Thank you for explaining my life and my purpose, Dalai Lama

"It is important to diminish undisciplined states of mind, but it is even more important to meet adversity with a positive attitude. Keep this in mind: By greeting trouble with optimism and hope, you are undermining worse troubles down the line. Beyond that, imagine that you are easing the burden of everyone suffering problems of that kind. This practice--imagining that by accepting your pain you are using up the negative karma of everyone destined to feel such pain--is very helpful...Therefore, ingesting their negatives is not that much of a problem for me, but it lessens their problems."

"Buddha said that patience is the highest form of asceticism, and through it one can reach nirvana...there are four qualities of patience and tolerance to maintain:
^If someone pushes you around, you should be tolerant, patient
^If someone shows anger to you, you should not respond with anger
^If someone hits you, you should not strike back
^If someone embarrasses and insults you, you should not answer back"

In case it's not obvious, I'm studying Buddhism. It really makes sense to me and I feel like, for the most part, I've already been living my adult life through these practices and principles. That does not mean I am leaving Christianity behind, but I'm still searching for the right fit for me, spiritually speaking. There are some similarities between the two religions. Right now I am reading a book written by the Dalai Lama. He references Christianity for some examples and speaks positively about it. I'm not even half-way through this book (I have two others to read), but I feel like what I've read so far will help lead me on an interesting journey and perhaps some self-discovery. It has certainly helped ease my mind about the events of the past week. Anything that can do that deserves my attention.