SuttaCentral
Hello,
Iām a relatively new practitioner and trying to learn more about the Dhamma.
Iām also looking for a sangha to support my practice, either in person or online. As I live in France, local options seem limited, so if anyone has suggestions for communities or groups I could join, I would be very grateful 
Merci !
Hi lev,
Welcome to the D&D forum! I too live in an area where Iāve been unable to find any Buddhists, much less a Sangha! (I use the term Sangha as a monastic community)
I often turn to the BSWA website to find talks of all sorts in lieu of a physical place to go for instruction and inspiration.
If youāre relatively new to meditation and donāt have in-person resources, a fellow user here shared a superb 5-part video series on breath meditation by Ajahn Sona. Here is the first one.
Depending on where in France you live, there is le monastĆØre Tilorien in the Belgian Ardennes. Perhaps this is an option for you, at least for occasional visits. Venerable Vimala speaks some French, and there are other French speaking members of the surrounding community. (But obviously you speak also English.)
They also have regular online meetings with the Tilorien iSangha for morning and evening meditation and Dhamma talks. Once a year they have an iSangha reunion where all iSangha participants are invited to meet in person, and they come even from as far as India!
Hello,
I am a new user to Discourse, though I have been using suttacentral for a few months, and Iāve loved it. I am interested in EBTs, and the MahÄyÄna sutras. I find both of these especially fascinating.
My name is Ädam ŹæAlÄŹ¾ al-DÄ«n, I am from and reside in Lebanon, Beirut. I was born Monday July 23, 2007, sometime near 5:30pm. As you can tell, I do not reside in a Buddhist country, nor do I reside anywhere near any Buddhist community. Though, an interesting fact, thereās a decent sized Buddha statue in a random Christian village in Lebanon. I donāt know how that got there.
I grew up Muslim, and I honestly do not have any great conversion story to Buddhism. I have had a good experience with my previous religion. But I have had greater experiences and trust in the effectiveness and goal of Buddhism. I was especially influenced by Kakacupamasutta MN 21, and I do deem it as my favorite.
I am interested in making the Dharma accessible to the Arab world. As of writing this, there are only two Arabic translations on suttacentral, and that is the MettÄsutta. I am attracted to teaching it, and I hope I will be able to.
Furthermore, I have an interest in comparative religion. And I do study philosophy on-and-off, and I may pursue it academically. I do enjoy YogÄcÄra, but I āsubscribeā to the SÅtÅ Zen tradition as of now. Though, I engage with all the forms Buddhism takes, and I find beauty in all of them.
You are not alone in this! Welcome to the forum.
Greetings (almost) neighbour, from Turkey! Always a pleasure to meet buddhists from muslim countries. 
And more importantly, my thoughts are with the good people of Lebanon these days; I hope you and yourās are safe and in good spirit. 
Greetings! Itās nice to meet you! I hope all is well with you too, Iāve heard Turkey has had economic problems. Iāve hope youāve been well, and I hope your family has been well.
Thank you! And may we reach peace.
Wishing you the best, my Turkish friend.
Yes and no? I have been lurking without even an account for probably a year. I enjoy many of the discussions, but Iāve never been one to post online.
Yes, I think Iāve only posted anything on the internet three times in my life, and this will be my first post here, kind of my way of encouraging myself to post more.
I am a Buddhist by conviction and have been practicing for about a 1.5 years. Prior to being a Buddhist, I wouldāve described myself as an agnostic atheist. My father seemed to have a similar view, my mother and her family, around whom I was primarily raised, were Pentecostal Christians, but Christianity never took with me. I was quite averse to it and religion and spirituality in general, associating it with dogmatic beliefs, prejudice, and superstition.
