As a child, I took after St. Augustine, without ever knowing it. I was raised Christian and felt a sort of pressure to claim that title. I didn’t. I chose Jainism.
I learned early that people will talk one way, and walk another. I met people who were wicked and smart, and people who were dumb and righteous. The smart and wicked, those I thought were the biggest hypocrites of the bunch: they preach one way and act the other.
I have thought this thought often but never shared it before now. I believe that religion is the thing that happens between the moments you’re talking about it.
I guess I’m a Hindu now. For a while, I went around saying: “I’ll convert to any religion, just ask!” and a Hindu friend converted me. I haven’t converted to anything else since. My favorite metaphor is Indra’s net and I probably know it because I was researching “what I was” because of that conversion.
I’ll tell you what I believe, but I think it’s more complicated than an -ism.
- We all live in the same universe, made of the same stuff, governed by the same physical laws. Read between the lines.
- The plant in the Old Testament — Qaneh Bosm — is probably cannabis. I’d bet mammon–er–money on it!
- No human knows everything. We’re still learning. Teachers are underrated.