Introduction

The Buddhism of my Understanding

I was raised Catholic and my husband Shane was raised Jehovah's Witness.  Having not found what we needed on those paths, we began searching for something else.  We read Eckhart Tolle and found it a little too "woo woo" for us, but we liked some of the ideas.  We read Sharon Salzberg's book Real Happiness as a family and began having family meditation practice.  When we discovered Secular Buddhism, we realized it had so much of what we had been searching for, but we struggled to find good sources of information and especially teachers.

I am not a leap-of-faith kind of person. I need concrete information that helps me in my daily life.  Secular Buddhism gives me this. Since I am a yoga teacher, I also see a strong connection between mind, body, and spirit (whatever you choose to call the true self).  Secular Buddhism blends nicely with these ideas.

I have some fear about releasing this blog to the world.  I live in the Bible Belt (Southern Baptist country).  I have a business to run here that could be harmed by people's opinions about my beliefs.  But, I am choosing to believe that instead of harming my business, my honesty and authenticity will attract people who are also searching for something more.  I hope that my community will embrace the idea that one can be both Buddhist AND Christian, or Buddhist AND atheist, or Buddhist AND agnostic, or Christian AND open-minded.

Those who know me, know that I am about love.  My dharma is love.  What I teach my children is the same as what I teach in my yoga classes: love for yourself and others, charity, compassion, peace, responsibility, a positive mindset and the power to change. (I believe Jesus taught similar things, right?)

This blog is intended to share the wisdom of Buddhism as I understand it from a secular, Western perspective.  I will share the teachings of the Buddha, the Dalai Lama,  Pema Chodron, Sharon Salzberg, Thich Nhat Hanh, Stephen Batchelor, Ondrea & Stephen Levine, and many others as I discover them.  I am on a spiritual journey.  Would you like to join me?