[SavageRepublican]

Hi I'm back...(busy day here today).

I've read quite a bit of his writing, and like Travis here, was pretty impressed by his wisdom and gentleness.

I practice meditation as a stress-management method, and have found him to be a source of inspiration.

[razoroccam]

Thanks to both of you for your posts. Again, curiosity here, and I hope I am not pushing the bounds of inquisitiveness.

Why would a person from a Judeo-Christian background find a person of Buddhist background a source of wisdom? While the Buddha did emphasize compassion and was a very wise soul (which is why the Dalai Lama is a Mongolian translation of Ocean of Wisdom), the roots of Buddhism are very different from Christianity/Judaism. For example, the Buddha never acknowledged the presence of God. He also denied the existence of a human soul.

Similarly, Yoga (which is "Hindu" and not Buddhist) is not just a stress relieving mechanism - the physical exercises of Yoga are a small part of its entirety. The greater emphasis is to still the mind to experience the unity between the human soul and the eternal/God (hence the word Yoga, which in Sanskrit means union).

Apologies if I am being inappropriate in asking these questions.