To me, believing in Buddhism gets started from my family. After I was born, what I knew is my family believes in Buddhism and that’s why I became believing in Buddhism automatically.
When I was a child, my parents taught me lots of things related to Buddhism such as teaching me to pray, to show my respect to Buddha, months, and listen to Dhama, to give food to monks, for instance. In addition, my parents sometimes brought me to the temple and joined the important event of Buddhism such as Khao Pansaa, Visaakha Boucha, Maakhaboucha, etc. Based on this, I absorbed Buddhism a little by a little, from time to time without being aware of that.
However, that is only first start in believing in Buddhism. As a matter of fact, I don’t even know what religion is, what Buddhism is and why I need to believe in it. It is something to get from generation to generation. I don’t even know what exactly Buddhism is until I was a novice.
I was a novice for about 10-11 years. I went to be a novice because of my interest. I don’t know why I really want to wear clothes like months. The first three years, I did not concentrate on it. I spent my life in the temple as the others- studying, praying, working, eating, etc.
One day, I sat on the bench and looked at the statue of Buddha. I saw something difference. The head, ears, and clothes of Buddha were abnormal or different from common people. That became my questions why? Why? And Why? The more I saw, the more I asked myself and curious to know it.
I tried and tried to find the answer by asking the elder people or who had knowledge on Buddhism. Some people could answer me, some could not. I kept asking and seeking the answer as well as reading lots of books and tried to understand it.
I think that it must have something behind. Most importantly, my ancestor including my parents believe in Buddhism, it must have something good otherwise they might stop it or leave it. The more I seek, the more I learned and understood Buddhism. The more I understood, the more I realized that Buddhism is excellent. It is something I had to practice to create peaceful in my mind.
Finally, I became a Buddhist practitioner. My belief to Buddhism has been revolutionized and changed from before. This made my life better and better.
