More at Peace Now Than Ever
Life is a funny thing. It's like a puzzle without a box and we've no clue where the pieces go, we just have to figure ways to make them fit. If we're lucky we'll be able to make a beautiful picture.
I use to hold onto my anger. Unable to let go, but slowly I'm finding some semblance of peace. I was raised to believe that everyone around me was bad for one reason or another. I mean, a certain person in my life has hardly a good word about anyone, including me.
I generally don't like this town I live in, but I'm starting to believe that it's because I've been conditioned to hate it. Yeah, a good deal of people here are willfully ignorant, but there are over five thousand people in this little town.
I honestly don't think I've given this place a fair shake. It's not entirely my fault, though; I was bullied. I was bullied hard. That was high school, though. People grow up, I've grown up. I've changed. Quite a bit, and since my transformation, I haven't really been very social.
As I've started to change my narrative and attempt to look at things honestly and with less bias, I feel better. I'm finding out that there is life in this little town beyond the mindless zombies of Wal-Mart. So I'm attempting to seek out like-minded people outside of the 21 religious institutions. I'm attempting to engage people again.
Also, I'm taking my own advice and attempting to understand the people I'm interacting with. If they all get comfort from their religions, I can understand that. I did too at one time. Now I gain more comfort from reason and attempting to be more logical. I feel like I'm growing as a human being. Religion simply wasn't right for me. That doesn't mean it doesn't hold some good for other people.
For me, it was not beneficial because I was not able to function under its influence. Religion divorced me from myself, it hijacked my sense of self. I'm slowly regaining that, and I'm becoming happier now.
It's been a long road. Like a child afraid to let go of the coffee table in order to walk on its own, I've boomeranged back into religion, and into different religions, trying to find my truth. The closest I've come to is Buddhism, but I'm an Atheist Buddhist. Which basically means, the philosophy of Buddhism brings me great comfort, as does Christianity or Islam to it's followers. Buddhism doesn't tell me I must believe in a Deity.
The Buddha wanted people to think for themselves. He told people not to take something as truth because he had said it, but because they saw it to be true on it's own merit. The Dalai Lama says that Buddhism must change with science. Yes, there are even extremist Buddhists who self-immolate in protest. That is a tragedy, as it is when anyone becomes misguided by their religion.
People who use their religion to hate on others are horribly misguided. It's extremely sad for me. All religions leave themselves too open to interpretation, in my opinion, even Buddhism. Buddhism is what works for me, though. It only does so because it will grow with science, and science is true whether you believe in it or not.
So there you have it, that's where my life is right now. I left the Jesus train, I have no intention of returning to it, but I'm making peace with those who find themselves still on the train. A lot of them aren't bad people, it just so happens the bad people tend to be the most vocal and get the most attention.
I love all my Christian friends, and Muslim, and Taoist, Atheist, Unitarian Universalist, Sikh, Zen Buddhist, Vietnamese Buddhist, Jewish, Catholic, Pagan, Wiccan, Satanist, and all others. As long as I can see that they're trying to do the best they can to be a good person, I will love them, and even if they're not, I will still love them, I will just do so from a distance.
"Hatreds do not cease through Hatreds, but by love; this is the eternal rule." - Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha)
I use to hold onto my anger. Unable to let go, but slowly I'm finding some semblance of peace. I was raised to believe that everyone around me was bad for one reason or another. I mean, a certain person in my life has hardly a good word about anyone, including me.
I generally don't like this town I live in, but I'm starting to believe that it's because I've been conditioned to hate it. Yeah, a good deal of people here are willfully ignorant, but there are over five thousand people in this little town.
I honestly don't think I've given this place a fair shake. It's not entirely my fault, though; I was bullied. I was bullied hard. That was high school, though. People grow up, I've grown up. I've changed. Quite a bit, and since my transformation, I haven't really been very social.
As I've started to change my narrative and attempt to look at things honestly and with less bias, I feel better. I'm finding out that there is life in this little town beyond the mindless zombies of Wal-Mart. So I'm attempting to seek out like-minded people outside of the 21 religious institutions. I'm attempting to engage people again.
Also, I'm taking my own advice and attempting to understand the people I'm interacting with. If they all get comfort from their religions, I can understand that. I did too at one time. Now I gain more comfort from reason and attempting to be more logical. I feel like I'm growing as a human being. Religion simply wasn't right for me. That doesn't mean it doesn't hold some good for other people.
For me, it was not beneficial because I was not able to function under its influence. Religion divorced me from myself, it hijacked my sense of self. I'm slowly regaining that, and I'm becoming happier now.
It's been a long road. Like a child afraid to let go of the coffee table in order to walk on its own, I've boomeranged back into religion, and into different religions, trying to find my truth. The closest I've come to is Buddhism, but I'm an Atheist Buddhist. Which basically means, the philosophy of Buddhism brings me great comfort, as does Christianity or Islam to it's followers. Buddhism doesn't tell me I must believe in a Deity.
The Buddha wanted people to think for themselves. He told people not to take something as truth because he had said it, but because they saw it to be true on it's own merit. The Dalai Lama says that Buddhism must change with science. Yes, there are even extremist Buddhists who self-immolate in protest. That is a tragedy, as it is when anyone becomes misguided by their religion.
People who use their religion to hate on others are horribly misguided. It's extremely sad for me. All religions leave themselves too open to interpretation, in my opinion, even Buddhism. Buddhism is what works for me, though. It only does so because it will grow with science, and science is true whether you believe in it or not.
So there you have it, that's where my life is right now. I left the Jesus train, I have no intention of returning to it, but I'm making peace with those who find themselves still on the train. A lot of them aren't bad people, it just so happens the bad people tend to be the most vocal and get the most attention.
I love all my Christian friends, and Muslim, and Taoist, Atheist, Unitarian Universalist, Sikh, Zen Buddhist, Vietnamese Buddhist, Jewish, Catholic, Pagan, Wiccan, Satanist, and all others. As long as I can see that they're trying to do the best they can to be a good person, I will love them, and even if they're not, I will still love them, I will just do so from a distance.
"Hatreds do not cease through Hatreds, but by love; this is the eternal rule." - Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha)
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