God damn you all to fucking hell
Yay! Happy happy joy joyness!!!
Shinto looks like fun. But they don't have much in the way of religious texts or definite rules or. . . even a organized meetingness of the. . . Shintoists.
Now the Church of Satan, on the other hand. . . those are some precepts I could follow. . .
Wow. This Incon panel thingy is either going to be a lot of fun, or a complete disaster. So far I guess I'm doing it on Buddhism, Shintoism, Tao Teh Ching, and Confuicianism. The four intersect a lot in Japanese culture, it seems. Traditionally, weddings are done by a Shinto priest, while funerals are done by a Buddhist monk. Silly people. And then, Tao and Confucianism aren't really religions as much as philosophies and guidelines, which is cool. Come to think of it, my mom has a copy of Tao Teh Ching laying around somewhere. I should read it, because it seems so very cool.
*reads random passages from Tao Teh Ching*
To realize that our knowledge is ignorance,
This is a noble insight.
To regard our ignorance as knowledge,
This is mental sickness.
Only when we are sick of our sickness
Shall we cease to be sick.
THe Sage is not cick, being sick of sickness;
This is the secret of health.
That's like. . . uber-cool. For lack of a better word.
So Shinto is the indigenous religious. . . then Buddhism came in around 600 CE and. . . as it does. . . adapted pretty well with Shintoism. "Oh? Kami's, you say? Those are obviously manifestations of various Buddha's and Boddhisattva's." "Really? Right on!". *ahem* It's silly how many changes Buddhism has gone through in various cultures. Pretty much everyone had some other religion before Buddhsim got there. The Tibetans were all animistic and Bon-ish, so of course the Buddhist monks explained the spirits as being Buddhist mythological creatures, of sorts. So. . . you still see a bunch of Tibet's original Bon in Tibetan Buddhism.
Japanese culture is a lot of fun. I always feel kind of bad living in a country and in a family with absolutely no culture or tradition. The US in only however many years old and. . . has very few, if any, unique traditions of its own.
New York sounds like a lot of fun. I want to go to New York now. Or somewhere. I want to go somewhere. I want to. . . save up my money and just. . . go somewhere next summer. Maybe spend a week in Japan. *sigh*. . . I kind of wish I'd gone to that retreat thingy at Mukogawa. I haven't really done anything this summer, and it sounded like a lot of fun. *sigh* . . . what with my mom spending more time at home lately. . . I haven't had rides to temple. I biked once and. . . it was a lot of fun, actually. I got lost and ended up too far east, but I still got there on time. I think this Sunday I'll goto the 8:30 service at St. Al's, the 10:30 service at our temple, and the 1:00 service at the Padma Ling place that I've been meaning to go to. Religion is fun. Everyone should have it.
Ooh! Or could go to the Westgate community church and scare Rachel! Or. . . go to the Prince of Peace church and scare Tom! Or go to St. Anthony's and be like, "Yo, this was my dad's parish. Represent.". Like that. I'd only want to go to a big church service, because otherwise everyone would instantly notice me as that kid who doesn't go here. I'm pretty sure I stuck out at St. Al's, too, though. I just don't look Catholic. That and I sat in the 3rd to last back pew. But no one looked at me funny, which was cool. People said "Good morning" to me when the prist-dude said "Now say good morning to everyone!". And it was fun. I'm still freaked out by how much a Catholic service is like a Buddhist service (when we have a minister/monk over, anyway. . . Lay services suck). We open with a chant, have a sermon about impermamence or whatver, have a couple more chants, have a moment of meditation, and then end the service by throwing incense into a burny pot, thus symbolizing the destruction of worldy desires. And then we all go down to the basement and talk about fun Buddhist stuff all casual-like. Which is a lot like a normal Catholic service, if you replace the chants with hymns, impermamence with faith in God, meditation with prayer, and incense burnage with Communion. Religion is a silly thing.
I was talking to Noon about Buddhism in Thailand, and it sounds a lot different from Buddhism over here. You only go to temple when you feel religiously inclined, which may be serveral times a day, or not for months on end. But since it's, for the most part, their main religion, the Church and State get along very well. Most employers will grant religious sabbaticals of however long for people to go live as a monk or a nun for awhile. Which is cool.
It's awesome how well Buddhism and Shintoism get along. Why can't Christianity get along with anyone like that? It's like "No! Convert!". I guess, staying true to Christian dogma, it's kind of hard to find a half-way meeting place anywhere. *sigh*.
