I never thought any religion would be able to shake my (relatively) long held atheist views. Having non-practising Christian parents and attending a Catholic secondary school did not in any way push me towards Christianity. I developed my atheist view probably when I was around 15, and it has long been my belief that I would be an atheist until I died, and even regarded religion as a farce, something the weak minded reality-deniers did to give themselves false comfort. I think I held this view because I just did not have a wide enough knowledge on any other religions except Christianity, especially Catholicism and I probably just assumed that if I rejected Christianity, all other religions were broadly the same and so, were nonsense. So there I was, getting on with things, firmly an atheist with no intention from straying from this cold path.

Until last week. Last weekend I woke up in a good mood. No particular reason, there was nothing happening or that had happened that would have put me in a good mood. I just had a really exceptional feeling. The things I usually do on the weekend, including I must say, going to work for four hours, was done with a positive attitude and I just felt great. I started to wonder about positivity and how this affects me and others around me. So when I got home from work I started to to a little bit of research on religion. Again, I cannot logically explain why I did this, I just felt compelled to do so. Out of interest, I started to investigate Buddhism. At first I was sceptical, as Buddhism is not easily explainable in the same way Christianity is, especially not on a website. But slowly, after a fair amount of research, downloading a couple of books and thinking about it, I was, by Sunday evening, starting to get a real feel for the basics of Buddhism.

I will not go into them in any real depth here, as there are literally hundreds of websites that can be found that introduce Buddhism in a very digestible way. Basically, sometime between the sixth and fourth century BC, a prince decided to seek enlightenment as he saw that suffering was a part of life, even with a lot of wealth. His name was Siddharttha Gautama, known as the ‘Buddha’ or, ‘enlightened one’. He is the figure of Buddhist statues – the one with the pointy hat, not the fat laughing monk. The path to enlightenment is complex, but it is how humans can achieve complete fulfilment. In essence, the Buddha taught that compassion and wisdom were the key to being enlightened. For a fantastic introduction and guide to Buddhism, I would suggest you read ‘Modern Buddhism: The Path of Compassion and Wisdom’ by Geshe Kalsang Gyatso, currently (as of Dec 2015) free on the Kindle book store. If you have a loving heart to every living thing, your life will be amazing. That feeling you get when you do something really kind or do someone a big favour – I’m not talking about donating an organ or giving a huge amount of money to charity, but simple things like lending someone your umbrella or giving them some money for car parking. That warm feeling you get is brilliant, and if you love everybody, you will lead happy life. This is coupled with wisdom, as, someone who is only loving runs the risk of becoming a generous fool, incapable of understanding the truth about suffering – that it can be eliminated by wisdom and compassion. This is why there has never been any wars fought in the name of Buddhism. My one big issue of following a religion was belief in some sort of divine spirit. I was surprised to find out that the Buddha was not only human, but actually heavily emphasised his human qualities, saying enlightenment was about being human.

It would be fair to say that when I was an atheist, I was not happy. I hate to use a cliché, but I definitely felt there was something missing in my life. It is hard to put my finger exactly on what this was – I just was not truly fulfilled the whole time, in any aspect of my life. This sounds a bit feeble, but truthfully I always felt a hole inside that needed to be not just filled, but filled with the right thing. Turns out it was a Buddha shaped hole. Even in this short week, I have changed the way I act – doing the best to tell the truth, doing my absolute best for others, even if I a sacrificing my time where I wanted to be doing something else. For example when I was asked to help get the decorations down from the loft, I did it (pretty much) straight away, whereas before I would have complained and resented giving away minutes of my time, but now I was more than happy to help out. I have found doing things which I previously thought would satisfy me now do so even more – doing my job, doing my absolute best in college, looking after my personal fitness, eating well, reading great literature and journalism making music, going for walks and skateboarding. My creative and academic practices are now of more importance to me than ever before.

Finally, I have found meditating to be very rewarding, even though I have only been practising for a week. An essential part of all schools of Buddhism is meditation, as it helps accept the truth, and can hone and train the mind, as well as calm it. Increasingly popular in the West, Buddhist meditation is more about realising truths and improving mental ability – almost like going to the gym for your brain. I, and countless others who have attempted any form of meditation found that it is not as easy as it looked. If my mind wasn’t falling asleep during my 10 minute session, than it was racing off, thinking about everything else apart from what I was trying to meditate on. So I went to a meditation class at the local community hall run by a Buddhist Centre based in a city 45 minutes from where I live. Thankfully this class was only a 10 minute drive for me, and I found it incredibly effective and instructive. Anyone, even non-Buddhists should try one, they are infinitely helpful at teaching basic meditation, and for the whole of the rest of the evening I genuinely felt a sense of mental calm and, on top of this, an involuntary feeling of compassion for everyone I encountered. I used the techniques I was taught in my daily meditation, and has really improved my meditations. This experience swept away any doubts I had about Buddhism, and convinced me that Buddhism was the correct path in life.

Well, that was all a bit intense! I have intentionally avoided just defining Buddhism and just listing off beliefs, so again, I really encourage you to do a little bit of research on it. The Wikipedia page is a bit heavy and technical, so I would recommend –

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/5minbud.htm

Or, for a really bare-bones, no frills introduction –

http://www.wikihow.com/Become-a-Buddhist

It might be a Wiki-How, but all the right information is there. Again, for a more comprehensive and insightful introduction and guide to Buddhism, I cannot recommend ‘Modern Buddhism: The Path of Compassion and Wisdom’ enough, or even ‘What the Buddha Taught’ by Walpola Rahula.

Thanks for reading and I hope to post regularly in the future. May compassion and wisdom guide you through suffering.

Picture credit – http://www.wallconvert.com/search/buddha/