A Blue Eyed Buddhist

Wow. So, here’s my first “official” post on my blog. I suppose this is where I write out my goals, thoughts, and hopes for this blog.

Well, I just finally decided to get moving. I write all the time- too much, in fact. The thing is, the gunk I write isn’t really easy to categorize; it’s snippets here and there, usually rants, sometimes angry (I’m not nearly this irritated in real life- I work a lot of it out through the keyboard) and sometimes happy.

There’s a blogger I admire greatly named Luis Poza. Luis is a seemingly normal dude, living the expatriate life in Japan as a teacher. For a guy out of the country, he’s remarkably well-connected to political happenings in the USA. He also posts something new on his blog every single day. It’s called The Blog From Another Dimension and it’s really quite interesting. He’s got a lot of political rants, but occasionally you’ll find an X-ray of his broken foot or perhaps a posting where he talks about his trips in the local area doing some birdwatching.

Inspired by Luis’s example, I am going to try and add to this blog every day. I’ll write about my experiences as a small town white guy who has taken up Buddhism. Yes, of all things, Buddhism. It’s pretty cool, and just really fits in my life these days.

I called my blog “A Blue Eyed Buddhist” because, well, that’s me. Blue eyes, Buddhist. Sure, it’s lame- you got anything better?

Buddhists (well, young, new-to-it Buddhists like me, anyway) learn that we have karma. Karma isn’t exactly the same concept that most people in mainstream America have, but it’s kind of like that. We (Buddhists) believe that our karma tends to show itself in the patterns of our lives- how we behave and the types of relationships we have, and what types of issues we face in our day-to-day lives.

Ever known someone who always seems to date one certain type of a person? A type that might not be particularly good for them, or maybe the opposite is true- maybe they always seem to get hooked up with someone who just raises them to another level? Or do you know someone (maybe you ARE someone) who always seems to run into the same situation, in different forms, over and over again?

Well, in Buddhism, we learn that’s part of our karma. It’s a pattern that we’ve learned and gotten into, in this life and (most likely) in many previous lives.

And here comes the important part. Until we change our karma, we’re gonna keep on doing “it”. Whatever “it” is, we’re going to repeat it.

The good news is that we can change our karma. By doing so, we can leave behind our troubles and dissolve our attachments to these problems, these things that we unthinkingly hold on to so dearly.

This blog is an attempt to change my own karma; by posting every day and being conscious of it, I’m changing the pattern of being a wannabe writer who doesn’t really sit down and make himself do it to being a wannabe writer who’s at least getting some writing done on a daily basis.