from the region.” Learn more at SpokaneFAVS.com.
Because I write about faith, people often ask me what religion I am.
Sometimes I stumble over my answer. I admit I worry what people will think when I say, “I’m a Buddhist.”
It sounds so … trendy, which I am not. At the garden store, Buddha statues have become as popular as St. Francis.
According to Pew Research, the number of Buddhists in North America is growing and will continue to do so over the next few decades.
In a SpokaneFAVS column from 2015, Sarah Conover wrote, however, it’s not Buddhism that’s become popular, but mindfulness.
“Indeed a tsunami of mindfulness teachers, books, films, workshops and retreats have found their way into every corner of American society and its institutions from schools to psychotherapy, to medicine, to science, to professional sports, to corporate trainings and even to the military,” she wrote.
The idea of practicing a heightened state of awareness regarding my thoughts and emotions on a moment-to-moment basis is something, I admit, did initially attract me to Buddhism more than a decade ago.
I learned about it by reading Vietnamese Buddhist leader Thich Nhat Hanh.
“Mindfulness is the energy of being aware and awake to the present moment,” he wrote. “It is the continuous practice of touching life deeply in every moment of daily life. To be mindful is to be truly alive, present, and at one with those around you and with what you are doing.”
The more I read, the more I realized his teachings were influencing how I engaged with the world; how I spoke was changing, how I approached relationships, how I consumed things.
I liked this change and wanted to continue on this path. Buddhism was resonating with me.
I grew up in a Christian home. It was a debauched version, though, that taught hate, not love, and fear, not grace.
I memorized the 10 Commandments as a child and followed a lot of rules. But I was just going through the motions, following orders.
Though I had, and continue to have, a deep respect for Jesus and his teachings, nothing about the faith I grew up with impacted my daily living the way Buddhism was.
I had done some reporting on Sravasti Abbey, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, in Newport, Wash., and began reading books written by its abbess, Thubten Chodren.
She had a way of putting Eastern teachings into Western terms I could understand. I began watching the abbey’s daily YouTube videos, “Bodhisattva’s Breakfast Corner,” and corresponding with the monastics there.
It was during this spiritual journey I learned about the five Buddhist precepts: 1. to abstain from taking life; 2. to abstain from taking what is not given; 3. to abstain from sexual impurity; 4. to abstain from false speech; and 5. to abstain from intoxicants as tending to cloud the mind
I appreciated these principles and was ready to become a Buddhist. What was next?
A nun from the abbey explained. Since Buddhism isn’t theistic, I didn’t have to ask anyone into my heart. There was no baptism or special ceremony. It was a personal choice that could be as private or public as I wanted.
The five precepts weren’t even a requirement, the monastic explained. If I wanted to, I could choose to commit to all of them, or just some of them.
So one evening about six years ago, alone in my living room, I made a vow to adopt these values. I couldn’t be happier with this spiritual decision.
However, I told Chodron once that I still don’t know if I can rightly call myself a Buddhist. I don’t have a sangha, (a Buddhist community) and I could certainly be more disciplined in following the Dharma (the teachings). Honestly, I like being able to practice Buddhism in private, on my own terms.
She said I’m a Buddhist if that’s what I intend to be. Afterall, that’s why we call it a practice.
Simmons is an award winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and media entrepreneurship. She serves as the executive director of SpokaneFAVS.com and is a scholarly assistant professor at Washington State University’s Murrow College.
