By Jane Berry
Associate editor-in-chief
The Challenge: Over the next few months, I plan to immerse myself as much as possible in as many different religions as I can. I hope to come to a better understanding of the peoples’ lives around me and share that with you. I will attempt to practice each religion for exactly three weeks and write about my experiences. Check online after every issue for the next update.
The first religion I decided to practice was Buddhism. I was learning about it in my World Religions class and thought, “Why not?”
My first day of practicing Buddhism was research. I needed to know what kinds of lifestyle choices Buddhists made and where they got their beliefs. I found that many Buddhists are vegetarians, practice in daily meditation, believe in Karma and reincarnation, follow the Four Noble Truths and are usually part of some sort of congregation to practice their beliefs.
I found that understanding the four noble truths was not too difficult, but, instead, the Eightfold Path presented the challenge.
By the second week, I was pretty proud of myself: I had lasted 15 days without eating meat. The pride I felt from this accomplishment was not practicing right thought, but I didn’t stop myself. It was on this 15 day that my mom took me to a Thai restaurant for lunch. I ordered a vegatable and tofu dish and waited as each course was served. The first course was a simple soup. I started to eat the soup and it was on my third sip that I realized that the broth was made from chicken stock. You know what I learned: Karma is a female dog.
As I am writing this, I am at the end of my third week. Have you ever heard someone say that your dreams try to tell you things? Well, I am not exaggerating in the slightest, I have had dreams about eating meat; dreams of barbecues, fancy steak dinners, even bacon. I sincerely hope that these dreams do not continue, because it is not fun to wake up hungry.
The last three steps to the eight-fold path are right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. These all have to do with centering the mind and pushing out unwholesome thoughts. To help me practice this, I attempted to meditate every night for 10 minutes before I went to bed. In hindsight, I don’t really know why I thought youtube was a go-to source for meditation lessons. It wasn’t until I visited the Dharma Drum Meditation Center that I discovered the true art of meditation.