The first religion I came into close contact with was Christianity, for no other reason than that it was my mother’s belief. Therefore, I was taken to church by my mother many times since I was a child, mostly as a child. Out of curiosity, the children learned how to sing some hymns, and even prepared some rehearsals for some programs with the adults. I remember that the program was supposed to be performed on stage during the Spring Festival, but because I personally don’t like to appear in front of too many people, I just A few days before the festival, I ran away from practice and was temporarily replaced by another child.
Later, because of my studies, I rarely went to church. Also because of the education I received in school, when my mother asked me to believe in Jesus, I would say, "Since I have chosen to go to school to study, , I am destined not to believe in those things anymore. I won’t interfere with your beliefs, but don’t ask me to believe in them either.” I rejected these words directly. I don’t know if this is right. I have also thought about it in my daily life. Is there an either-or relationship? Are they destined to be two opposite sides of a conflict? I feel that many people in the West believe in Christianity, but do their scientists really believe in Jesus Christ? Will it conflict with their own scientific research concepts? Haven't gotten an answer until now.
In fact, my attitude towards religion is that I regard it as a culture, respect it and understand it, and many of its ideas and codes of conduct are worthy of admiration, but to say that I completely believe in it (such as the existence of God), may be somewhat difficult.
The second religion I came into close contact with was Buddhism, which I came into contact with when I visited a Buddhist temple during the May Day holiday.
In fact, the first time I experienced Buddhism from around me was when there was a Baiyun Temple in our house. Every New Year’s Day, many neighbors would go to the temple. There were activities in the temple. I was curious at that time. I also wanted to go and see it, so I suggested to my mother, "Let's go to Baiyun Temple too," but my mother refused with two short words: I won't go. Also, my mother believes in Christianity and has to go to church every New Year's Day. Why would she take me to Baiyun Temple? The bud of curiosity about Buddhism in my childhood was cut off in this way.
The first time I heard about the relationship between people around me and Buddhism was when I was in college. During my junior year, I heard intermittently that a girl in our class went to a temple in Beijing to volunteer, and there was another girl who only ate vegetarian food. If they eat something meaty and oily, they must believe in Buddhism. I thought it was just a secular person’s belief in Buddhism. It wasn’t until I was chatting with my undergraduate classmates during my graduate school that I found out that one of the girls in the same dormitory had become a monk. There is almost no news about her current situation among her friends, because they heard from friends that they rarely use communication tools to contact the outside world, except for contacting their family members at fixed times. They are extremely worldly and do not even contact their family members.
There are several things I felt when I went to the Buddhist monastery this time. One is the sense of ritual. Being immersed and integrated into that sense of ritual, you will unconsciously feel a surge of excitement, such as when you see the The solemn ceremony will make the corners of your eyes wet unconsciously.
The second is the tranquility and the calmness brought by the environment. You can abandon the worries of the world and concentrate on doing something. For example, it took more than three hours to trace calligraphy with only more than 200 words. In normal times, I might not have the patience to finish it.
The third is to adjust the work and rest. After staying up all night for nearly a year, I adjusted my time to get up early during the few days on the mountain.
The last step is reflection, reflecting on the hostility and inappropriate words and deeds that should not be experienced in daily life.
Buddhism should be the most tolerant religion. I felt it from an episode when we entered the mountain. When Master took us into the mountain, he also took us to see another simple ashram. Only an old couple lived there. I thought it was also dedicated to some Buddhist god. Later, when I went in and took a closer look, I discovered that it was Taoist. There is a sense of tolerance for the world, and it will not force you to be either one or the other. Since you are here to visit my teaching, you cannot set foot in other teaching venues. They are not like this. This is a mentality that is difficult for some other religious people to have.