If you don’t want to learn much in life, only talk to those that you agree with
I GOT BAD NEWS AND GOOD NEWS. THE BAD NEWS IS THAT THERE IS NO KEY TO HAPPINESS, THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT IT ISN’T LOCKED.
I must warn you before you read this article, that the words spoken here come from a person who is far away from being perfect, far away from being full of love, and far away from being a great Christian. This person is full of mistakes, this has been a hypocrite before, but also this person is very thankful for the ability of recognizing his flaws and trying to change them. This person when insulted, or when someone has wrongdoing on him, has also the ability of smiling and forgiving.
That person is me.
I come from the country of Costa Rica, voted as the happiest country in the world, where over 71 % of the population is Christian Roman Catholic …including myself. My home is now the United States of America which I also love, because this is where my kids and wife were born, and it opened its doors to me at the age of 18 when I left my country to attend college in South Dakota. Seems like just a day ago when I went to apply for my student visa. ” If I don’t give you the visa, I will be doing you a favor kid….South Dakota is cold” the lady at the USA embassy said.
I am a firm believer that we are a direct influence of our geography, and family when it comes to a religion, and why not say this, also politics among other things. Think about it for a second. Do we choose who our parents are ? Do we choose what country we are born ? I am pretty sure that if I was born in India, I would very likely be a Hindu, if I was born in China I would be a Buddhist, and what if I was born in a tribe in the Amazon jungle ? Who knows who I would worship.
Do I agree with everything with my religion? Absolutely not. I will be the first one to tell you that I would love to see females be included more within the catholic religion, and I would love to see the pope wear rope sandals, and drink out of a wooden chalice. I must also agree that the new pope brings hope to these thoughts in my opinion.
I have learned through out my life that religion is there to guide us, but more importantly is how we are as a person.
The spiritual part ( behavior of the person ) is like water, and religions are like Tea as the Dalai Lama says. You can’t have tea without the water. After all the general foundation of all religions is the word LOVE, and they are there to help us become a better person while increasing our faith, or are they there to cause violence, suffering, and wars ?, or are they there to prove to other religions who is right and who is wrong ? September 11, is just an of example of how religion sometimes gets hijacked for evil purposes. Makes no sense to me, but once again I don’t want to judge anyone as it would defeat the purpose of this article.
To me there is no sense on reading the bible and quoting it on social media, if you are cruel to others, or even animals.
Our actions, our behavior, and our heart are the most important reflection of truly how religious and faithful we are.
My father raised us with the profound effect of respecting other religions, even those that don’t practice a religion. We had exchange students with buddhist, jewish, catholic, southern baptist backgrounds among others while growing up.
Tolerance of other religions is key in my life. It makes me happier, and it doesn’t alienate me from learning something from religions that I don’t belong.
There are a lot of things we can learn from every religion that can make us a better person he said. He also said, that my actions are the most important thing. In my life, I have seen both, and I have been both myself: 1) A person whose actions follow the intent of my religion, and 2) A person whose actions reflect the opposite. As I said, I have been both, the #1 and the #2.
Every religion without a doubt has good and bad people. That being said, I had the opportunity to read a simple magical book a few weeks back. This book is written by a Buddhist monk by the name of Thich Nhat Hanh, and without a doubt it has become one of my favorite books ever. The book is called: Peace is every Step. Not one moment did it cross my mind not reading a book based on the fact that it was written by a person with a different religion as mine. I said it once before, and will say it again: ” If you don’t want to learn much in life, only talk to those that you agree with “.
One of my teachers said: “Simple is pretty”. The way the book is written is so simple, but it points out many of my daily struggles, and aims at the person ultimately feeling happy and full of love, for just the simple reason of…being alive. So, if I am happier, and more full of love I can definitely practice my religion better. Reading this book has enhanced my Christian faith, but also made me even more tolerant to others that I don’t agree with. The primary lesson it has taught me, is to understand, tolerate and smile even at those who aim to hurt you. It has corrected me in many erroneous ways in which I practice my daily life. It has taught me that releasing your steam as some call it, is actually rehearsing your anger.
“When we are angry , we are not usually inclined to return to ourselves. We want to think about the person who is making us angry, to think about his hateful aspects- his rudeness, dishonesty, cruelty, maliciousness, and so on. The more we think about him, listen to him, or look at him, the more our anger flares. His dishonesty and hatefulness may be real, imaginary of exaggerated, but, in fact , the root of the problem is the anger itself, and we have to come back and look first of all inside ourselves. It is best if we do not listen to or look at the person whom we consider to be the cause of our anger. Like a fireman, we have to pour water on the blaze first and not waste time looking for the one who set the house on fire. So we avoid thinking about the other person, and we refrain from doing or saying anything as long as our anger persists. If we put all our mind into observing our anger, we will avoid doing any damage that we may regret later. The primary roots of our anger are in ourselves. Our environment and other people are only secondary. When someone speaks unkindly to us, if we understand the reason and do not take his or her words to heart, we will not feel irritated at all, and no knot will be tied. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and arguments.
- Thich Nhat Hanh from the book Peace is every step
Don’t be scared of the unknown; don’t be scared of learning and reading from others who belong to a different train of thought. If you believe that reading a book by a Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim or other will shake your religious foundation, then maybe your foundation is shaky.
As I said before, I am a Christian but absolutely love the knowledge I can acquire from reading the thoughts of those who see things differently.
I am a firm believer that humans can change, and in this modern world when the road to the future in my opinion is the road of the past (less video games, less tv, less obsession with sports, playing outside with the kids, eating less processed foods, etc), I can sure extract all the positives I can take from other trains of thought. The next extract is from another author whose books I have learned to love. Once again we belong to a different religion, nationality, language , traditions, etc. The Dalai Lama from the book BEYOND RELIGION
” For example, as a Buddhist , I should strive not to develop excessive attachment toward Buddhism. For to do so would hinder my ability to see the value of other faith traditions. Furthermore, when there is an element of attachment , our affection and concern for others are often dependent on the way those others relate to us. We feel concern for those who care for us and treat us well. But when our affection is dependent on the fulfillment of our own goals and expectations, which we project onto others, it will always be very fragile. So long as the others meet our expectations, everything is fine, but as soon as they do not, our feelings of affection can easily turn to resentment and even hatred”.
- Dalai Lama
I think that where there’s tolerance, there’s happiness, where there’s happiness, there’s love, and where there’s love, there’s peace. So before you reject the option of learning from others that you don’t agree with, specially if you are a Christian like myself, ask yourself the following question: What Would Jesus do ?





















