We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts, we make our world.
-- Buddha
The Buddha Dharma and its seeds of compassion are being planted and are sprouting all over Central Florida with a variety of sanghas announcing their meetups here on meetup and all over the Internet. We in Central Florida are blessed to have the Guang Ming Temple on Hoffner Ave, the Vajrapani Kadampa Buddhist Center on Montana St, the Drikung Kagyu center at Ani Chime's home, the Diamond Way Karma Kagyu center at Vanessa's home, the Korean Zen meditation gathering at Shine On Yoga on Sunday nights, the Orlando Insight Meditation at Peter Carlson's home, there is meditation practice most Saturday evenings at the Spiral Circle, there is the Thai Theravada Buddhist monastery and temple in Kissimmee, there is the virtual sangha of meetup.com/Buddhism-happiness or Buddhism for Happiness, and there are meditation groups gathering at various Unity and Unitarian congegrations, and there is the introduction to Tibetan Buddhism classes given by Mark Winwood of Yalaha at the First Congregation Church of Winter Park, and so many more that I am not aware of.
I suspect that religions that make up Buddhism may have been derived from Hinduism to such an extent that Buddhism can be viewed as a reformed Hindu sect. I have made contact with Vedic traditions and have scheduled meetups to brings fans of Vedic culture and fans of Buddhism together. It is interesting to understand the similarities and differences. The views of the Buddhist schools versus Vedanta schools of philosophy concerning the truths of reality and being or becoming seem to express opposite extremes, so the two Dharmas (Sanatana Dharma vs. Buddha Dharma) tend to have philosophical differences and debates when they come together. And yet they both have similar traditions, and comparable practices and goals. I am personally involved in a group that incorporates Buddha's teachings but is a lineage that is very much based upon Hindu or Vedic traditions. I think that understanding the Vedic traditions may help me to better understand the Buddhist traditions. There is no denying that Vedic culture has had a profound effect on Buddhism and vice versa. And waves of masters from India (and their literature and music) have come to the West to make way for Buddhism. Just to mention a few: Swami Vivekananda, Paramahansa Yogananda, Madam Blavatsky and the Theosophical Soceity, Krishnamurti, the "hippies", the beatniks, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Ravi Shankar, OSHO, Kung Fu, Bruce Lee, Hatha Yoga and Yoga teachers such as Satchidananda and Iyengar, the American Yogi Ram Das, the Mind-body doctor Deepak Chopra. Making the way for this was the previous century when great Western writers such as Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman were influenced by the sacred literature of the Hindoos and made us value nature again. And there was Alan Watts, Jack Kerouak, and DT Suzuki who made way for Buddhism to flower in America. Now a powerful form of Buddhism called Vajrayana Buddhism is catching on thanks to Trungpa, the Karmapa, Tibetan Lamas, the ambassador for Tibetan Buddhism (and the Tibetan cause) the Dalai Lama, and the (New) Kadampa (Modern) Buddhism of Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. I think Vajrayana Buddhism is most interesting because it carries with it many practices and images that can be compared to practices and images in Hinduism. There are the lands of Nepal, Butan and Sikhim where one can find Hinduism and Buddhism practiced if not within the same family and persons then practiced harmoniously amongst the population of the countries.
And then there is the famous quote that Einstein is supposed to have stated about Buddhism that suggests to us that if we have to go with one Religion that most aligns with the findings of science then it would have to be Buddhism. Here is that quote:
The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.
-- Albert Einstein
This meetup has been around probably as long as meetup.com has been around, and so there is much history contained in the archives of these pages, if you care to take a look. You may find pictures of meetups that happened four years ago when I first started investigating Buddhism. So welcome to Buddhism in Orlando, and for all Central Florida.
And so I welcome new members and ask for help from senior members in making this a special place for all who wish to learn about the Buddha Dharma.
Compassion,
Jairo
4:53 PM 9/1/2011
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