Members Bios - please contribute yours

Introduce yourself to others at Dhamma Wheel.
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DNS
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by DNS »

SDC wrote:Still skiing.
Skiing is cool. But I head the sport is going downhill.

(sorry if you've heard that bad joke several times already :tongue: )

Do you have a favorite type; cross-country, downhill, etc.?

Interesting bios above, thanks.
Gena1480
Posts: 308
Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2011 1:36 am

Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by Gena1480 »

Hello dear friends
my name is Gennadiy Grishayev
and started studying Buddhism
around 6-7 years ago
i hope i bring good stuff to this forum
i still study, meditate, and listen to talk from Sangha.
still searching for full ordination in the future.
metta mitta
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SDC
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by SDC »

David N. Snyder wrote:
SDC wrote:Still skiing.
Skiing is cool. But I head the sport is going downhill.

(sorry if you've heard that bad joke several times already :tongue: )

Do you have a favorite type; cross-country, downhill, etc.?
Oh its definitely going downhill. :D

The only type I have ever tried is downhill, but I would really to get into cross country. It's supposed to be one of the best workouts you can get. You can appreciate the scenery more as well.
“Life is swept along, short is the life span; no shelters exist for one who has reached old age. Seeing clearly this danger in death, a seeker of peace should drop the world’s bait.” SN 1.3
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buddhadhamma
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by buddhadhamma »

David N. Snyder wrote: how about 6 words to describe yourself or your life? It could be personality traits, accomplishments, interests, or something else.

If I had to choose 6 words it would be: chess, family, ph.d., business, kalyana-mittas, Dhamma

Dhamma, Family, Kalyana-Mittas, Faith, Tolerance, Kālāma Sutta.





Metta to All
Last edited by buddhadhamma on Sat Jan 28, 2012 12:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Kim OHara
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Location: North Queensland, Australia

Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by Kim OHara »

SDC wrote:... I would really to get into cross country. It's supposed to be one of the best workouts you can get. You can appreciate the scenery more as well.
I've done it (before I moved to the tropics!) and you're right on both points. Do try it sometime.

:namaste:
Kim

Now ... :focus:
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Anagarika
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by Anagarika »

It is Sunday and I am sitting at a computer at the XSport, an fitness center in Chicago. I feel little like working out (Sunday lazy) and feel much more inclined to be on Dhamma Wheel. So, I'll complete my brief bio as a sit near the spinners on the stationary bikes whizzing by...

I have been formally a Buddhist since about 2001, when I took precepts at a Zen Center in Chicago. My previous meditation experience was sitting meditation and chanting with Allen Ginsberg while in my last year of university. That sit made me feel as though this was one activity, one experience, that I'd been searching for most of my life. Like others may have said, they'd been a Buddhist most of their life, and just didn't know it.

Post 2001, I drifted away from the original Zen center, and began to read and study on my own. Some years ago, I began to study with some interest the Theravada suttas and those teachers and authors that focused on Theravada foundations. I still kept my kyudo bow dry in my garage, still loved Zen practices, but saw Theravada practice as necessary to a foundation that I needed to build under my(self). Two yeard ago, I spent some time in northern Thailand at Wat Sri Boen Ruang, and was permitted to ordain, after a period of training, as a Samanera. Words cannot express how profound this was. I returned to Thailand last year with my son, and we visited WSBR, as well as the Golden Horse Temple and spent part of a day in Dhamma talk with Khru Bah.

This past year I have had the privilege of visiting Thanissaro Bhikkhu's Wat Metta (California) a few times, meeting him and his excellent young Bhikkhus and men in training, as well as meeting last month the dynamic Jeff at Dharma Bums in San Diego. I am convinced that with each passing day, the Dhamma lives and breathes in so many sanghas and individuals that I have had the privilege to meet. Dhamma Wheel is just one sangha that I am happy to have found and feel privileged to be a part of, despite my limited knowledge and evident penned defilements.

In my work life, I am a family lawyer and mediator. I am on weekends a licensed mixed martial arts judge ( I score combat events where men punch and kick each other in the head). :)

Well, as much as sitting is important, I need to get off me arse and start my workout. As physically lazy as I am today, I feel energized in having Dhamma Wheel as a means to keep my practice invigorated. Dhamma Wheel members: Sadhu!