Shinto looks like fun. But they don't have much in the way of religious texts or definite rules or. . . even a organized meetingness of the. . . Shintoists.
Now the Church of Satan, on the other hand. . . those are some precepts I could follow. . .
Wow. This Incon panel thingy is either going to be a lot of fun, or a complete disaster. So far I guess I'm doing it on Buddhism, Shintoism, Tao Teh Ching, and Confuicianism. The four intersect a lot in Japanese culture, it seems. Traditionally, weddings are done by a Shinto priest, while funerals are done by a Buddhist monk. Silly people. And then, Tao and Confucianism aren't really religions as much as philosophies and guidelines, which is cool. Come to think of it, my mom has a copy of Tao Teh Ching laying around somewhere. I should read it, because it seems so very cool.
*reads random passages from Tao Teh Ching*
To realize that our knowledge is ignorance,
This is a noble insight.
To regard our ignorance as knowledge,
This is mental sickness.
Only when we are sick of our sickness
Shall we cease to be sick.
THe Sage is not cick, being sick of sickness;
This is the secret of health.
That's like. . . uber-cool. For lack of a better word.
So Shinto is the indigenous religious. . . then Buddhism came in around 600 CE and. . . as it does. . . adapted pretty well with Shintoism. "Oh? Kami's, you say? Those are obviously manifestations of various Buddha's and Boddhisattva's." "Really? Right on!". *ahem* It's silly how many changes Buddhism has gone through in various cultures. Pretty much everyone had some other religion before Buddhsim got there. The Tibetans were all animistic and Bon-ish, so of course the Buddhist monks explained the spirits as being Buddhist mythological creatures, of sorts. So. . . you still see a bunch of Tibet's original Bon in Tibetan Buddhism.
Japanese culture is a lot of fun. I always feel kind of bad living in a country and in a family with absolutely no culture or tradition. The US in only however many years old and. . . has very few, if any, unique traditions of its own.
New York sounds like a lot of fun. I want to go to New York now. Or somewhere. I want to go somewhere. I want to. . . save up my money and just. . . go somewhere next summer. Maybe spend a week in Japan. *sigh*. . . I kind of wish I'd gone to that retreat thingy at Mukogawa. I haven't really done anything this summer, and it sounded like a lot of fun. *sigh* . . . what with my mom spending more time at home lately. . . I haven't had rides to temple. I biked once and. . . it was a lot of fun, actually. I got lost and ended up too far east, but I still got there on time. I think this Sunday I'll goto the 8:30 service at St. Al's, the 10:30 service at our temple, and the 1:00 service at the Padma Ling place that I've been meaning to go to. Religion is fun. Everyone should have it.
Ooh! Or could go to the Westgate community church and scare Rachel! Or. . . go to the Prince of Peace church and scare Tom! Or go to St. Anthony's and be like, "Yo, this was my dad's parish. Represent.". Like that. I'd only want to go to a big church service, because otherwise everyone would instantly notice me as that kid who doesn't go here. I'm pretty sure I stuck out at St. Al's, too, though. I just don't look Catholic. That and I sat in the 3rd to last back pew. But no one looked at me funny, which was cool. People said "Good morning" to me when the prist-dude said "Now say good morning to everyone!". And it was fun. I'm still freaked out by how much a Catholic service is like a Buddhist service (when we have a minister/monk over, anyway. . . Lay services suck). We open with a chant, have a sermon about impermamence or whatver, have a couple more chants, have a moment of meditation, and then end the service by throwing incense into a burny pot, thus symbolizing the destruction of worldy desires. And then we all go down to the basement and talk about fun Buddhist stuff all casual-like. Which is a lot like a normal Catholic service, if you replace the chants with hymns, impermamence with faith in God, meditation with prayer, and incense burnage with Communion. Religion is a silly thing.
I was talking to Noon about Buddhism in Thailand, and it sounds a lot different from Buddhism over here. You only go to temple when you feel religiously inclined, which may be serveral times a day, or not for months on end. But since it's, for the most part, their main religion, the Church and State get along very well. Most employers will grant religious sabbaticals of however long for people to go live as a monk or a nun for awhile. Which is cool.
It's awesome how well Buddhism and Shintoism get along. Why can't Christianity get along with anyone like that? It's like "No! Convert!". I guess, staying true to Christian dogma, it's kind of hard to find a half-way meeting place anywhere. *sigh*.