The Ankh is an Egyptian symbol signifying life. The Flaming Challace is the symbol of Unitarian Universalism. The Yin-Yang is an Eastern symbol, used primarily in Taoism to signify the duality of all things.The Wheel of Life is represents the Buddhist belief of reincarnation in Samsara.
I once heard a parable from a Buddhist monk. I like to refer to it as the Parable of the Elephant.
Once there was a kingdom whose people were in great disagreement about religion. There were several different strong religious communities, and each would boldly proclaim their religion to be the one true religion. Their proclamations lead to debates, debates lead to arguments, and arguments nearly led to war.
The king was sad to see his people reaching such a desparate state, for he understood their true nature to be good and compassionate. He called for all the religious leaders in the kingdom to come in and discuss their differences, and they came. They looked to the king to tell them whose religion was right, but the good king, in all his honesty, did not know.
The king knew of a wise teacher who lived in the mountains. "Perhaps he can tell my people whose religion is right!" he pondered. He sent for the teacher, and the teacher came. When the king explained his problem, the teacher replied, "Call all of the kingdom's religious leaders here to meet with us tomorrow morning."
The next morning, all of the religious leaders came in. The teacher led them all to a large room where stood an elephant. He then called in five blind men. He said to the blind men, "Here before you is an elephant. Can you describe to me what an elephant is like?" Using what senses they could, one by one each blind man began to respond:
"An elephant is thick and cylindrical like the trunk of a tree!"
"No! An elephant is large and flat like a giant fan!"
"Not at all! An elephant is smooth like stone and comes to a sharp point!"
"On the contrary! An elephant is large like a wall but soft like a pillow!"
"You're all wrong! An elephant is small and thin like a piece of rope!"
The teacher asked the religious leaders, "Which one of these men is right?"
A man spoke, "They were all right, in some way, based on what they had the opportunity to understand."
The teacher replied, "And so it is with you."
This parable best defines my view of religion. The best way to describe how I came to my understanding of this view is to begin with my religious experiences.
My parents were Roman Catholics, and I grew up mainly through the Catholic Church, going to Sunday School, First Communion, the whole nine yards. I learned all the principals, and accepted them for the most part. A few things made question certain aspects, and no one could ever seem to provide an acceptable answer. Some examples are: "Why is okay to eat fish on Fridays in Lent, but not meat? Isn't it a dead animal all the same?" "If Cain killed Abel and was banished to the land of Nod where he was shunned by everybody, then who was there to shun him if he and his parents were the only people on earth?" and "If we're not reincarnated, then what does one's soul do before birth? And then what the heck is Purgatory like?"
I had drifted away from the church in 8th grade, right when my parents were getting divorced. In high school I dated a girl who was Catholic, so I started going to church again. We had a really cool, hip, young priest who I got to know pretty well. He was open minded enough to make learning about the religion fun. In my Senior year I made my confirmation.
Right after that, my world changed. I started dating a girl who was a Buddhist - in fact her mom was from Mongolia and had become a Buddhist nun. I was fascinated by the principles of Buddhism, and thought they made a heck of a lot more sense than Christianity. On the other hand, I felt that both religions had much in common, as do all religions - like, don't kill, don't steal, and be kind to others. Only Buddhism seemed to provide more logical, tangible reasons why. I began to go classes at a Buddhist temple in Howell to learn more. After a while, though, the more I learned, the more confused I became. Eventually I lost interest, but still believed the basics.
After I graduated college, another girlfriend introduced me to Taoism. It seemed to contradict Buddhism in many ways, but still made as much sense to me at the same time. (For anyone interested in Taoism, I highly recommend reading The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff - it teaches the principals of Taoism through the stories of Winnie the Pooh. You can read it in an afternoon - and it'll be one of the happiest afternoons of your life.)
