Foreign Gods

This weekend, I prayed to other gods.  As a general whole I am not a very religious person anymore.  Being a history major, I know too much about the historical contexts of many of the world’s major religions.  Growing up die- hard Jewish, I know way too much about my families chosen religion and have thus become disillusioned with it when questions I had were simply answered with weird stares and the usual, “it just is.”  There is a certain truth to the idea that ignorance is bliss.  That being said, I have not had first experience with the major religions stemming from East Asia.  I was extremely interested in learning more about Daoism and Buddhism. 

            Daoism is an actual Chinese religion that I did not know much about.  The only thing I knew beforehand was that it has constantly competed with Confucianism throughout Chinese history.  All the gods in the religion are actually Chinese in nature, unlike Buddhism.  I saw similarities between the two.  Both use incense in their rituals.  However, unlike Jewish prayer services that take up to an hour on average to complete, Daoist prayers can simply take a few seconds.  In addition, as far as I can tell you can pray at your own convenience.  In Judaism, you must pray at certain times of the day and the week.  There is a certain convenience in the swiftness of the prayer services.  I was elated to learn more about Daoism since I did not know as much about it unlike Buddhism. 

            Buddhism has always intrigued me.  In my mind, it skirts the boundary of being a full-fledged religion and occupies the space between religion and philosophy.  It differs from many religions in that the path to fulfillment in the context of Buddhism does not require another human being to officiate your life.  In Catholicism, a priest must officiate the services and confessions in order to benefit the self.  In Judaism, you local rabbi dictates what is right, what is wrong and how you life should be led in the context of a certain view of Judaism.  Buddhism preaches self- enlightenment, something that has always intrigued me.  I have always been off put by the idea that your local religious leader makes the law that you must adhere to lest the greater community shun you.  I know there are different sects of Buddhism but you do not necessarily need to be apart of them to be considered a Buddhist. 

            The coming week will be spent ever improving my Chinese.  My fellow classmates and I have made a great impression in our class and we may start hanging out with our fellow classmates from other countries.  Our only language link is Chinese, so this experience should be very interesting.