Simhashraddha

Read Simhashraddha's introduction here:

Both early trauma and my feeling different to others, for reasons which included me being of mixed heritage, contributed to the beliefs that working hard, keeping my head down, and educating myself was the way to earn respect and validation. Sometimes, this worked and I was valued at work and so on. However, inevitably my fragile world-image crumbled when a combination of different personal tragedies occurred, all of which needed time and attention. Because I couldn’t stop working, or studying so hard, I inevitably became first very stressed, and then physically ill.

This is what motivated me to seek something else, and that something was the Buddhist Centre in Croydon.

Moreover, I yearned for a kind world, and every stone unturned told me that the world was not that.

I remember the first time I heard the ethical precepts; I was deeply moved. Finally, here was something I could stand on, rely on. When I later learned, not just from being told, but from experience: that the Buddhist ethical precepts are aligned with how things are; that the experience of this is joyful; and that the world I inhabit and my ethical practice work positively with each other; I knew. I knew that here is something greater than me to turn towards.

Now although I feel sorrow and am moved at the many injustices I see and hear about, I also find joy in the Buddhist practices I’ve chosen to dwell in, and joy and connection in friendship, and in sharing what I am learning with those who want to hear me.