I dont hold any religion, but today I was surfing the web and got to a site called soyouwanna.com. I was just looking through the topics and I came across "So You Wanna Convert to Buddhism." I started reading it out of curiosity and found a lot of it to be very interesting. I am still young, at 17 years old, and I was thinking about taking on a religion. I don't really know what I'm asking for here, I guess I just want some thoughts on Buddhism, religion, life styles, and my predicament. I would sincerely appreciate any comments or thoughts that anyone has. Thanks!

My most important piece of advice is that you fully explore all the (main) religious traditions before adopting any, especially the one your family adheres to. Religion can be a divisive matter if you have non-supportive families, and I think it is best to preserve family harmony when possible.

As for Buddhism, I think it is a very fine religious practice with a lot to offer. If I had to make any criticism, it would be that it is so entirely introspective that it avoids assigning personal responsibility for making efforts towards changing the world outside the self for the better.

Compared to what I have to say about other religions, that is pretty mild.

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I don't wanna scare you or anything and I'm not even sure that this thing is done to every single Buddhist but here it goes: I saw that these Buddhist monks were pulling out the hair of people who wanted to be Buddhists. They were like pulling out the hair from the head with hands and nothing else. It seemed to be EXTREMELY painful.. I saw that on Discovery.

Oh that must hurt badly . Are they mad or what . I don't believe in such stuff

Thanks for the advice Vashti, it was very helpful.

Buddhism is not a very "strict" religion. The only steadfast rule about Buddhism is that you must accept the teachings of the Buddha. There are many different factions of Buddhism so not all do the hair pulling thing. Unlike many other religions Buddhism does not have any current core figure of authority like the Pope. In general they do not believe there is any Holy Creater of the universe and all that inhabit it. It is a lot more like a philosophy than a religion.

Any more comments or thoughts?

I don't know if it really happens or not because I just saw it on Discovery once. We were made to study a lot regarding 'Buddhism' on school and never heard of such stuff but that thing on Discovery was really scary. But I think its a great religion, seeing most of the historical events and architecture in my country which is totally related to Lord Budhha.

Many religious sects (including some that are Christian) have practices that involve odd behaviors, including self mutilation. Haven't you heard about self-flagellation? Pulling out the hair is not something the average Buddhist would do, and anyway, it is benign by comparison.

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