Photo by Basir Seerat
________________________
RELIGIOUS HARMONY
I walk my path
I sing my song
I live my dream
I’m my Self
You walk your path
You sing your song
You live your dream
You’re your Self
Paths vary;
Songs vary;
Dreams vary;
Does Self?
Let’s walk our path
Let’s sing our song
Let’s live our dream
Let’s be ourselves!
manivannan
Bravo to all who wrote with such grace and elegance on this difficult subject. If you have yet to visit Basir's website (he is the contributing photographer for this day's prompt) I encourage you to view not only the beauty of his photography but the haunting views of his country that are often difficult to accept. This photo of a religious icon with its eyes shot out I found took my breath away. Some of you may find this article on CNN helps to understand the context of the photo - http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/05/10/afghan.buddhas/index.html - while I did not chose one of his photos of the empty holes in the cliff where the Buddhas once graced this valley, this image also captures the hatred the Taliban seems to revel in for their own country's culture.
One week after the photo or picture is posted I will pick one offering to put beneath the image. This is a way of celebrating exceptional creativity. Any and all posts are available for your creative mind to make an offering at any time (even ones where a writing has been placed on the front page like this one). If you are new here and want to offer to every image here, feel free. We are writers, WRITE! If this is your exceptional writing posted here on the Front Page Pictures, Poetry & Prose invites you to include the Exceptional Writing Award Button on your blog. Visit the Exceptional Writing Award post for the details and the button to download.
10 comments:
There is an innate reverence for anyone professing a calling from a higher power, from 'witch doctor' to the Pope and any and all in between. The opinion of whether one religion is better than another, or if a religion is evil, is purely subjective, yet wars over belief or non-belief (the Crusades in Europe, for instance--and now the anti-anything-that-conflicts-with-Christianity view of U.S. fundamentalists) threatens to be the force behind the increasing possibility of the U.S. pursuing a more aggressive war in the Middle East. But it's not religion, it's OIL.
Or, as they say in the Southern U.S., 'All.'
Are we all not made of flesh, with feeling and hope found in our soul's? Can we not see a reflection of life in the glass on a day of sunshine? Do we all not shed a tear when the pain strikes deep within our hearts?
You will not find hatred in my heart because of another's belief. You may find love, forgiveness, understanding and it is possible that you might find hurt, but you shall not find hate.
It is not my yoke to carry; the one of judgement.
What we practice in regard to spirituality should be as private as any other intimate activity we engage in. Until we reach that level of respect for one another, we will continue to see religious intolerance. It is possible to live in harmony with others regardless of how they differ from us in world view... but it takes a conscious effort... like learning to walk gracefully along a balance beam....
I struggle with my faith.
I was raised in a catholic family and we went to a catholic school and church, but I do not consider myself to be catholic. Thanks to the very education and desire to learn that was cultivated within me in that catholic school, I have learned what the Vatican has done in it's history. But it is not alone. There are grave injustices accounted to clergy and parishioners of all denominations the world round. Every religion in the world has it's own skeletons in the closet. All of them are wrong, yet all of them are right. For they are each a belief system to their own, and as individuals we have the right to choose which one we believe in the most or none at all.
Bu the hippies may be the most correct. What if, like flowers, we are all just here to bud and spawn and perish, each in our own time line. And if we are each but one seed strain in the great scheme of Mother Nature, then logically, some sseds go the wayside. There is no shame in not reproducing. There is no shame in just being a "flower" for the moment. And at the end of our season to wilt gracefully like all the other flowers under the setting sun.
Stu, that is beautifully stated. There are those who profess to love Jesus and who attend church every Sunday or whenever, yet belong to organizations that reek with hatred. One saw it every day on TV and heard it every hour on the radio. The pundits were in full swing, standing behind the soldier and uttering phrases that were anything but Jesus-like.
I respected the hippie logic because they had a cause we all needed to get behind: peace, love, and happiness. Maybe their methods were a bit off-kilter, but the message got through. A flower in a gun-barrel took a lot of courage to place there.
Let's all be flowers and see how brightly we can bloom through tolerance, acceptance, and humility. No bullshit.
I wonder how much of religion is faith and how much is habit. It's unclear how many people understand what they believe in, or if they're just practicing a belief they inherited from their parents, their ancestors, because it was imposed on them when they were young. Religion gets us when we're little, we're told a tale and we grow up living by it and abiding it, never really questioning its meaning.
There's nothing wrong with faith or religion. In an ideal world, religion would probably do more good than harm, but unfortunately, we live in the actual world. In the actual world, different religions can't coexist because every religion believes it has a monopoly over what's right, and is therefore superior to all others. Religions don't often connect with each other, or try to understand another belief system. A Jewish boy isn't suitable for a Catholic father's daughter, because the boy's religion isn't good enough. Islam is a religion of extremists who use violence to terrorize others. Voodoo is some satanic worshipping witchcraft used to conjure spells of evil.
