Jesus, Buddha, and Vishnu. Who would win in a fight? Who has the best superpowers? Better yet, who is real?
In all seriousness, I contemplated my spiritual destiny this weekend as I attempted to embrace three different, and very distinctive religions.
In embracing Christianity, I rethought the experiences I had in a church two weeks prior. That being said, my friend let me borrow a couple of religious books that would attempt to try to convince me of the divinity of the Bible and the historical facts regarding Jesus’s birth and life. Though I still remain skeptical, the books helped me rethink Christianity in a different fashion, and maybe agree with some of the arguments presented.
Having grown us as a Buddhist, I decided to revisit my Sunday traditions this week by visiting and meditating in a Buddhist temple. The smell of incense suddenly hit me, and all the memories of Sunday School kneeling and praying in a temple hit me. And though I never really minded the meditation aspects of Sunday school, I did pretty much hate the social aspect of it, as well as learning Vietnamese on the weekends (which I am still terrible at). Still, I’ve given many thoughts to the beliefs I had growing up, and I still do accept the Four Noble Truths as true facts (and not fake news).
I got to observe Holi at a nearby park in my house. A Hindu tradition, it embraces the coming of Spring and the celebration of good over evil, and love over hate (with lots of colors, I might add). Witnessing the believers celebrate this unique tradition got me thinking about how religion has much to do with culture. Sometimes, they are intertwined so deeply people celebrate it for cultural reasons even if they are not religious. I hope I can learn from my fellow Indians the Hindu traditions so even as a non-believer I can practice it as a cultural celebration. As the seasons change, so too does this point of this year’s project – with my next goal to ultimately create new experiences.
At the end of the day, and by the end of this winter season, the different religions explored this weekend will continue to cross in my mind, and I hope I settle on one before I ultimately die.
