When I was a JW, I was never curious about Buddhism. All I knew was that it was a religion unpopular in the Philippines and because of that, it was shrouded in mystery. I remember one time I was doing street witnessing at Magsaysay Avenue and I approach a teenage boy who said he was a Buddhist. I immediately remembered some readings I did from that book that introduced the major religions of the world. All I knew then was that their concept of nirvana was something I could connect with our concept of paradise. Of course, this claim was simplistic, but I didn’t really know how to proceed with the conversation other than with that.

Now, of course, I’m more than familiar with Buddhism. I was introduced to it through Dave Ursillo. I later practiced zen and also encountered other forms of Buddhism, such as Jōdo Shinshū.