I lived in Asia for around 10 years, and I agree with Eric, there are numerous sects of Buddhism in each country, and each is as individual as the different versions of Christianity (think of how different Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, Born-again Fundamentalists are, and that's only the US). It's not easy to encompass it all in one category. Obviously Buddhism is a lot more introspective than most forms of Christianity.

Some of my favorite memories are of visiting temples in Thailand and Laos. They are really ornate and quiet. Maybe someone else can speak to this as well, but for me, I felt very much at peace there.

The worst I have seen have to be a few in Korea where rival sects were rioting and assaulting each other because of a dispute over the temple's use.

I'm not religious, mostly because it involves deifying someone (Buddah, Jesus, Allah and so forth) so let me just mention this: If you like the basic precepts of Buddhism, you might also like existentialism. I found this philosophy very good in helping me deal with a series of bad things that happened over the course of one year a while back.

micko
micko Reviewed by micko on . Contemplating Buddhism Hello everyone, I'm still very young and I don't have a religion. Before now, I have never been a big fan of religion, although lately I have been contemplating buddhism. If anybody here has any thoughts/suggestions or knows a buddhist, I would appreciate it if they would enlighten me with knowledge. I've heard mixed reports on cannabis/drug use regarding the religion, but talked to a buddhist today and said cannabis has long been used as a meditation and enlightenment tool. If I wanted to take Rating: 5