Confused by how to classify my beliefs, I recalled the Unitarian Church of Montclair. The Unitarian Universalists believe in the freedom of religious thought, a well-rounded religious education, and a basic belief of morality, appreciation for the arts, and harmony with all of nature. (For more information, read the Unitarian Church of Montclair's Covenant and Mission statement at the bottom of this page.) I visited the church once in college when our Madrigals ensemble performed for their coming-of-age ceremony. Young adults had spent a year with their mentors, trying to figure out for themselves what it was they believed in. Many people in or ensemble were shocked when they heard some of the teens saying that they did not believe in one, omnipresent God, or other "traditional" beliefs. I just found it interesting. After several years of procrastinating, I finally joined the church.
It's intersesting how my religious beliefs are affected by the people in my life - specifically those I am involved with. My wife Melanie is Jewish, and while I am not about to convert from the religion I have come to love, there has been a great deal of Jewish influence upon my life. This lies more in the traditional aspects of Judaism, rather than the dogmatics. Through Melanie, as well as several of my close Jewish friends, I have come to admire the importance of family in the Jewish tradition. Throughout time, the Jews have been persecuted by many outsiders, over and over again. To survive, they formed larger units of families that became tribes. In these tribes, religious teachings and customs were passed down from generation to generation. The symbolism in these customs did not only stem from the scriptures, but from the necessities and nature of life in general.
Having an interfaith marraige has thus far is easy for us, since we both appreciate and continue to gain an understanding of each other's religion. One of the great challenges we had to come to face in planning our future is the religious education of our children. My original idea was to educate them primarily through the Unitarian Universalist religious education program, and celebrate all the holidays that either of us choose to celebrate at home. This idea was totally thrown out the window when I learned the tradition that in an interfaith marriage, if the mother of the children is Jewish, then the children are considered Jewish. I realized that this was to be not only a predetermined decision for my children's upbringing, but their birthright as well. Therefore we have agreed to raise our unborn children as Jewish and to have them attend Hebrew school in preparation of their Bat/Bar Mitzvah. Meanwhile, they will learn through life's experiences what it is that Daddy believes, and why he believes them! Since a major part of a Jewish education is to question what has been taught, we decided that after their Bat/Bar Mitzvah we will choose to support whatever religious decisions our children will make. This may include being a part of a Unitarian Universalist youth group, but no matter what their thoughts are, they will be, first and foremost, through their heritage, Jewish. (Consequently, this will make me the non-Jewish head of a Jewish household! I look forward to holding that obligation!)
So in a nutshell, my religious beliefs are a mixture of Christianity (the true teachings of Christ, NOT Catholicism - I make this distinction because of the research of the notion - which I tend to believe - that many principals attributed to Catholicism were either fabricated by religious and political leaders, or stem from either Judaism or pagan rituals that were incorporated by the Catholic church to win over followers of nature-based religions), Buddhism, Taoism, the Jewish lifestyle and nature-based religions. I believe there is a force of life that moves us all in a certain direction, much like water in a river. (That force can be called the Tao, if you wish.) But, as spelled out in Buddhism, as well as science, for every action there is a reaction. (That's the law of karma.) I don't believe in predestination, but I believe in being able to psychically predict future events. But I believe the future can be changed. It's like being in this river (Tao), and your body is a raft upon the river. You can pilot this raft about the river, choosing what off-shoots into other rivers and streams you wish, choosing to go though rapids or the calmer waters at your discretion. But you cannot go against a strong current. It just doesn't work that way. You can try as hard as you like, but it's pointless, frustrating, and tiresome.
I believe that there is transcendence beyond this river, though, which is the main point of Buddhism. In Buddha taught that all life is suffering, because there is nothing in life that is permanent. Eventually you will loose all that you have, and your attachment to the physical leads to the suffering of loosing it. Taoism teaches that nothing in life is either good nor bad, it simply just is. Good and bad are subjections we bestow upon things. I tend to go with Taoism on that argument, although it goes hand-in-hand with what Buddha taught. Buddha, Lao-Tsu (who wrote the Tao Te Ching), and Christ all warned against attachments, and the reason is all the same. In the end there is something greater beyond the physical that you cannot attain if you are so attached to the physical.
