When I was 28 years old, my mother suddenly died in a horse riding accident. This was a very big loss for me, which turned my whole world completely upside down. I had a strong need for some guidance about what it means to be a human being, and what…
My family members were all Buddhist practitioners, from my grandmother to my parents, and I just went along with them. But I didn’t really know much apart from the fact that we are Buddhist. We would go to the temple once in a while, mostly for the New Year, or…
“I was raised in a Catholic family, but over the years I became disenchanted. It just didn’t fit with me. I was very cynical for years, anti established religion and any religious institution. Then I came to meditation through my Aikido teacher. I was aware enough to realize that I…
“I went to the temple to practice Buddhism when I was 13 years old. I really enjoyed listening to the monks chanting. The sound touched me deeply. When I am chanting, the Buddha’s teachings enter me, and when I prostrate to the Buddha, I feel very close to him. I…
I became a novice monk in Saigon when I was 13 years old. Every morning I woke up at 3:30 AM to invite the sound of the bell, and later in the afternoon I had to go chanting. I lived at a temple with many monks, so there were always…
“I was born in Mongolia in 1967. Because Mongolia is a Buddhist country, we often went to the Buddhist temple when I was a child. Later, I decided that I would like to become a monk, but first I had to study the Tibetan language for two years. When I…
“I am a chaplain at a psychiatric center at an acute care facility, where people are mostly involuntarily, because they have tried to harm themselves or sometimes others. So I often meet people in a time of near death, brought from the ER. They are facing the consequences of…
