About Christmas, and Faith

10:00 AM, Dec 25th 2009

Merry Christmas, little bro

Christmas has become much of a commercial event worldwide, for some, it is an important event of faith and religion. So I guess it is an appropriate time for me to tell you a thing or two about faith.

By now I hope you have chosen yourself a faith you can rely on. Notice I didn't say, the "right" religion, because there is NO such thing. If there were, I have all the confidence in the world you'd pick the right one.

It can be difficult to grow up in a traditional Buddhist family and choose another faith otherwise. However, I encourage you to learn, to understand, and then choose. Simply because, faith is something that where everything else fails, it's the ONLY thing left you can fall back on. I'm a Buddhist not because my parents picked it for me. I'm a Buddhist because his teachings were with me in the darkest hours of my life.

Here's a quick guideline of DOs and DONTs.

DON'T follow a faith because it is COOL. I mean Madona can be pretty cool, but whatever she is promoting for Buddhism isn't really what it is about. Don't follow your friends, especially the loud mouth ones, as each person's life is tremendously different.

DON'T choose a faith because of fears. Am I afraid of hell? Maybe. But I'm even more afraid of being afraid of hell my whole life I kept praying, not out of faith, but out of fear for hell. If I were a Christian, or a Catholic, as most of my true blue friends are, I'd, just like they would, pray out of my true believe for God and his Might.

DON'T choose a faith because of the promise of an easy life. Buddha or Guan Yin can't make the pain go away. They can't make your hours of party turned to As grades. When you pick a faith because of expectations and promises, you'd be disappointed and turned around so much easier. The ultimate of any religion is the same: Eternal Peace (heaven, nirvana, etc.)

DO question, re-question, and understand. I'm a Buddhist but I questioned my monk teacher at every lesson. Do not simply accept what is told, as human interpretation of divine teachings may be skewed and biased. A book written 2000 years back ought to be misunderstood by modern human later on, and some are no longer applicable.

DO pick a faith of hope, love, and tolerance. A faith that treats ALL beings equal, man or woman, black, white or Asian, gay or straight, animals or plants, etc. A faith where each person can become an image of God, each person can become Buddha, each person can enjoy the promise of Eternal Peace.

DO embrace other faiths and others' faith. I passed by a Muslim Mosque the other day and they had this banner of a teaching "What Jesus and Mohammad's teachings have in common, and how Blessed you are to be muslim at Christmas". In a time where some (backward countries, like America) still consider Islam to be the enemy, the fear, such embraced view is so wonderful (made me almost wanted to go in and listen, if I weren't wearing shorts and slippers). And I'm thankful many of my friends embrace my hardcore Budhhistness as I embrace their Christianity (though I wanted to smack a Christian dude that said "It's just so odd that there are still people believe in Buddhism these days").

DO listen to your heart. It's your choice. It's your faith. It's your life.

Anyhow, it's Christmas. It's time to celebrate. It's time to be with family. It's time to indulge in love, hope, and tolerance, throughout the world, whether or not you believe in Christ.

Merry Christmas.