We went to three Buddhist temples this afternoon. MBA, PBA and another Thai Buddhist temple in Pulau Tikus. Our reason is to pass an hour or two while waiting to pick up another son at karate. It is also a photo opportunity for me, albeit a 1.3MP camera.
I notice that men are more impartial where religion is concerned. Like my multi-religion hubby. He does not see the need to actualy ‘do something’ to ‘achieve something’. Previously, we would go to these temples and I would be the one lining up for the holy water and blessings. We were offered a free packet of joss-sticks in exchange for the parking fee but my hubby did not take up the offer.
His reason – No need lah, I got secret communication with Lord Buddha wan.
In one of the temple, my toddler was so curious about a container for alms. He went several times to peek at the bowl with money. Round and round, he would toddled back to that bowl and peek in like looking at a bowl of goldfish. The amazement and curiousity on his face is priceless.
So, I gave him money to drop in the bowl. The monk took his little, chubby arm and tied a string for protection on his wrist. Then, the monk sprinkled him with holy water which of course is very thrilling for a toddler of 2 yrs.
After the ceremony, my dear, understanding hubby untied the string and jokingly asked toddler, calling him Catholic baby, if he enjoyed his ‘baptism’. (Don’t anyone, Christians or Buddhists try to decipher anything. There is absolutely nothing attached to this except the innocence of a small but curious baby and the understanding nature of his parents.)
Recently, I am terribly sad reading about all these smearing of the Holy Quran by some fanatics and people seem to think that Christians and Muslims are at logger-heads. With the advent of the internet, we have too much information in our hands. Most times, we stumbled upon some very extreme and frightening private opinions of some very misguided people and many of us would just jumped in and label them by their respective, perceived religions. Eventhough it is just a small number of people, many of us would see a certain religion as ‘bad’ and conveniently forget about the millions and billions of people who are ‘good’.
In my opinion, if we try to right the wrongs of these misguided people, we are abetting them in their twisted mission. Best thing is to leave them alone, in their corner. If they had been that misguided, there is very little men can do to change their views. Nothing will ever go into their mind.
Through some co-incidences (though I wouldn’t see it as co-incidence), I had been given almost the same reading in my lector duty. Three times – I read from the Bible that ‘God does not discern us for what we are externally – whether we are Jews, slaves, citizens, circumcised or uncircumcised.’
Further, I learnt yesterday that our brain is too small to comprehend everything related to religion. To know the great mystery, is like trying to fit in the water from the ocean into a small hole dug by a little boy. (Re: St. Augustine, Holy Trinity) So, I shall fall back on faith in God and try to adopt some of the impartiality towards religion like my husband.
Happy Wesak to all Buddhists and please surf over to my Penang Faces for some photos.
Added : I would like to point out to some people that
the *Je. hovah. Witnesses is NOT a denomination of Christianity. (* spelling intentionally altered to avoid web-crawler)
‘His reason – No need lah, I got secret communication with Lord Buddha wan.’
Whaaa…. how ah? Can teach me ah?
True religion is not repressive as life itself is not.
The word “religion” means “bond” as in “binding with an oath.” Religions are mostly static, living in the past, not open to change. I don’t think we must forget what happened in the past (those events that actually DID occur), but not to relive them year after year.
I think if we haven’t learned anything from the past, we have missed the lesson and may need to repeat it until we get it. But for those who get it – get on with your lives.
Once you had your own experiences with spirit and the Source, then you don’t need a religion in order to find It, or please It.
Not everyone is as open minded as your husband. God will guide him towards the way that He wants him to follow 🙂
Matthew is as cute as ever! I really wanna give him a big hug everytime I see his photo on ur page!
hahaha…ur hubby really very open minded…hmm..shud this say is a good sign..?? cute little matthew… actually what he think when he get “baptised” by the monk?? haha..i really 1 2 noe…i think in his heart just have Jesus…huh..rite?
Milly – He is too small to know anything so it doesn’t matter. But he does know his Vincent kor-kor is with Jesus. Whenever we asked where his other brothers are, he will say school. So, I taught him Vincent kor-kor is with Jesus.
Angelic – Ya, he is one kooky guy. He is looking for a book which has the comparison of all the major religions.
multimid – Thank you for your words.
Mango – That is call faith. The faith that there is a Big Boss somewhere.
this really is a very pretty post. a far cry from the older posts of yours which seemed to be less tolerant towards other religions.
i think this is a prime example of how someone finally is able to reconcile the confusions of being in a multi-religion family/society/nation where teachings from the different beliefs may very often contradict each other.
Looking from a different angle, cud it be you are seeing the light? :O)
‘Cos I have never shown ‘not tolerant’ to other religions. I don’t think I have changed much. I still do not agree to abortion, same sex marriage, human cloning, homosexuality and etc etc. And it has nothing to do with religion but my self-rigtheous stand, been like that since long time ago. Whether when I was a Taoist, Buddhist or now, Catholic.