克城消息

Why I became Buddhist

   I was raised Christian, by my parents. The ideas behind Christianity I understand fully, but can’t say I have ever really agreed with them wholeheartedly. I’ve always had the notion that at sometime, somewhere I have lived previous lives and Christianity does not teach this. I believe that my actions do indeed affect myself and those around me in ways more profound than even I or anyone else could imagine.
   From the age of about 13 I started to question why I didn’t feel like Christianity seemed correct to me. My first inclination
was that maybe it’s because my mother had raised me Protestant, which itself is an offshoot of the original Christians, the Roman Catholics. So for years I figured it’s because I was getting half truths from what some would say is a splinter group, that they don’t have all the answers because they did not descend from Jesus Christs original teachings.
   The Protestant belief was that if you simply believe that Jesus Christ died for all your transgressions in this life then everything was forgiven and you went to heaven. I had a hard time with that concept. To say that I can do thievery I want in this life, with all the consequences those things may bring, and then just to be accepted into a place of perfection? No… I could not agree with that. The Catholic belief though is more so that one must be cleansed of all sins before they are let into heaven. This I had an easier time accepting.
Years later as an adult I finally decided I would go to the Catholic Church and become a member. The idea that there is cause and effect as a core belief of Catholic Christianity is what swayed me. But there was still one thing that bothered me about Christianity as a whole. The violence it is built around in its stories and teachings. The fact a man had purposely come in the form of God’s son to knowingly get killed upon a cross to give us a pathway to get into heaven at all. This was troubling to me. This is to say that all that had died before Christs arrival were to be kept out of Heaven? I struggled with this idea.
   Yet another problem I had with Christianity was that it all just seemed so illogical when it came to all the rules that are set in place. One that I didn’t like was the so called “minimum requirement” for how often one is supposed to attend Mass/Service depending upon the form of Christianity. There were also requirements for confession, which is when you would confess your sins to the Priest and then he would in turn offer you a path to forgiveness of those sins. This would usually be in the form of some prayers to Jesus Christ and Mary the mother of Christ. Confession had a minimum requirement of once per year.
   My question would be, does everything you’ve done become absolved? Again I would say no, just because you say to the Priest that you had done wrong, it does not mean that this will go away. Consequences still remain, and all you can do is try to be better going forward. Why the minimum requirements? What if you had done everything you can to live well and treat others with compassion, and as far as your concerned you’ve not done anything wrong? A Christian would say that is impossible, because humans are naturally inclined to evil. What if I could not even remember one of the awful things I had done in that year and failed to confess that to the Priest? Then I am stuck with it I suppose. It is at this point upon that realization that I knew I just simply did not agree with Christianity.
   I started researching different religions and the one that made the most sense to me was Buddhism. Everything about the human existence was explained in a very logical way. It teaches Karma, which is what I had always believed all along, the cause and effect. It teaches that there are indeed past lives and depending upon how one lived their life that determines how they will be reborn and into what circumstance. I feel like Buddhism encourages one to live with more purpose, to take responsibility for your actions. What all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas stand for and have taught I completely agreed with. It was all so logical for me. It is at this point I discovered my path.