I am attracted to Buddhism because the beliefs make sense to me.

One of the things I learned early on in Buddhism was the lack of a need to label yourself as a Buddhist. In fact, you could be a Buddhist without realizing you are a Buddhist. This is why I often advise people interested in Buddhism to set aside your pre-conceived concepts of a religion. If you need Buddhism to simply be a philosophy, then that is fine too. In reading Buddhist suttas one of the things that struck me was how tolerant the Buddha was of other belief systems. I find it very unique.

I’ve grown up in a Christian household and I’ve never had peace with my religion. I’ve recently been learning about Buddhism and I find that it brings me so much peace and comfort; I want to start learning Buddhist practices to be able to find Happiness in myself. Your video was a great help in teaching me where I should start :)

I struggle with my mental health a lot and had a suicide attempt in 2020. When in the psychiatry ward, the workers kept reiterating that we needed something beyond and larger than ourselves to believe in. I've been in a really dark place lately and I realized I needed to find that bigger something, and chose religion. I have friends that are buddhist and I'm interested in the beliefs in this religion. So excited to start this journey!

I realised there is no god by the age of 6 when my sister and father died in the same 3 months. Buddhism connects to me in a different way guys

I found Buddhism in my darkest days. Buddhism helps me to have peace of mind and heal my traumatic past events. Now I consider myself a Buddhist, following the Buddha way, reading sutras and practicing meditation.

I am Muslim but I think to Buddhism is one of the peaceful and best religion in the world

I am a Lao American monk, growing up in the US most of my life, watching your videos help me with my understanding of Buddhism.

Buddhism has helped me make sense of things that cause my depression and anxiety. I want to officially become a Buddhist and it’s not the label of a Buddhist that I want, but a commitment to myself to follow the Dharma and the opportunity to continuously find answers.

I'm at my worst, and the Buddhist philosophy and wisdom helped me a lot. Especially for my peace of mind. 🙏

I am 16 and I believe Buddhism is the rapresentation of all the 'things' I believed in up to now. Now I understand myself much better.

I am from India and its great to see white civilization interested in buddhism

I'm from Sri Lanka🇱🇰 and I'm Buddhist... I'm so glad about your video.. there are historical temple in our country. It would be nice if come here and take look..

Precisely! What Buddha taught was that whether you are Muslim or Hindu or Jew or Christian or Buddhist, if you do the right thing, you get the right result. It is more about practice than labels and names.

Thank you for educating us on this. Personally, why I seek Buddhism is because I want to be free. I've always felt as though I'm being held captive in the clutches of the expectation of myself, family, and even society as a whole. What I want is to be free, free of everything this world has, and the Dharma really did resonate with me, and made me think that perhaps the freedom I seek isn't a litteral freedom, but rather a state of mind or being, such as The Buddha himself, in which case I have a very very very very very very long way to go. But thanks again for the educational video ❤

Thank you so much. I turned to Buddhism after a lifetime of Roman Catholic beliefs because Catholicism left me with more questions than answers. I just retired from the FDNY-EMS after 26 years, in that career I have seen and experienced things no one should ever seen. I desired a life of serenity, harmony, peace and enlightenment. I began to study Tibetan Zen Buddhism. I have studied Dharma for about two years, even as a beginner, it has brought me a certain level of peace and understanding. I realized that Buddhism is not a Religion but rather a philosophy, in Zen not even a philosophy. I am still new, I have yet to find a guru or sangha. Thank you for your enlightening words, I am still a work in progress.

I was raised without learning about religions. When i got old enough i started to study different faiths and religions. . yet i always felt that i was in some way a Buddhist.. In my mind, i am, in my own way. Unfortunately there are not o schools or anything like that near me so i refer to YT. Thanks for your input.

Thanks Doug. I've wrestled with this notion of "being a Buddhist" for some time and I found this video helpful. For most of my life I identified as a Christian. No matter what flavor of Christianity one identifies with, that identification has a clear meaning: you've accepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior. I see nothing in Buddhism like that, so I found it awkward to begin calling myself "a Buddhist". I think you're on the mark with the importance of putting the Dharma into practice over what you call yourself. Now I will continue to simply say "I practice Buddhism" when asked about my religious/spiritual orientation.

I'm half Vietnamese and my family's budhist but I've never been really into it as a child. Now that I'm older and I do religious studies I'm open to being a budhist again. Also my grandpa is a monk (monks can't have sex but he took a 4 year break to stay a family and then continued his Monk life)

Buddhism is how I started my spiritual journey 8 years ago since then I kept looking for information on all kinds of believes and Knowledge with my core believes still aligned with Buddhism. I’m ready now to fully submit myself to it and know every detail about it