Present Mind

Reading List: Velvet Elvis

As a gift one Christmas a few years back my mother gave each of her kids a copy of Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. My siblings and I, all in our twenties, hadn’t been religious in years so the book sat, unread, on my bookcase. I appreciated the gift and the thought behind it, but never found the interest to read it.

When I began soliciting book requests from religious family and friends I took Velvet Elvis and put it high on my reading list.

As a re-introduction to the Christian faith, it was a much quicker read than I expected, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the time spent with it. Light on doctrine but brimming with spirit, it is a warm and welcoming invitation to a religion which can often seem rigid and close-minded.

Rob Bell, author and pastor of a young church, digs into the Bible with an eye toward the time it was written, the possible lives of the authors, and the original meanings of key words. In the process he asks more questions than he answers, but that is how he wants all Christians to behave. Always curious and challenging, never certain.

He is more than willing to discard orthodoxy when it threatens to become more important than the underlying teachings. He invites and encourages doubt and dissent. He is willing to subject his faith and holy book to the same level of scrutiny as a scientist would their greatest experiment.

An intimate student of the Bible might have found the message more of a challenge to long-running tradition, but as someone who had left much of that behind it was refreshing and exhilarating. It was the same inquisitive attitude that I appreciated when I attended the Redeemer Church, and one that I hope to continue discovering as I explore further.

Although I remain unconverted, I am thrilled to read about a pastor and church that embraces the hope, love, and passion at the heart of religion. Such aspects are often forgotten or twisted, turning off young people who yearn for them. Despite the frustration that I often feel towards religion in modern life, it is good to discover that no amount of cynicism can completely obscure it.

Reading List: Buddhism for Beginners

When telling others about this blog, and my recent interest in religion, I received a great number of book recommendations. Thanks to a few gift certificates a number of them are now speeding towards my office, but before they arrived I picked up an e-book to get a better grasp on Buddhism.

Buddhism for Beginners by Thubten Chodron stood out as an affordable and approachable introduction, and it surpassed my expectations.

Written in a conversational, question and answer format, it offers easy to digest snippets of Buddhist teachings and philosophy as they apply to everyday life. From the metaphysical to the mundane it’s discussed logically and honestly. The author doesn’t preach as much as she presents, never pressuring or speaking down to the reader, instead leaving them to decide on their own how much to take to heart.

Perhaps the best compliment I could give the author is that one of her answers would often prompt a follow-up question in my mind and it was, almost always, one of the next questions in the book. The second best would be that the discussion ended too quickly. I hope to one day be able to sit down with a Buddhist as knowledgeable as the author and pepper them with just such questions.

As an introduction to the Buddhist way of life I highly recommend this title. I have a few other books to work through before I return to learning about Buddhism, but when I do I have confidence that I’ll understand it with much more ease than before. 

Redeemer Presbyterian Church

Excluding weddings and funerals, last Sunday I went to church for the first time in over a decade.

I chose the Redeemer Presbyterian Church based on the recommendation of a poster in the religion forum thread I started. It wasn’t until later that I learned my mother belonged to the same religion, although the service I chose to attend was not her regular one.

The subways ran into delays, causing me to worry that I would show up late and stand out more. Instead I showed up just in time to join the dozens of other people entering the church, bright jazz music greeting us.

It was difficult to shake the feeling of being an outsider. Not just a non-believer, but one that was attending without any real desire or intention to convert. I was certain I stood out in some way, that I would be stopped at the door and questioned, or pointed out in the middle of the service.

Nothing of the sort happened, of course. I walked into a nearly full church, looking a bit uncertain where to sit, but as a single person I was soon ushered into an open space in the second row. Once seated the nervousness subsided, but I can’t say I felt completely comfortable.

This certainly wasn’t the fault of the church or the service. As first experiences go, it couldn’t have been better. The music, as mentioned before, was not the usual Catholic hymns I remember from my youth, but modern jazz played and sung by talented, passionate people. The room was smaller and cozier than the standard expansive church, although it retained the basic structure so there was no doubt where I was. The people were warm and friendly, especially the speakers.

I had been told about the church founder, Timothy Keller, by both the forum poster and my mother. He lived up to his reputation as an intelligent, engaging speaker. I enjoyed the investigative, questioning way he approached the Bible, puzzling out the meaning of events and scripture. I didn’t need to be a believer to agree with a lot of what he had to say, and the general spirit aligned with what I had been reading of Buddhism.

