Serenity

"He who is beyond all exists as the relative universe. That part of Him appears as sentient and insentient beings. From a part of Him was born the body of the universe, and out of his body were born the Gods, the Earth, and the men."

I find it interesting how well I resonate with many aspects of Hinduism. I think one of the reasons I like it - besides the fact that many of its ideas resonate with my own - is that while Hindus still label and identify various areas of their religion, they simultaneously look past those labels and understand the bigger picture... just like with Shiva. A lot of Shiva mantras pretty much translate to "I bow to the self," or "I bow to the Creator within" - that type of thing. So yes, while Hindus identify various gods and their forms, they still look past that and understand that these divine aspects are beyond limits - which is why they have many forms in the first place. 

I mean, I spoke to Adonai on my sister blog about our "faces" (as a metaphor of unity), and found that Hinduism has a similar metaphor: Krishna's "Vishvarupa," or Universal Form, which, I believe, is a form that represents Vishnu's avatars. So yeah. I like how Hinduism acknowledges this.

Ha. I can just imagine my mom's reaction if I told her I resonated with Hinduism. She would throw a fit. She's what I silently refer to as a "fear-based Christian." In other words, she's a Christian who was raised into her religion, and follows it blindly out of fear. She doesn't go to church anymore; she rarely prays (and it's usually in private); she expresses fear of the rest of the family going to hell... that kind of thing. But she's not very knowledgeable when it comes to her faith in general. She just knows that A.) God controls her life; B.) Jesus is her savior; and C.) the rest of us are going to hell. Oh. And she doesn't like "idols."

And of course I'm not mocking her. I'm just sad, because one, she wasn't given a choice to believe this way, which means she views Christianity as the ultimate truth; two, she lives her life based on someone else's truth; three, she doesn't think for herself; and four, she has little respect for any other religion. So of course she wasn't happy to hear that I could swing for both ladies and gentlemen - nor was she happy to hear that I was interested in spirituality, because according to her, I shouldn't be speaking to the dead. 

I had to assure her that I wasn't interested in speaking to the dead.

Anyway... I feel very serene now. Things don't bother me as much anymore. I no longer take life as seriously, I chuckle at rude or disrespectful people, I'm working on creating my ideal life... and I have a hunger for knowledge and experiences. I want to expand, to see how far I can go with my skills - if I can branch out to things I never considered I would touch. There's only so much I can do while in school, however, so all the "cool stuff" will have to wait till halfway through November, when fall quarter ends. Then I'll have until January to dabble. 

Life's lookin' good.

Finny x