Instead of judging, each sect should look within its own history, analyze their own beliefs, nd then look to another belief system and find that it's all the same. Miracles and spells are the same thing. Women are responsible for downfall, for seduction, and therefore have to be controlled and maintained. And concerning Islam, this comparison has to be stated: Islamic extremism is to Islam as the KKK is to Christianity.
I believe in secular humanism. Instead of putting our faith in something that can neither be proven or disproven, instead of allowing our lives and our laws to be dictated by God's morality, I think humans should look to each other, to have faith in human nature and existence and our capabilities. If we have faith in one another, if we work together toward a greater good, we would be able to exert and exhibit a power comparable to "God."
RELIGIOUS HARMONY
I walk my path
I sing my song
I live my dream
I’m my Self
You walk your path
You sing your song
You live your dream
You’re your Self
Paths vary;
Songs vary;
Dreams vary;
Does Self?
Let’s walk our path
Let’s sing our song
Let’s live our dream
Let’s be ourselves!
I understand intolerance between religions. It makes a sad sort of sense since everyone believes that their God is the right one and the rest of the world is ridiculous for not realizing it.
People who believe in something strongly feel... well... strongly about it.
Their religion is such a part of who they are that when someone doubts their beliefs they see it as a personal attack. The way they see it, it's their truth and you're basically calling them a liar.
No one is going to react well to that.
So I get the animosity between opposing religions, but here's something I don't understand..
Intolerance of faith. Not religion, just faith itself.
I don't understand why people who claim to believe in nothing get so upset by the idea of someone else daring to grasp on to the fragile hope that maybe, just maybe, there's more to this life than brief moments of calm between each new crisis.
Sure, I suppose it could all just be some insidious plot to subvert the neighborhood since faith mongers always trying to trip the rest of the world up by sneaking off to church or Temple or whatnot and finding all that suspiciously free comfort in their religion.
Personally, I just don't see the harm in it, but then again maybe I'm just too naive to see how much of a negative impact it's having on me each time the family next door sits down to pray before dinner.
I once had an aquaintance who became downright spiteful over a bumper stickers that read "God Is Love" and wanted to find out how much it would cost to have one made up that said "There Is No God".
Just to get back at them, you know?
Well, the funny thing is that it probably never even occured to the poor villian with the diabolical God Is Love bumper sticker that anyone could possibly take offense to a little four by twelve rectangle on the back of their car.
They just really dig the whole God thing and like to give a little nod to their favorite fandom.
People put Patriots, Metallica, Gone Fishin', and My Kid made The Honor Roll stickers on their cars and no one bats an eye.... but mention God and suddenly you're being a malicious jerk without the decency to respect the rights of the growing majority who don't choose to believe in anything bigger than whether or not Adam Lambert got robbed on American Idol.
If you honestly believe in nothing, why would what someone else believes even register as a blip on your radar?
Faith feels good. Despite the billions of people in this world most of us have gone through periods where we felt lonely as hell. Cut off, different, unappreciated and misunderstood...
I mean really, who hasn't had moments where it just boiled down to feeling like you were just flat out not good enough?
We all have. And if believeing in God, or trees, or crystals, or some big loving ball of energy with invisible karmic strings that somehow keep us all connected on some level makes life even a little better for someone what right would I have to try and steal this away in hopes of proving some stupid point no one but other jaded souls like myself care about?
None.
When I asked that aquaintance i mentioned why she cared so much what the bumper of some old lady driving a ten year old Lincoln said she explained to me that she's always hated "Religious Types". Why do they think they somehow have the right to tell her what to believe.
I replied, "Same reason you figure you have the right to tell them what not to believe."
She didn't have an answer that and I didn't have the time or patience to stay and chat with someone so preoccupied by other's percieved intolerance that they'd completely lost sight of how intolerant they themselves had become.
In a way I suppose that makes me intolerant, too, but I think I can live with my shortcomings in this case.
After all, I may not be as enlightened as some, but at least I have the common decency to show a little ambivilance toward things I claim mean nothing to me.
What happens when you die?
What do you think happens?
I think you go to Heaven or Hell.
Then that's what happens.
What do you think happens?
You are reincarnated into an animal.
Then that's what happens.
What do you think happens?
Nothing since my body and my mind are no more.
Then that's what happens.
Dear Laura Jayne,
Thank you for acknowledging my humble attempt. I'm so glad to see my poem posted in your front page. I'm honoured and encouraged :-)
love,
Manivannan
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