Self-discovery

I am looking into the “philosophy” of Buddhism. It seems pretty much what I’m looking for, but I’m not so sure yet, so I’m still doing more reading up on it. About Catholicism I’m still pretty much with it, but I’m thinking about moving away from it and going into some other form of Christianity; of course, there are family (who brought me for batism) pressures, but all in all they are pretty open about this, more or less (especially if I keep it a secret).

Buddhism teaches the flow of life. The very essence of it is the truth, or reality. Not reality of truth in the “you have to see it to believe it” or “the truth is what you believe” or “what you believe to be true, is true”, but more of there is only one reality, one that can be truly called reality, the rest are all only perceptions, and thus not very real.

It is this reality that I am looking for. I go from one place to another, from one school (academic insitution as well as school of thought), wondering where it is all going to lead to. Eventually we find it all leads to death, to the end of life.

But was there ever a beginning in the first place? When did it start anyway? When God created the world? when there was the Big Bang and the Universe was formed? Does it matter even if we knew the answers? Is it of consequence?

I would like to refer anyone who bothers, to read The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Sometimes we live our lives asking questions, and bothering about, matters of non-consequence.

When the very things of consequence that really is not difficult to reach/obtain, once you identify it (which is in essence the hard part), we ignore and instead go for the very things that are meant to bring us closer to the matter of consequence itself.

Take for example you are on a running track in a Stadium, at the start point; you want to get to the 300 metre mark, which is 100 metres behind you, as quickly as possible, but instead of turning around to run there, you make one round along the track, 300 metres long, to get there.

You think that since everyone else is running in this direction, you have to run in that direction too. You ignore the fact that turning around would be faster, assuming though, that you do really want to get there as quickly as possible.

Don’t go one round. Stop and look, and think, and know. The path can be a direct one if you would just take it.