Incredible story about rejecting Christianity and adopting Buddhist principals so young.
W.r.t. your beliefs about the afterlife/transiency, did you come up with this yourself or was it taught to you?
Six of one, half a dozen of the other really. As I said I couldn't accept Abrahamic religion and began to investigate Buddhism; I read very widely including ancient texts in their original form, Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, Gnosticism, a great many schools of thought. I meditated twice a day, every day, from the age of 11 and still meditate to this day. Add in a number of very personal experiences along the way and my belief system basically formed itself. I used external sources to add to my experiences, accepting or rejecting their teaching based on my experience and knowledge to date.
As the Buddha said (paraphrased) "Test all - even my own - teachings between your teeth as if they were gold. Accept only what makes sense to you, and reject the rest. Never blindly accept or follow anything in blind faith. This is not the way."
To me that's what life is all about. It's your own personal voyage of discovery and growth, and provided you do no harm I couldn't care less what you believe in or what church you do (or don't) attend. All roads eventually lead to Rome kind of thing.
Put another way, I don't believe that there's a man on a cloud who has a specific religion assigned to his creation. Religion is a tool, and like all tools can be used for good or bad.
If there is a deity (and I'd say at this stage I don't have a belief in God, I have an
acceptance of 'god' - lower case) then I don't think that the deity would care about his creations' interpretation of his rules.
A parent doesn't care HOW their children wash their hands before a meal, only that they DO wash their hands. "God" doesn't care how you go about your life or use your free will, provided that you do. I'd say the only "rule" is do no harm, or "treat your neighbour as you yourself would wish to be treated". This is a central rule throughout pretty much all religion and I think that's where the issues start.
Some people tend to focus too much on the religion (its structure) instead of its actual message, and humans being human some take it too far. If you ask five men to point to the moon (different religions) it'd be a foolish man who concentrated on the finger instead of the moon. Put another way, you could send the same message by email, snail mail, text and carrier pigeon - but it'd be silly to examine and exalt the delivery method instead of the message itself.
But yeah, I'm rambling a little now and probably telling you things you don't want to know about. But this is a topic close to my heart, and I think it's silly to disband all potential of accepting spirituality into your life simply because some other guy somewhere in the world used religion as a bad tool.
Anyone here have any fears about cremating themselves rather than being buried in a coffin whole and juicy?
I dunno, I dont believe in heaven...But i dont like the idea of destroying my body after death. Just in case its connected with something in its complete form.
That make any sense atall??
For instance, as a corpse you decompose and become one with nature again, as ashes, you're basically ash.
But your ashes essentially become one with nature also - unless someone keeps them in a jar. Either way I personally don't think you have anything to worry about.