Michael
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Ben
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by Ben »

A very nice post, Michael!
Thank you for sharing.

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
lakshmi
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hi everybody in the forum

Post by lakshmi »

this is Lakshmi :tongue: I am happy to have become a part of the forum now :) i am an infant to Buddhism and i am here to learn about it. i actually started about surfing the net to learn the basics of Buddhism and i stumbled upon this site. i am a final year college student and i have felt the need for peace and liberation from all the problems of life. i thought i must take up a religious way and as Lord Buddha had fancied me a lot by his pleasant appearance, i desired to read more about the life and teachings of Buddha as a teenager. now after a long battle with my family life and personal life i felt the need to stop craving for things. i developed a policy of un-expectation and now i have lesser disappointments. i know i still have long way to go from this age of 20... but i have planned to take it in a most peaceful way. into the realms of buddhism.
Terasi
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by Terasi »

I am an infant too! I am currently living in Sydney, Australia, but I came from a South East Asian country. My ID there had always been marked as "Buddhist" but actually I knew nothing about it, it's marked that way because I went to Chinese Dao/Confucian temples, noone understood the difference including myself! (Actually I knew nothing about Dao/Confucian either, only knew which statues to pray for wealth/good luck/career..... ).

The seed for learning Buddhism was planted in year 2000 when I was hospitalised because of an accident. A Tibetan nun and a group of Buddhist came to hospital to visit sick people (and another religion groups too but I don't remember). I was still clutching a pendant of Chinese Avalokiteshvara to sleep when I was in pain, but after out of the hospital, I visited both the Tibetan nun and the Buddhist group to express my gratitude. But it didn't go anywhere. I went back to the temples in my home country. My second visit to Australia, this time for good, met with many troubles and I became depressed. I stayed at home like a recluse, didn't work, didn't take care of myself, days and nights my mind was whirring with hate and self-contempt. I became disilussioned with temples and their gods, I blamed them for my own stupidity.

It's only end 2009 that I was suddenly overwhelmed with desire to learn about Buddhism. Probably the seed started to grow. From Internet, I found the Buddhist centre I am currently with. So far I've been blessed with many benefits from learning, mainly my mind is now (mostly) in peace and calm. Discipline is my biggest weakness, and so I've failed to even tell myself to meditate for 5 minutes everyday. It's fine, I take it everything runs on it's course, there will be a time when I could be a better Buddhist as long as I stick to the path. I try to make it up by reading about basic Buddhism, currently I at Chapter 8 In the Buddha's Words, but I also read other things randomly. Bhikkhu Bodhi has chronic headaches too, he can't meditate as much as he would like, but his study of Buddhism has benefitted many people. I consider my main teachers are: Bhikkhu Bodhi, and Dhammawheel! Yes, all of you here are my teachers.

I work as a paper pusher in an office in CBD. My job requires me to nag and fret, and be pushy, but I am actually a milksop so it brings me lots of emotional discomfort. Lucky I now know how to be calm.
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Noah
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Location: Atlanta, Ga, USA

Bros and Sistas in tha Dhamma :)

Post by Noah »

It is wonderful to read these intros, seeing many differences and similarities in the words expressed :)

I am Noah, I live in one of the most diverse cities in the US- Atlanta Ga! :) 30, Married with 2 most-beautiful daughters. I have openly studied philosophy and religion before and with great fervor since I embraced a non-theist viewpoint about 8 years ago. I love the Dhamma and realized I was a Buddhist when I read the Diamond Sutra and the Buddha's First Discourse. I read Sutras constantly. Some of my favorite are: Dhammapada, The First Discourse and all Pali texts, also...The Lotus Sutra!
I work as a driver in the city. I deliver cases of wine to nice restaurants in Atlanta. All day I can listen to Talks and Teachings on my Android phone, Yay! I interact with many people and make it a practice to stay mindful and spontaneous. I see the Dhamma everywhere and believe many here are closer to being buddhists than anything else :P

I want to strengthen my meditation practice and devotion. I find it easy to read sutras and think on them, also to be patient and kind but, I feel that there is depth inside me that the Dhamma has not yet reached.
I find it a joy to challenge myself to live well and be kind to all, abandoning distinction, equanimity towards all! :D

It is a great kindness to have community for Dhamma discussion, I look forward to meeting interesting beings on their own unique and glorious path
Evil is caused by and is the cause of future suffering, abandon at all costs! Cultivate virtuous qualities and live the happy life! Just as all wise human endeavors, from Physics to Philosophy, approach the Dhamma; be fearless in your reverence for it- The time for the True Law is yet to dawn in the west!! :D
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badscooter
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by badscooter »

Hello.. Billy from new jersey here... I've been a teacher for a few years.. Been a buddhist for a few years.. Practice samatha / vipassana meditation interested in martial arts and yoga..!

