Before everything goes, I have to claim that: I do NOT have any intention to hurt anybody. I will be very thankful for your understanding.
Dear all,
For me, religions do not matter to me, whereas spiritual growing does. I’d love to learn or know all the spiritual thinking especially when they could benefit human beings. And as an academic researcher, I would like to know a spiritual tradition by reading its scriptures, rather than reading the researches or introductions written by other scholars; also, I’d like to know about it through hanging out with people from that tradition. For doing so, I could know the original (which means first hand instead of second hand) spiritual teaching and how do those insiders think about it; they might not fit in with each other.
Every spiritual tradition being able to benefit human beings is worthy to respect. And knowing how it benefits people is also important to me. However, you couldn’t understand how it works until you try to understand it with an empty mind which discards all the prejudice. Like a Zen Buddhist story says: you couldn’t put anything new in a full cup.
I was an anti-Christian and held a very critical attitude towards Christianity. When I realized that I couldn’t hate, dislike and criticize something I didn’t know, I went to a church and studied the whole Bible with them. I soaked in it for 3 months. Of course, my understanding of Christianity is still little, but at least I tried my best to learn it with an ”empty cup”. After that, I also went to some Buddhist temples and did many kinds of practices with them: chanting, meditation, reading sutras and so on. I decided to research Buddhist sutra as one of the scriptures in my dissertation because I knew how little I understood about Buddhism. No doubt I will try my best to understand it with an empty and eager heart as well.
Amazingly, through learning from different spiritual traditions, I understand each of them more and more. My learning about Christianity not only benefits my understanding of it but also benefits my viewpoint about Buddhism and vice versa. It’s just like what Thich Nhat Hanh said:
”For dialogue to be fruitful, we need to live deeply our own tradition and, at the same time, listen deeply to others. Through the practice of deep looking and deep listening, we become free, able to see the beauty and values in our own and others’ tradition.”His words are so genuine to me!
If some sorts of wisdom are worthy to some people, why prevent them from pursuing?
If wisdom comes from many angles and sources, why cover our cups?
If we already know the truth, why be afraid of knowing others?
Fleeing away, just watching or keeping distance won’t make us growing up, wiser or stronger. The only strong person is whoever goes through it but sustains it. Hatred won’t make you wise while humbleness does.
Btw, as for the reason that spiritual growing matters to me, the answer is: I don’t know. It’s probably a biggest mystery in my life. :p
Sincerely,
Hiyori
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