Buddhism teaches that once one breaks away from the physical, he or she attains nirvana, a heavanly, peaceful state of bliss. (Taoism says you can achieve bliss through the present, but to argue what is wrong or right would be nit-picking.) Once one attains nirvana, he or she can become a Buddha - a supreme heavenly being. I believe that Lao Tsu, Christ, Abraham and Mohammed were all Buddhas, each with a message to certain people. Their messages varied slightly to accustom the different needs of the different peoples.
I admire Christ's teachings because they are quite the simplest. Christ's main teaching was to love your neighbor as you love yourself. That's the principle of compassion, which plays a very important role in Buddhism. Anything else Christ talked about was related to this principal. I believe Christ taught the forgiveness of sins not as an instant cure from their ramifications, as most Christians believe. I believe this practice is two-fold. 1.) It sets an example to forgive others of their wrongdoings against us, and 2.) it motivates sinners to change their ways and seek enlightenment. I do not believe that the forgiveness of sins can undo the laws of Karma. (Although Buddhists do have a confession ritual like Christianity does, so perhaps the effects can be altered a bit - I just don't think they can be eradicated entirely.) Finally, I believe Christ spoke about the "Kingdom of Heaven" and the "New Jerusalem" only because that is what his people understood would follow. I believe he was referring to the same nirvana that Buddha taught about.
I believe in reincarnation, Samsara, and the "Wheel of Life" as Buddhism teaches. The theory is that there are six realms of existence. The two higher realms are pleasure realms, or the "god" realms. (Not as "god" as in deity, but "god" as in higher being.) In these realms, good karma rewards these beings with perfectly happy lives. But because they have not broken free from the physical (Samsara), their good karma gets used up, they begin to feel the leftover effects of bad karma, and they eventually grow old and die. The next two realms are the human and animal realms. They are quite similar, are perceived by each other, and equally feel the effects of good & bad karma. (To be born human, though, is to be the luckiest, for it is the only realm where one can perceive a way to enlightenment. All the other realms are too preoccupied with pleasure, pain, or ignorance.) The fifth realm is the realm of the "insatiated spirits" where bad Karma forces one to a life in suffering, though not as severe as the Hell realm. One form of suffering is if one is hungry and sees food, he will reach for it, but the mouth will shrink and he can't eat the food. Hence, the insatiated spirit. (I believe this is the ghost realm, where your traditional concepts of ghosts, hauntings, poltergeists, and ectoplasm all come from.) Finally there is the realm of the Hells, where all your traditional concepts Hell pretty much come into play. There are hot hells, cold hells, burdensome hells, etc.
Buddhism teaches that we keep bouncing around these realms as if they were a giant wheel, over and over and over again. This wheel is powered by Karma - we keep creating reactions of our actions. But they are all only an illusion produced by Karma, which remains until one achieves enlightenment. By overcoming attachments, we can stop producing Karma, and we can achieve enlightenment. Taoism also teaches a principal of "do-nothing" (wen wei), which is a way of knowing when to let the current of the Tao take you along automatically, or working with the current instead of against it.
The nature-based religions talk about the powers of nature, the earth, stars, sun, moon, planets, water, fire, wind, etc. My Buddhist belief in impermanence and illusion should discredit these concepts - but they don't. I believe that the force of live (Tao) flows though all things, much like the "Star Wars" belief of the Jedi religion. (Read more in THE WISDOM OF YODA section.) Everything we can perceive are different forms of energy. Therefore it is only logical to me that all the elements of the universe seem to have its own power in some way, shape or form. This leads to astrological concepts that I myself do not quite understand - but more often than not I have seen the evidence of their truths.
For More About Unitarian Universalism, visit:
For More About Taoism, visit:
For More About Buddhism, visit:
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CREATE a religious community that supports and encourages individual search for truth and religious meaning.
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ACT together to keep this covenant alive.
The principles & purposes of the UUA.
A brief explanation of Unitarian Universalism.
The Temple of The Immortal Spirit - The Western Taoist
This site lists books and texts on Taoism.
Introduction to Buddhism - from the Buddhism in the National Capital of Canada web site.
Here's a site for several Buddhist resources.