It's time.

Music by Maria Taylor.
(Note: Haven't had internet for a few days. I'm late, so I'll cover the past two weeks in this note.)

Buddhism. Maaaan, I had no idea...
So I read about Buddhism, and I guess you could say it really spoke to me. The basic concepts are so appealing, in a world full of greed and anger and jealousy and other strongly negative emotions. Following the principles of Buddhism is probably exactly what I need in my life right now. I'm going to try incorporating them into my daily life, though like all things, change can be hard. Read here for a quick breakdown of the religion.

Sikhism... what?!
After I read about Buddhism, I looked into Sikhism as the last religion to research this month. If I thought Buddhism was appealing, Sikhism took it to a new level. To be honest, I didn't know this religion existed - awkward. But in case you don't know, it's monotheistic and focuses essentially on being at peace with things in the world by seeking God in everyone and everything. "The three duties that a Sikh must carry out can be summed up in three words: Pray, Work, Give." It's so refreshingly... simple.


Now now, I won't be jumping on any bandwagons headed for the temple any time soon. I believe in God. What follows after that is just trying to lead a good life. But looking into these religions practiced worldwide has at least expanded my knowledge and opened my mind to possibilities.


I will continue to look into these two religions especially, even after the month is over... which it is, basically.
-Jamie

Make a new dance up.

Music by Hey Ocean!.

Suuuuper laaaate.


This week was jam-packed with work and uh... general laziness.
But I did make good on my research promise (to myself). Learned quite a bit about Hinduism last week, and turns out it's really interesting. Seems kind of like a pick-and-choose how you like it religion. In fact, some stand on the side of it's not really a religion so much as a cluster of beliefs. One video I watched on youtube, however, was this one convert that kept using the phrase, "we believe..." It sounded nice, everything she said. But apparently Hinduism can't be pinned to one set of structured beliefs. Check out the video here.


Alright, that's all I've got for now. Bigger update to come at the end of the weekend.
-Jamie

Still.

Music by Daughter

Aha! I’ve finally done it. I said ‘this is what I’ll do for the month,’ and actually followed through… at least for the first week. Maybe I just find researching religions and spirituality interesting.

This week, my focus was on Islam, as it’s the second largest organized religion practiced throughout the world. I was interested in it also because this religion is at the heart of many controversies in the states and the Middle East. It was fascinating reading up on it; I was ignorant, as it turns out. Many things about the Islamic faith have been blown up in the media, such as the extremist side of it. But at its core, it’s a simple monotheistic belief in a God who had prophets on the planet to guide us. That’s just the base line, as I came to understand. A lot of things branch out from there, separating Islam from other major religions. One thing I looked into a bit more is the Sunni and Shi’a situation. Turns out that started all because Muslims at the time couldn’t agree on which religious leader to follow after the ‘last prophet’ Muhammad. From there, it only escalated.

Interesting, for sure, but I won’t go into details. I’m no expert.

If anyone’s interested in getting into the nitty gritty of it all, you can go here and explore.

Something I want to explore more myself is the idea of spirituality vs. religion. As I mentioned in the last note, I thought they were kind of the same thing. If you start researching online, many articles pop up on the subject, but they’re all so biased. The Christian websites all say spirituality is the part of Christianity that enhances your relationship with God. Those on the other side of the fence say everything positive about spirituality- like being kind to other humans, having inner peace, etc.- while saying everything negative about organized religion- i.e. being forced into it, being asleep throughout life, being stifled, etc. This is going to be something I’ll have to figure out on my own, instead of looking for an answer somewhere else, or from someone else.

Innnteresting.

-Jamie

December: Contemplate spirituality.

December

Contemplate spirituality.

- Research the top ten organized religions

- Lightly look into fringe religions

(Late at posting! Whoops.)

Anyway...

Many will argue that being spiritual only adds to the experience of life. And for some, that doesn't necessarily mean being religious. Growing up, I associated the two synonymously. Even today, I'm not sure that I can split hairs to find the difference, but it's something I could explore this month.

The important thing is, I've decided that looking into other religions could only help with tolerance of different ideas or of different personalities. I believe that by not understanding a problem, we create conflicts stemming from ignorance or denial. Those who outwardly protest homosexuality or abortion or mental health problems are essentially screaming that they don't have a clue how it all works. Not knowing creats fear, which begets hatred.

So I hypothesize, anyway.

Alright. To be clear from the start, I don't hate religion. I believe in God, only the one of them. Organized religion kind of makes me cringe just because history shows us clearly what masses of people are willing to do in the name of religion. And let's be real, the bible was written by human beings. I'm pretty sure we can all agree that humans come with some faults. So while I have problems with organized religion and believing every word of the bible, I believe in God because of the real presence I've felt in my life.

I digress slightly for the first note of the month. 

Basically, I want to explore spirituality and religion this month just to expand my field of knowledge and fight back some ignorant tendencies. Perhaps if we all truly understood the religions that comprise the Middle East, we'd be more understanding of their needs as a people. I'm not saying anything to support taking action or the opposite, only stating that I think we could all stand to learn a bit about other religions because of their cultural ties.

We'll see. 

In short, I'll spend this month looking into religions from around the world in the hopes that I'm gaining more ammunition to fight negativity in daily life, among other benefits.

-Jamie