Hello from Monterey California

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bigkenobsd
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jul 04, 2012 3:36 pm

Hello from Monterey California

Post by bigkenobsd »

My name is Ken, I'm 50 years old and in the golf course management profession. I started studying world history at 38 years of age.I was searching for knowledge of where we came from and how societies formed. After a conversation amongst friends, that made me realize how ignorant I was about human history. It has been 12 years and I have unearthed such a passion for world history and theology. I just can't read enough or discuss and debate these topics enough.
As I studied more and more I came to the realization that religious beliefs played a major role in in the formation of civilizations and how they were governed. I then started looking into the history of world religions to understand their influence. During my studies I came across Buddhism. I then moved on to the others as I came to them in their proper time.
I was raised by a Free Will Baptist preacher that hurled hell fire and brimstone at me sitting in the second row of the church for years. I honestly and personally found no peace or direction in his teachings, still don't to this day. During my studies something kept drawing me back to the the teaching of the Buddha. As I started to dig deeper into the Buddhas teaching I found what I had been missing for awhile. I had reached a dark place in this life. My son said to me one day "Dad you hate everyone now and you have always loved all kinds of different people and different cultures and by the way they called you smiley and you never smile any more". That statement sent me back to the Buddha.
As of two months ago I committed and professed to be a Buddhist. I have a peace and a direction I have never possessed before. I have set my wheel in motion and I am a better man today than I have ever been. It makes me wonder what my life could have been like had I found my path as a young man. I now start my morning with a beautiful version of Om Mani Pad me Hum instead of the gangster rap and porn I was filling my mind with in the past. What a difference it makes in my mood and direction for the day.
As for now I am concentrating on the Dhammapada for my studies and love it. I keep finding new meaning to the text the more I read it or listen to it while driving.
That is me, my friends.Thank you for the information and insights I have gained from this site. :clap:
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cooran
Posts: 8503
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:32 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Re: Hello from Monterey California

Post by cooran »

Hello Ken,

Welcome to DhammaWheel! :group:

Many of us came via other faiths.

You may also be interested in visiting our sister website for Mahayana/Vajrayana teachings:
DharmaWheel
http://www.dharmawheel.net/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Look forward to seeing your posts! :smile:

with metta
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
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mikenz66
Posts: 19943
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 7:37 am
Location: Aotearoa, New Zealand

Re: Hello from Monterey California

Post by mikenz66 »

Welcome Ken,

:hello:

:anjali:
Mike
Chi
Posts: 130
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2011 11:18 pm
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Contact:

Re: Hello from Monterey California

Post by Chi »

Welcome Ken. Enjoy!
Do Good, Avoid Evil, Purify the Mind.
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Ben
Posts: 18438
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:49 am
Location: kanamaluka

Re: Hello from Monterey California

Post by Ben »

Greetings Ken, and welcome!
“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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bodom
Posts: 7216
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 6:18 pm
Location: San Antonio, Texas

Re: Hello from Monterey California

Post by bodom »

Welcome Ken!

:anjali:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
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DNS
Site Admin
Posts: 17190
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 4:15 am
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, Estados Unidos de América
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Re: Hello from Monterey California

Post by DNS »

:hello:

Welcome to Dhamma Wheel!

:buddha1:
bigkenobsd
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jul 04, 2012 3:36 pm

Re: Hello from Monterey California

Post by bigkenobsd »

Thank You for the warm welcome.I have many questions I will post and will welcome and appreciate you opinions and insight :namaste:
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LonesomeYogurt
Posts: 900
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2012 4:24 pm
Location: America

Re: Hello from Monterey California

Post by LonesomeYogurt »

bigkenobsd wrote:Thank You for the warm welcome.I have many questions I will post and will welcome and appreciate you opinions and insight :namaste:
Please don't be afraid to ask! Welcome to the community.
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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waimengwan
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2012 2:22 am

Re: Hello from Monterey California

Post by waimengwan »

Welcome welcome!
Gibraltariana
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2012 12:20 pm

Re: Hello from Monterey California

Post by Gibraltariana »

Hi Ken! Nice to meet you! I personally came from another faith (recovering Catholic here!)
lso, but sometimes life pulls you in the best direction.
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