Beyond being the first time I’d attended church in a decade, it is also the first time I ever went on my own accord. Although I didn’t complain or resist (much) going as a child and teenager, it was always at someone else’s behest. This week it was completely my decision, and it was much the better for it. I was more interested and engaged, less likely to check my watch. I’ve always felt that the best way for people to find religion is on their own terms, and this has only strengthened that belief.

I also had the fortune to attend on a day that four new members were added to the church. They went up in front of the congregation and professed their beliefs. I followed along, wondering if I could see myself saying the same thing one day. So far I can’t.

As enjoyable an experience as it was I’m no closer to a conversion. I believe in the spiritual, I believe in the philosophies of love and compassion, I just fall short of believing in the Bible as truth. Still, I’m looking forward to visiting other services, and returning to Redeemer Presbyterian.

What if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today!

It was during my yearly celebration of one of the greatest comedies ever, Groundhog Day, that I found an article about how much Buddhist’s love the movie and see their philosophy underpinning the story. According to Harold Ramis, a lot of religious people see their lessons reflected in the film, but the way the article described Buddhism appealed to me.

I’ve always enjoyed the movie’s tale of self-improvement and generosity, but had never given the message much more thought than that. I was always more interested in the puzzle of how long Phil spent trapped in the same day, or what I would do with the same circumstances.

One of Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths, as briefly described in the article, stuck with me: Suffering arises from attachment to desire. It’s only when Phil Connors stops living exclusively for his own gain and helps others that he improves as a person and becomes truly content. It’s certainly not a philosophy that’s exclusive to Buddhism, but the phrasing piqued my interest and I had to learn more.

So I was inspired to pick up a book on Buddhism, and have been reading it for the past week. It’s already helped change my outlook and I feel better than I have in a long time.

There must be odder prophets than Bill Murray, but I’ve yet to hear of one.

Pulling a thread

One of the first things I did in the spirit of religious exploration was to start a thread on the topic on a forum that I frequent. Although it’s a gaming forum its members post on a number of topics, including an often-heated Politics and Religion board. Threads that touch on religion often end up falling into the well-worn Atheists/Theists arguments and I was hoping to avoid that.

I opened the thread with much of the text from the first post on this blog, and a call for others to post their stories of religious discovery or disillusionment while remaining respectful. I wasn’t certain how it would turn out.

The results have been much better than I ever expected. Forum members posted dozens of very personal stories, sharing with a mix of friends and near-strangers. I learned surprising things about people that I didn’t expect. It’s easy to assume that people who share your interests and opinions would share other similarities, so it was eye-opening to see people I assumed were atheist or at least agnostic turn out to be deeply religious.

The thread did slip a few times into heated debate, but after tempers cooled it has continued as a place where people from various different religions, and those with no religion, can ask questions and discuss the intricacies of their beliefs.

A single step

Recently I’ve become much more interested in the topic of religion and seeing how the various theologies and philosphies impress upon my mind. I have numerous activities planned that I believe will provide many opportunities for reflection, and I will be sharing them here.

I was raised Catholic, but it was never oppressive. My parents had me baptized, took me to my first communion, sent me to bible classes on weekends, but we only went to church on holidays. I was even confirmed in my teens, but this was mainly as a favor to my paternal grandparents. I was very close to them growing up and they were the ones that took me and my siblings to Sunday mass or confession whenever we would stay over their home for the weekend.

I never really believed any of it as far back as I can remember, though I respected my grandparents enough to not make a fuss about going to church.

Today I would consider myself “spiritual but not religious.” At least that’s what I choose on surveys. I believe there is something to consciousness beyond merely the physical firing of neurons, but I don’t think any particular religion actually knows the full truth about it. I just know that while I understand the psychology, biology, and physics behind sensations and emotions, I don’t see a scientific answer for the self that experiences them. Call it a soul, spirit, or what have you, I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something more to life than just the physical.

While I cannot see myself signing on to strictly one religion, there are a number that interest me, more for the possibilities they present about the soul and how it can be explored than for the various rules and historical beliefs. Religious philosophy more than scripture. I’ve been thinking about exploring Eastern religions like Buddhism more, for those very reasons.

Since beginning to reflect more on religion it has already begun to have an effect on me, and I look forward to learning more, and posting about it. More to come.