Post by arden on Jan 26, 2017 6:40:00 GMT
I'm not sure where I should post this. Please let me know if this is wrong and I'll take it down.
I'm not currently Sikh. I wish to learn more about it and I feel I've only just got started. I've seen many wonderful acts by Sikh people on news media recently, handing out food at the protests and refusing to differentiate themselves from Muslims in America even at personal risk, encouraging others to lead with love and not judging anyone for their race, gender, religion or circumstances. The only Sikh I've ever met in person was also one of the warmest, kindest and most honest and open people I have ever met. I badly want to be like that.
I want to give up lust, anger, greed, attachment and ego. I want to meditate on the complexity of the universe every morning and evening in search of truth and peace. I want to live a pure, celibate, vegan life, help others, try to make the world better, and find someone with whom I can share my life and become one with. In short, I think I want to become Sikh.
But there is one point, and it's the most important one, that is hard for me. I have never, from the time I was a child, been able to believe in God. I tried, if only to be like my parents who do, but the idea that there is a man in the sky who decides on a whim how the wind will blow seems too hard for me to believe. As someone who is genderqueer and pansexual, my only experience with God has been one of fear, hate, rejection and division. I see people - though in fairness, not Sikh people - hate and tear each other apart over who is right and what God's will dictates about how people should live.
I believe in oneness of all beings in the universe. I believe we are all connected by suffering, the limitations of mortality, as well as the capacity for love and compassion. I also believe that divisions of time, space and species are arbitrary human constructions and are not as real as they seem to us. I think I even believe in the concept of a soul, karma and reincarnation. But the idea that there is no chance, no free will, nothing from cancer to war is meaningless, that everything is and always has been decided by a certain omnipotent person who has a plan for us and does not share it, as if we are actors in a play for his amusement, is too much. It seems cruel. I don't want to believe it, even if I could.
If there is such a god, I don't understand why I should worship him, or how that would bring me any peace. Is it possible God is something different than I understand him to be? Guru Granth Sahib Ji said that God is formless, has no gender or appearance, is present in all things and cannot be fully understood by mortal minds. Isn't that right? In that case, is it possible that there is not so much difference between Buddhist nonduality, appreciation of nature and God in Sikhism?
I'm sorry if this discussion is offensive. I'm tormented by these questions and don't know who to ask. I love you all for your caring and bravery and wish you the best.
Arden
I'm not currently Sikh. I wish to learn more about it and I feel I've only just got started. I've seen many wonderful acts by Sikh people on news media recently, handing out food at the protests and refusing to differentiate themselves from Muslims in America even at personal risk, encouraging others to lead with love and not judging anyone for their race, gender, religion or circumstances. The only Sikh I've ever met in person was also one of the warmest, kindest and most honest and open people I have ever met. I badly want to be like that.
I want to give up lust, anger, greed, attachment and ego. I want to meditate on the complexity of the universe every morning and evening in search of truth and peace. I want to live a pure, celibate, vegan life, help others, try to make the world better, and find someone with whom I can share my life and become one with. In short, I think I want to become Sikh.
But there is one point, and it's the most important one, that is hard for me. I have never, from the time I was a child, been able to believe in God. I tried, if only to be like my parents who do, but the idea that there is a man in the sky who decides on a whim how the wind will blow seems too hard for me to believe. As someone who is genderqueer and pansexual, my only experience with God has been one of fear, hate, rejection and division. I see people - though in fairness, not Sikh people - hate and tear each other apart over who is right and what God's will dictates about how people should live.
I believe in oneness of all beings in the universe. I believe we are all connected by suffering, the limitations of mortality, as well as the capacity for love and compassion. I also believe that divisions of time, space and species are arbitrary human constructions and are not as real as they seem to us. I think I even believe in the concept of a soul, karma and reincarnation. But the idea that there is no chance, no free will, nothing from cancer to war is meaningless, that everything is and always has been decided by a certain omnipotent person who has a plan for us and does not share it, as if we are actors in a play for his amusement, is too much. It seems cruel. I don't want to believe it, even if I could.
If there is such a god, I don't understand why I should worship him, or how that would bring me any peace. Is it possible God is something different than I understand him to be? Guru Granth Sahib Ji said that God is formless, has no gender or appearance, is present in all things and cannot be fully understood by mortal minds. Isn't that right? In that case, is it possible that there is not so much difference between Buddhist nonduality, appreciation of nature and God in Sikhism?
I'm sorry if this discussion is offensive. I'm tormented by these questions and don't know who to ask. I love you all for your caring and bravery and wish you the best.
Arden