I distinctly remember as a child I felt that I was what I was thinking. I felt I was what was described as an idealist.

The body did not seem to matter (No pun intended). The contents of the mind was long lasting. More enduring than the changing world.

At some point, though, the body started to seem to matter, that I was not apart from this body. Here I was no longer just mind but mind and body. I had become an dualist.

Later still I had decided that the mind meant nothing, that Buddhist concept of non-self was correct.

By extension then it made sense that materialism, physicalism, reism was the logical conclusion.

In short, I had moved through the entire spectrum of Western philosophy ending in the materialist’s camp with the help of Buddhism.