PICKING AND CHOOSING

We do not need to be exclusively in one religious camp or another, although in the beginning we often are.  “I am a Buddhist,” we declare, or a Vedantist, or a Christian, etc.  However, some of us come to discover that we are happier not being so narrowly defined.  Picking and choosing from the different religions is more realistic.

Many of us like, for instance, the concept of the Atman, as found in Vedanta, so we adopted this.  Buddhism rejects the Atman, but there are other teachings in Buddhism that we may like.  The suffering in our lives, for example, caused by attachment, interests us.  Attachment is the grasping, clinging, clutching, striving to be this or to do that or to have this or to not have that.  The concept of dependent origination is also appealing, the notion that if this is, that follows.

Christianity has aspects that may attract us, too, especially as preached by such early Christian mystics as Meister Eckhart.  We may be drawn to a God that is personal, unlike Vedanta’s Brahman that is impersonal.

We can only go so far when picking and choosing this way, however.  There are doctrines in all the religions that don’t get along.  For instance, unlike Christianity and Vedanta, there is no God in Buddhism, and whereas everyone is the son of God in Vedanta, in Christianity there is only one son.

Finally, it is all right if we profess atheism.  Lightning will not strike us down.  But considering oneself an atheist is evidence that our thinking mind is dominating us.  Our thinking mind is not where God is, though, or even where God is not.