With metta :anjali:
:sage:
Last edited by badscooter on Mon Nov 11, 2013 8:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.
"whatever one frequently thinks and ponders upon will be the inclination of one's mind"
locrian
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by locrian »

Hello Everyone -

I find myself in these forums off and on because the conversation is interesting and it helps me learn. I don't know anything about what it means to be a Buddhist, but have found that it comes up often during amazing conversations. The only parts of the religious texts I have read have been short passages and quotes people use in supporting their side of the discussion. I have never had a teacher but feel I have been taught well by those that enter my life. Overall, I have learned from existence with help from all over- much of it Buddhist in origin. I never discuss or ask questions to prove my side, but do in order to expand my thinking (like an artist buying new paint). It would do nothing for anyone to understand my experiences or my life, so I will simply say that I have come to find peace in a stillfull mind (yes, I made up that word on purpose :tongue: )
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Polar Bear
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by Polar Bear »

After re-reading my original post which I wrote when I was rather sleep deprived, I've decided to re-write it.

Hi everyone,

The name's Andrew. I was born in northern California in the bay area in 1991. I grew up in a nice small town in Marin County and played alot in the hills out there. I moved to Orange County when I was 12 and have been living here ever since. After quite a few years of living a hedonic lifestyle I realized that it was not going to get me anywhere or provide any lasting satisfaction and when I stumbled across buddhism a couple years ago I found it very compelling. After learning much about buddhism while stilling living a hedonic lifestyle, I finally decided that getting drunk or stoned or pursuing other things of that sort all the time was just a waste of time and that I would be much better off trying to cultivate my mind, wake up, and realize the destruction of passion, aversion, and delusion; or at least live a more virtuous life with a calm and peaceful mind and a kind and compassionate heart. I'll be transferring from a community college to the University of California at Santa Cruz in the fall of 2013 to major in philosophy and after that I plan to go on an extended retreat (of at least 3 months) and after that either look for a place to ordain (probably in Sri Lanka) or get some kind of certification to teach english abroad and then go backpacking around asia while stopping in certain areas to teach english for 6 months or so.

:anjali:
Last edited by Polar Bear on Sat May 04, 2013 2:10 am, edited 2 times in total.
"I don't envision a single thing that, when developed & cultivated, leads to such great benefit as the mind. The mind, when developed & cultivated, leads to great benefit."

"I don't envision a single thing that, when undeveloped & uncultivated, brings about such suffering & stress as the mind. The mind, when undeveloped & uncultivated, brings about suffering & stress."
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Ben
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by Ben »

polarbuddha101 wrote:It's been fun
Indeed. And I hope you get some rest.
Thanks for the bio.
Wit metta,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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LonesomeYogurt
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Re: Members Bios - please contribute yours

Post by LonesomeYogurt »

Born near Seattle, raised by very religious Christians. I became a vegetarian as a teenager. As I threw myself into that, I came across a lot of Jain literature. After a short while I became a Jainist but was eventually dissuaded from that path and became a Buddhist about two years ago maybe. I read a lot of Zen stuff and didn't much care for it so I moved on to Theravada, where I've been ever since. Still quite an infant, but already too knowledgeable for my own good. I wish I could purge even the little bit of sutta knowledge I have and just meditate more. Still a vegetarian, out of habit.
Gain and loss, status and disgrace,
censure and praise, pleasure and pain:
these conditions among human beings are inconstant,
impermanent, subject to change.

Knowing this, the wise person, mindful,
ponders these changing conditions.
Desirable things don’t charm the mind,
undesirable ones bring no resistance.

His welcoming and rebelling are scattered,
gone to their end,
do not exist.
- Lokavipatti Sutta

Stuff I write about things.
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