Ever have those moments where there are so many thoughts racing through your head that you practically want to scream them out at the top of your lungs?
This, readers, is one of those days.
I went to see Life of Pi last night. I read this book many years ago in high school and it stayed with me for many years. It was the basis of my own religious beliefs. After revisiting its ideals once again, I can't help but sit here and wonder to myself how anyone can believe just one religion.
Why is it that we must be confined to one set of beliefs? Why is it that if we want to be 'true believers' we only follow one religion and ignore the others? Why are we called cheats and flip-floppers when we try to look at other religions and bring their beliefs into our lives?
But I'm not here to just sit around and complain! The truth behind those questions lies in something that is so magically beautiful that it fills my heart. I choose to not just believe in one religion because there are so many wonderful things about all the religions.
How can someone not love the way that in Buddhism (sometimes considered to not be a religion due to no god) the true goal of life is to look inward and see the root of all problems, both within and outside the person? Only by recognizing our weakness can we reach beyond and leave behind our foolish tendencies and become something pure and simple.
In Hinduism, your goal is to reach enlightenment and this can only be achieved through the four main paths. You are not alone in Hinduism. You are part of a great, all-encompassing cycle that repeats until you achieve transcendence. One aspect of this is the belief in noninjury and that is what I bring from Hinduism. I will not kill. I cannot take a life because all life is sacred.
When you bring all these religions together, when you practice their beliefs and expose your mind and body to their customs and teachings, you become something more than just a simple believer. You become something so much more.
That's why I cannot bring myself to believe just one religion. Each religion has its own aspects that are beautiful and respected. By bringing these pieces together, you educate yourself in the ways of the world and the customs of millions of other humans and, in turn, you become xposed to so much more than just what one culture calls acceptable. You rise above judgement and prejudice.
In the end, when I pray I have the comfort that I am praying to the same God that millions of people all around the world in corners of countries I've never seen are praying to, even if that God goes by different names.
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