One one things

I have been immersed in various education systems for all but 3 years of my life. From the age of 2 I was in nursery and since then I have spent one year working, the rest of the time I’ve been in schools or universities. One thing that has never been taught to me in all those years is the amount that we can learn from other religions. I’m a Buddhist and studied Buddhism in school whilst the Christian and Muslim kids went for their respective aagam classes. As a result there was always a sense of mystery when it came to other religions. I’d always instinctively feel that “my” religion was superior in some way or another and dismiss the different practices by other religions as being somehow off the mark. Thankfully I grew up and learnt to think and learn for myself. I have a reasonable understanding of Christianity and Islam to a lesser extent. I unfortunately have little or no understanding of Hinduism and Judaism and must do my bit to correct that. This being the month of Ramadan I felt inspired to share a few of my favourite bits of different religions. And also some of my earlier (common) misconceptions that have been corrected, to an extent. They are all my own interpretations of course.

Ramadan - The idea of fasting for a month used to baffle me when I was small. My old Karate class was mainly made up of Muslim kids and I loved Ramadan bc the classes were shorter but I never understood why they’d put themselves through that. We’d all be tired and dying for water but the Muslim kids never drank any. But the idea does seem to have some validity. During that month you understand what it’s like to be in a position of deprivation and would in theory make you more aware of what you have been blessed with and thus be thankful for it. Of course this doesn’t always work in practice but the idea is good.

Confession - My understanding of confession is that according to Catholicism if you confess your sins before God you will be forgiven. There are a few caveats but I can’t remember them off hand. This sounds almost laughably ridiculous but that again depends on how you’d interpret it. The idea behind confession is that you admit to yourself that you have sinned and try to come to terms with it. The hardest part about dealing with a problem is admitting to yourself that there is such a problem. Confession gives you that little push you need. Just bc you confess doesn’t mean you’d be absolved of any sin but it may well have a positive effect on your character in terms of avoiding future sin. Again, this works on paper but not necessarily in practice.

Impermanance - Buddhism is a complex and interesting religion, but if I had to choose one thing from it I would go for its take on the nature of the world we live in. I interpret the Buddha as having had an impressive philosophical insight into our world and understanding the fact that what we experience is not permanant and we can’t take it to the grave with us. This not only refers to “stuff” like cash, goodies, toys, handcuffs and whatever makes you tick really, but also to emotional attachment, achievement and non-material things. What I like to take from Buddhism is the simple message that we shouldn’t over rate these things that seem to play such a central role in our lives, and that we should just see them for what they really are.

Rastafari Herbs - Rastafaris believe that smoking ganja is a spiritual act which clears the mind, brings about peace of mind and that it helps drive the mind towards the path of truth. They also insist that the good plant enjoys the Biblical nod. To quote Wikipedia;
Genesis 1:11 “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.”
Genesis 3:18 “… thou shalt eat the herb of the field.”
Proverbs 15:17 “Better is a dinner of herb where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.”
Psalms 104:14 “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man.”

Now isn’t that just too cool for school? Also, Dreadlocks are the way to go.

In my book its a good idea to learn what you can from a variety of religions and accept what you think makes sense and leave alone what you’d rather not adhere to (like all that ganja nonsense, i hear it’s frowned upon in most parts). I heard that they’re introducing (or introduced) comparative religious studies in Govt. schools back at home in Sri Lanka, I hope this is true, it would certainly be a step in the right direction.