The Blind Turtle

Being a Buddhist is a large part of my life! It colours all my thinking and actions, including becoming a millionaire and successful entrepreneur. So, I thought I'd like to tell you more about how I became a Buddhist. I wrote this in my own words so it's another attempt to keep real writing alive!

🌊🐢 The Blind Turtle: My Journey to Buddhism 🐢🌊

As a child in Northern Britain, I was raised in a Christian family, deeply influenced by my grandmother’s unwavering faith. Yet, a profound statement about a blind turtle and a Buddha sparked something in me. It made me question and seek a higher truth beyond what I knew.

I was playing cricket with my father and younger brother one sunny lunchtime. The radio was playing loudly as usual because this was before the days of TV. Then, these words floated into my life from the broadcast:

Encountering the teachings of the Buddha is as unlikely as a blind turtle poking its head through a hole in a floating log on the great ocean of all existence.

I was around 8. I had never seen a turtle or heard the name Buddha. But these words haunted me from then on.

🙏 My beloved grandmother’s devotion to Christianity was inspiring, but I struggled to connect with its practices as I got older. After she died, I set off on my own spiritual quest, discovering that many sects seemed filled with conflict rather than peace.

🎶 Music became my solace - conservatory-trained/professional pianist/cellist - but it was through an unexpected lecture on The Buddha Shakyamuni (the most fashionable image of the Buddha) that I finally understood what the turtle had been searching for: enlightenment, peace, and a deeper connection to life’s impermanence.

My pathway was clear—Buddhism.

⛩️ Meditation and mindfulness led me to teach and heal others, embracing my ancestors' legacy as healers.

Eventually, I found peace in Japan, becoming a Buddhist priest. I realized that my grandmother, though deeply Christian, longed for the same peace I discovered in Buddhism.

🌸 At last, I understand that the turtle’s journey, like mine, was not about holding on to any one belief or practice but finding unity in the flow of life.

Now, I live in formlessness, adore all things invisible, and am totally at peace.