I feel like I accidentally discovered the Dhamma, because i certainly was not looking for religion. I was struggling greatly with circumstances of my life and the general misery of the world. I kept thinking, in many ways this is probably one of the best times to live, especially since I am in the United States. So I decided to look to the past to see how people coped with the harshness of reality. I always had some affinity to stoic ideas, but never investigated the philosophy deeply, so I started there. The ideas were very inline with how Iād strived to live my life to that point but I was still suffering a lot, so I decided to investigate non western philosophy, and this led me to Taoism. I really liked Taoism, but was not sure how I could apply it to my life, and after talking to my sister about it, she had mentioned that it sounded similar to Buddhism. My only thoughts on Buddhism at this point was that it was āthe rebirth religionā. I had actually tried to look into it once before but with the aim of seeing how rebirth could be proven true, and I did not engage with the teachings. I also didnāt find the evidence satisfactory so I disregarded Buddhism. But after that conversation with my sister, I decided I should at least give it a fair look. On a road trip with my wife, I decided, on a whim, to watch a youtube video about zen from Alan Watts, and it really intrigued with me. I started exploring the teaching a lot more, mainly via Thich Nhat Hanh and the accesstoinsight website. I started a daily meditation practice and to study the different traditions of Buddhism. The EBT/Theravada perspective resonated with me the most and I decided to start investigating the Pali canon myself, and that is how I discovered this site and forum. Eventually I became convinced this was the path for me. After listening to lots of Dhamma talks from monastics in the Thai forest tradition with my wife, and having some really amazing heartfelt discussions, she also decided to take up the path.
I live in a Buddhist minority society (US), but there are a few Dhamma groups around, less so temples and monastics. I am gradually getting more involved with one near me that seems promising, but I am very much an introverted person, still, I should probably find a teacher. I do feel drawn to teach, I like to share my knowledge, but with 1.5 years of practice I donāt image I should be teaching anything anytime soon. I do have an interest in learning Pali, but there is another language I have been meaning to learn, so I canāt justify it just yet.
Greetings, all - and special thank you to the moderators and monastics who keep this place running. Amitofo!
Iām new to the forum, though Iāve done a bit of reading. My journey to the dhamma has been a winding one. Iām from the U.S., a non-Buddhist household. I went to the Missouri Zen Center as a young adult, and have been doing Zen meditation on and for for the past twenty years. Along the way I got a Ph.D. in Religious Studies, with a focus on Daoism in the Northern and Southern Dynasties period. A lack of prospects in the academic job market led me to nursing, and I currently practice as a traveling RN specializing in psychiatry/behavioral health in Iowa City, USA. I decided a fitting mid-life crisis would be to re-engage with Buddhism, so I took the Five Precepts at a Dharma Drum center, did a Goenka vipassana retreat, and spent last January at a Pure Land/farming Zen retreat in Taiwan.
Because my life has been mostly in the Mahayana realm, Iāve engaged relatively little with EBT. Now that Iāve started reading them, though, I keep coming back. Iām struck by their simplicity and beauty, and the appeal of the Pali language. Iāve started working my way through G&K with the aid of Youtube lectures by Bikkhu Bodhi and Ven. Sumitta and have been enjoying myself a great deal.
What Iād really like (and what I hope you fine folks will help me find) is an opportunity to make instruction in dhamma and Pali the center of my life - at least temporarily, to start. My contract will finish in September and Iāll have some money saved up. Iām debt-free, unmarried, in good health, and would happily contribute labor to a monastic community. I have experience with different languages and cultures. Iām open to - enthusiastic about, really - temporary ordination. The logical thing to do seems to be forming a relationship with a temple here in Iowa as a first step, so Iāll be making a few drives trying to find a place. Iād love advice from interested parties on here, though. Thank you for reading!
Best midlife crisis award goes toooooā¦
Thich Nhat Hanh
Seems like heās singularly most responsible for introducing buddhism to people. A true boddhisattva.
Namo Amitabhaya, Namo Buddhaya! So nice to see more Mahayana students engaging with the EBTs.
I actually intend to reach out to them and to explain my situation, in hoping that they permit me to meditate in the way that works for me.
They granted me a chair (or at least a meditation bench which was more than good enough for me) even the first time, the problem is not with the chair; the problem was that they require you to say that you will practice meditation with their strict instructions - this includes keeping the attention at the tip of the nostrils, even if the attention wants to go somewhere else, you are meant to fight with it. That does not work for me - my attention goes to my bodily tensions all on its own, and if I fight it, the meditation is counterproductive. And I donāt want to lie to them - I donāt strictly keep the five precepts, but Iām strict enough that I will not lie to them.
They have some wrong views, including about the jhanas (according to Wikipedia), but their hearts are in the approximately right place. So I think that my chances are good, Iāve just been procrastinating it / busy with other stuff.
It does! Iām quite fortunate, the path is going really well for me.
Welcome, everyone new. Last autumn I had a 1-month retreat at the Plum Village monastery in France, which was really good for me, especially for my social anxiety, but also my meditation deepened a lot. This year I plan on going on their 3-month rains retreat.