Back to the subject of spirituality.
Last night I stayed up a long time looking up Hinduism. I don't really understand it, but then again, I've been Christian for fifteen years and still don't completely understand that.
I did learn more about Hindu gods, though. I love how every religion that I've learned about so far has stories for and about their saints, or gods, or prophets. There's a huge amount of Bible stories, and there's an equally large [probably larger] amount of stories about the Hindu gods. I had always thought of mythological stories and bible stories as so completely different. But really, they're very much the same. It's basically just a recount of Noah's journey, or how Zeus defeated the titans.
Also, the way I thought of saints and gods and goddesses from other religions, is obviously not as clearly defined as I had thought originally. Hindu gods are not saints, same with Greek or Roman gods. Christianity [and probably Islam and Judaism as well, but I don't want to speak for them] was probably modeled after the older religions of the world, like Hinduism or Greek mythology. Christianity was formed after the birth of Jesus Christ, who was God's son and who was a man. So far all of the other gods I have read about have had children, who were gods or goddesses as well. I'm not saying that Jesus is exactly like Heracles[Zeus' son], I'm just saying there are certain similarities between the older religions of the world, and Christianity, that I didn't recognize before recently.
I thought the three religions of the book [Judaism, Islam, and Christianity] were completely separated from all of the other religions of the world. I realize now that I was completely wrong in assuming that. Every religion is different. Even in Christianity, the different parts are different. Lutheran's believe slightly different than Catholics than Baptists than Presbyterians. It's how the world works, I guess. Every major idea builds off of some other idea, breaking apart slowly until it seems at a glance to be anything but related. But upon further examination, you can see how intertwined everything is.
Buddhism is a breakoff of Hinduism, Buddha is one of the Hindu gods. I didn't know that, I thought Hinduism and Buddhism were as different as Judaism and Norse mythology.
By the way, whatever happened to the Greeks, Romans, Norse/Gaelic's who believed in their respective Mythologies? There must still be some people somewhere who believe those stories, still. And why are all of those beliefs labeled "myth", while other religions like Hinduism aren't?
Anyways, I'm just trying to figure things out right now. I don't know 100% what I believe yet, and I don't know if there's a Right way or Wrong way to believe. Is it wrong to have the Virgin Mary sitting beside Buddha? And who are you supposed to ask these questions to? Spirituality is so personal, that people can really only give you their opinions on the matter. I guess the only thing for me to do, is go with what feels right.
xxx,
Leigh
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
