How would one go about studying Buddhism? (Or any religion for that matter ^.^)

This is a great start if you want a light start. There are a lot of other good books about Buddhism, but the only other one I would recommend I can’t think of the name of. It’s sort of the Gideon’s bible of Japan. If I can find it when I get home and get a chance I’ll come back with the name and maybe a link. Anything that is a direct translation of the Buddha is a good start, if you want to forge your own path (which I would advise, most traditions have pasted an awful lot of mumbo jumbo on top of the Buddha’s words.) You could look into finding a temple near you, you might be surprised at where they can be found.

BTW, I recommend the public library for finding books if disposable income is an issue.

@Snarp : Wow! What a terrific response :D Great link, and advice! Much lurve to you <3

When you enter your religious study class, be sure to leave your brain at the front door.

@ElleBee First thing would be to start getting used to naysayers and malcontents… those who don’t have any belief in anything tend to be a bit caustic at times. XD

@HTDC In defense of Buddhism, one need not believe in any god to believe in Buddhism. For my part, I consider myself to be an atheist Buddhist. That means I don’t believe in god, but I do believe that Buddhism provides a good philosophical framework from which to understand one’s place in life.

Try and look at any religion from many angles.
Ask yourself also what do you want out of life and is this religion going to help you in your path?
Hope this helps :-)

Buddhism rocked my soul
i guarantee it warrants further investigation

I say go to the source. Find a buddhist organization in your area, or call them up (if they’re not local) and get them to send you literature, or direct you to it.

Visiting a temple will also immerse you into the religion, and you can see first-hand some of the activities involved, and meet the leaders. I’m sure they would be really happy to talk to you about the religion, whether you decide to become buddhist or not.

I’d recommend a class. I took a World Religions course sometime a few semesters ago and loved it.

I think the best way to learn about religion is to learn first from someone that isn’t going to sway you into one way of thinking; someone who is a “die-hard” anything is likely biased and wont really offer you the freedom of using your own mind to grasp religion. Rather, I feel they try to brain-wash you, in a sense.

For an overview of the basic tenets of Buddhism, here are a couple of decent books:

What the Buddha Taught is written by a Theravadan monk, and lays out in fairly accessible terms the broad outlines of the Buddha’s teaching.

Buddha was written by Karen Armstrong, who has written many good surveys of world religions from a “non-partisan” point of view. It’s a more secular and historical take on Buddhism than the above book.

But it’s worth saying here that while a little bit of reading may be helpful just to get some general orientation, Buddhism turns out not to be about doctrines or ideas or philosophies. Unfortunately, reading can only deal with these conceptual aspects, and trying to “figure out” Buddhism by reading is inevitably a fruitless endeavor.

Buddhism is a practice, not a belief system. What Buddhism teaches is learned not by taking in ideas from the outside, but by long hours and days and years of quietly looking inward. At best, books may help get you started on that work, but they can’t tell you what you’re going to find. In a way, the ideal would be to approach Buddhist practice without reading anything; ironically, going into the search with some idea of what you’re looking for will inevitably blind you to the reality itself.

I just say this to alert you to the fact that what you read is just like a map someone has scribbled on the back of a napkin. Looking at the crude map tells you very little about the actual landscape. Buddhist practice is the act of getting lost in the wild terrain, leaving the map crumpled along the way.

I would suggest finding a zendo and going to sit with a meditation group. Take basic instruction in how to do that (it can be given in a few minutes). Listen to the teacher’s dharma talk. If you want to go further, ask for guidance.

If Zen Buddhism were a religion, I wouldn’t have a thing to do with it.

The fact that you’ve the desire and already begun asking questions is a great first step. Libraries and local and/or online communities seem like a good way to go to expand your search. I would definitely keep a book or two handy to do a little basic research and get a feel for their mind-set and outlook (Harp said it well, Buddhism is a practice, not a belief system), also as you read you’ll undoubtedly have more and more questions so keep a list. After a little overview get out and talk to some people! The buddhist I’ve known have been more than happy to discuss and debate philosophical points and issues including their personal insights and thoughts. Don’t be afraid to ask questions (it really is what being Buddhist is about) and keep an open mind, not just in the sense of understanding what you’re being told, but also in the sense of analyzing the answers in terms of yourself. Buddhism, at least in my understanding, is about unending self discovery through a willingness to learn and think beyond ourselves and our preconceptions.

The first thing is to acquire the associated literature and to read it.

(From a strictly novice point of view.)

Buddhism is really not hard to understand. For Westerners, though, we may find ourselves more inclined to read about, study, discuss, debate about, make a project of, build a library around, think about, question and do everything other than simply incorporating the simple basics into out lives.

Everything you need to understand, is addressed in this Basic Buddhism Guide. Everything else you may choose to study builds on these basic principles.

Your primary investment will be in devoting time to mastering those principles.

Your committment to practice will determine how effective the results will be.

To answer your primary question:
How would one go about studying Buddhism? (Or any religion for that matter ^.^)

“With a grain of salt.”

The way to study anything is the same: start with reputable secondary sources (starting with the most general—like an encyclopedia—and steadily moving in more and more specific), then tackle the primary sources (ideally with some secondary close textual criticism along with).

What is available to you? Have you done a search in your local public library? Have you scanned your local used book store (or new book store, if you’re rolling in it)? I’d avoid internet sources if I were you.

I say look into tertiary sources…in fact, I suggest asking your next-door neighbor or the guy down the street who usually seems to have a lot of time on his hands mid-day.

Wikipedia is a great source for real information.