I have about four or five Buddha statues in my home. Four are in the basement apartment where I live. I also have four Buddha paintings. I am not a Buddhist, but it is one of my favorite religions.
Don’t worry I’m still a Sikh.
My uncle, who wears a turban, once came over to our house and asked me, “Do you worship Buddha?” I thought that was funny. That is so not how Buddhism works.
I once went out with a Buddhist on New Year’s Eve, and he took me to his Buddhist temple. Only time I’ve ever been to one.
It was a sect of Buddhism; I don’t remember the name. This guy was trying to convert me. A very non-Buddhist thing to do.
He told me there was a prayer that they recite, that they swear by, that, if repeated, brings you enlightenment or makes all your dreams come true.
I said, can’t I just repeat Waheguru, my mantra? He said No, I must recite this particular prayer.
He lost me at, “You must…” Needless to say, I went to a party that night without him. I rang in the new year with friends who don’t want to convert me.
I studied Buddhism in college and realized the religious portion of it was very similar to other religions. The philosophy and spirituality part is very close to Sikhism and Hinduism, in my opinion.
Three of my Buddha statues
There is this notion of self: no self. It is about our soul. In Buddhism, anattā (non-self) generally means that there is no permanent, independent self. You don’t have to believe in god to be a Buddhist.
My personal interpretation of the self-no-self conundrum is that we are individual souls, but we are also part of a larger oversoul that is a collection of all the souls. You could call that God, or Brahma, or Allah.
Zen Buddhism is the most fascinating to me because it focuses on meditation.
Most of us are aware of the phrase, “I’m just going to be very Zen about it,” or something like that.
The word Zen means being present to me. Being calm. Allowing the world to flow around you, being the stillness in the hurricane.
The lotus flower is a symbol in many Eastern religions. The reason is that the lotus flower is so beautiful, but it grows in shitty, mucky, ugly water, in swamps.
We are supposed to be like the lotus flower.
That notion really speaks to me.
I feel like the world has become an ugly disaster area. We are the only redeeming factor in this nasty place. I don’t mean to be so negative; I just call it like I see it.
I want to be a light in all this darkness. In fact, I think god created darkness all around us so we could notice the light. Especially our own light.
nina
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