"Got ricer...."? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfr2LtKe5cg]

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The song linked in my title, my biological brother showed me on YouTube before that has a lot of profanity and course language in it and has the repeating lyric "got rice" in it and I thought about this song for various reasons but the primary reason is I have been reflecting on the topic of Buddhism in the last couple of hours.

I have discerned that one of the major contributors as to why my biological mother is against me going to church and my decision to re-enrol in seminary has to do with what she calls "history repeating itself" and this in itself is somewhat a Buddhist concept.  Possibly, even though she herself is atheist, she was raised with this mentality that things in life can only go bad and perhaps "bad again".  It goes back to the history of the original truths of that religion not just in the whole 'reincarnation cycle' concept but also that life is nothing but misery and suffering. At least their faith is somewhat right about that ladder part, most people will tell you that life does contain a degree of misery and suffering.  However, as I have been saying in a recent entry, the beauty of the cross is that Christ already died to end our suffering so we don't have to earn it with mediating or other 'good works' in hope to earn enough merit or 'peace of mind' to achieve 'nirvana' which is supposed an end to our suffering.  I find the biggest 'challenge' when it comes to the Buddhist concept of Nirvana is how does one know when they have achieved it or not?  My father once told me that he only found "peace" through Buddhism and seemed to imply he wasn't able to do so with Christianity.  I learned from a family friend of my friend who recently passed away that it does seem possible to achieve peace with a Christian faith and she attested that he always seemed to have it.  However, she did not nor did my friend really disclose the 'secrets', if any as to how he overcame them. Personally, I also knew my friend at times did wish certain aspects of his life, such as his work were different.

I feel life is always going to be difficult or maybe the better word is "challenging" but the bible verse I find to be most reassuring is:

29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” [Matthew 11:29-30]

Particularly the last verse, verse 30.  Sometimes I feel people, particularly those who maybe don't understand  the agricultural analogy can potentially misinterpret this verse to think that God will "make life easy" or something along the lines of "your life will magically become better when you're a Christian".  I feel, my dad probably had this kind of thinking towards Religion in general which was why he claimed to have gone over to Buddhism later on in life. He had told me things like: "I used to believe in such things when I was your age..." "Only with Buddhism could I find peace..."




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