Joyful Abandon

nashvillegentleman asked: I had been a Christian for most of my life. After studying Buddhism, practicing it alongside my Christianity, and feeling spiritually unfulfilled in my Christianity, I have made the leep into unlearning my former way of life. I meditate daily, have read and studied Buddhism, and found a great Buddhist study group. My question to you is, what do I do now, and do I really even need to become an "official" Buddhist, or should I just believe it in my heart and keep along the path I am already on?

That worry about what you need to label yourself is a societal thing. You’re imagining yourself from the outside, from another’s perspective.

If you were living alone on a beautiful tropic island with everything you need readily available and you were practicing your usual buddhist path, would you bother yourself with this question? Does it really matter what you call yourself or what is official?

Those things are just descriptions that are mere shadows of what they describe. 

Apply yourself to your spiritual path. Discover what your existence truly is, what it feels like when you remove all confusion from your Being. The aim of buddhism is to discover the end of suffering, that was Siddhartha’s aim. 

With this sincere intent, you are just as much a buddhist as the Buddha. The path isn’t a label or something pretty to wear; the path is your way of Figuring It Out. 

This is something a lot of people miss. They wear the path like a statement rather than walk it as a means of self-transformation. The fact that you’re asking this question now means that you are emerging from one into the other. :)

Keep to your path as it leads you this way and that. Be open to everything, reject nothing, keep what works, let whatever doesn’t fall away, rinse and repeat. 

May the divine tickle you endlessly. haha namaste!