Why I’m a Buddhist

By Blogger Pearce Fujiura

When I decided to become a Buddhist in high school, it felt like an easy transition for me. Partially because I come from a Japanese family of practicing Buddhists, but also because Buddhism is in many ways an easy religion. It is a religion of flexibility, it wraps its arms around the culture and experiences of the practitioner and draws the essence of those thoughts and traditions nearer to its core. This makes the everyday life of a Buddhist easier in that it is filled with allowances instead of restrictions, and decisions instead of dogma. However, these decisions are not always simple ones, as a Buddhist I must make my choices with my eyes wide open. The Buddha was once quoted as saying, “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” I don’t interpret this as an invitation to cynicism or skepticism. Rather I view this quote along with my understanding of all the teachings of Buddhism as a treatise for open-minded consideration, willingness to grow, and a plea to understand not just know the world around us as well as ourselves. It is the application of mindfulness in the doldrums of daily routine that has helped me find happiness in all aspects of my life. The beautiful thing about this philosophy inside of Buddhism is that it can be applied to the lives of practitioners of any faith to bring them happiness. I would like to use this blog as a forum to discuss how my interpretation of Buddhism has affected my daily life, and hopefully reveal the importance of our choices in our happiness and in the human experience.