Blatherskite

I have decided to go through a Jukai ceremony. Otherwise known as “taking the precepts.” Otherwise known as (according to Wikipedia) the Buddhist Initiation ritual.

One person asked if this was like a “come to Jesus” thing. No it isn’t anything like a “come to  Jesus” thing. Not even close. I have had one of those experiences, too, and it was way more exiting (to be honest).  However, here I am doing a ritual in which I declare that I am now Buddhist. I guess that should tell you everything you need to know about my “come to Jesus” experience.

I didn’t really realize I was going to go through with this until last week. It kind of suddenly hit me that this was something that I need to do. This is the next step. I have been practicing Buddhism for 4 years and I really feel like I need to make a real committment to it.

So what does this mean? It just means that I am declaring to a bunch of people that I am Buddhist. That is it. And I’m not even Zen Buddhist (Declaring yourself a Zen Buddhist is a whole other ritual, apparently).  In the ritual you declare that you are going to live your life by following the Buddhist precepts – a code of ethics.

I feel like I could write so much more about this but I think I will save my thoughts for future blog posts. Let’s just leave it at this for now. I think it is enough.

I am excited. Like I said, I feel like this is the direction I need to go. It feels good to go in the direction your heart is telling you to take.