I think it's nigh impossible to 'try' other religions and do them justice. Minimum 20 years. If it's a matter of deciding what you want to 'look' at, then that's another matter. Looking at the mountain is much different than climbing it.
Is it right to "try" other religions?
- Thread starter poolking
- Start date
You're right Senthil. It's taken me more than 20 years just to get the gist of Hinduism and I've barely scratched the surface.
It may take 20 years to scratch the surface of a religion...but attending services of many only a few times may indicate what 'isn't' for you...
http://www.religionnews.com/2012/04/13/n-c-man-spends-12-months-in-12-faiths/
http://www.religionnews.com/2012/04/13/n-c-man-spends-12-months-in-12-faiths/
of course we've (humans) have been known to return to that which we rejected decades prior...
BigJoeNobody
Professional Argument Attractor
I still wonder how one "tries" a religion. A religion revolves around beliefs. Sure you can try to practice the way a religion does, but none of that will mean anything if the belief isn't there. I would suggest anyone trying to "try out" a religion spend some time learning what the beliefs are and why people who believe it do so (proofs if you will). Then research what people have to naysay it, and research those points. Whatever you find to be the truth you should follow.
that is exactly what 'trying' is....investigating the beliefs, scripture, traditions, dogma....and the other believers...
One of the reasons I recommend people interested in my faith go to a Hindu temple (I mean a big fully operating one with 300 people at it) is to cut to the chase. Many read philosophy for several years, afraid of being noticed going to a Hindu temple. Then they quickly discover they don't like it. What a waste of time that was.
In a similar vein, first year teachers (and probably other professions) should spend considerable time in a classroom observing and helping rather than taking the theory at university. There is nothing more disheartening to put 4 years of your life into something, only to discover you're not cut out for it.
In a similar vein, first year teachers (and probably other professions) should spend considerable time in a classroom observing and helping rather than taking the theory at university. There is nothing more disheartening to put 4 years of your life into something, only to discover you're not cut out for it.
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I think by both reading up on a faith and experiencing its rituals and visiting its holy places is the only way you can "try" a religion in a more complete fashion. I agree with Senthil's point in #29 that reading up on philosophy in isolation can leave you ill-prepared for the realities of the actual faith, just as I've found only hanging out with people of a particular faith is an unsatisfactory way to grasp the nuances of their belief system. I haven't thought about a time frame for such activities though and how long it would take to constitute having "tried" a certain faith to a finality. I would think it depends on the belief structure and exposure levels.
Craz
Well-Known Member
Have you read about Ramakrishna?
He tried other religions and found they all lead to the same place.
The problem with the Ramakrishna analogy is that he started looking at religions already from the mountaintop perspective. He was a self-realised being, got that self-realisation from Hinduism, and only then did he 'research' other religions. It's like a trained doctor in one country moving to another country, doing a 3 week course, and getting his medical license for the new country. So Ramakrishna didn't start from the bottom of each religion, learn it from scratch, and practice it.
I'm sure everything looks pretty good from up there. Wish I was there too, but I'm not. The religions look different from down here.
I'm sure everything looks pretty good from up there. Wish I was there too, but I'm not. The religions look different from down here.
Craz
Well-Known Member
Well,the example of RK may be an 'outlier', but is an example of what is possible.
I think he found that, from in his own experience, practising a path, single-mindedly and with complete sincerity has lead him to the same result.
I don't know of anyone who's come to a faith position by 'trying it out', but it seems an unlikely process to me.
For the seeker, I suppose the first step is study, and then 'the rubber hits the road' when one throws oneself into the way of the tradition in question, as Senthil and others have said. There was a famous Zen master who would lecture for no more than 10 minutes at at time, then end with 'enough talk, let's sit.' One might embrace the philosophy, but zazen is a whole other thing.
On the other hand, I've read of plenty of occasions when the seeker, and even the non-seeker, found his calling, as it were, in a moment.
Cardinal Avery Dulles, for example, had his 'Damascus moment' watching a rose bloom through a window when he should have been studying at university. The author of 'Meditations on the Tarot' (the handbook of Christian Hermeticism) was in line to succeed Rudolf Steiner as the head of the Anthroposophical Society, but was converted to Catholicism when his moment came as he was looking at the stained glass windows in Chartres Cathedral. Archbishop Kalistos Ware, author of perhaps the most accessible book on Eastern Orthodoxy, had his moment when he heard the Divine Liturgy being sung whilst walking passed a church when he was a student at Oxford.
My mother knew the agnostic husband of a Catholic friend of hers who for many years accompanied his wife to Mass, but would sit at the back of the church and speak freely of his agnosticism. When he announced his conversion, she asked him what happened, but he could only shrug. It just did. He couldn't explain it.
Then again, I heard of one of the world's leading authorities on the philosophical method of St Thomas Aquinas was agnostic. There's a big step between seeing the argument, and embracing it.
C.S. Lewis, a famous Christian apologist, was one of those who saw the New Testament as essentially a mythical text, but had his moment when a friend and fellow student said, 'But what if it's not?' He went on to become a well-respected lay theologian, and his essay Fern-seeds and Elephants is a recognised critique of the short-comings of Biblical Criticism and theological intellectualism.
The friend, by the way, was J.R.R. Tolkien, who was happy at his friend's conversion, but sad it was to the Anglican Communion, not his own Catholicism. The Lord of the Rings was in some part inspired by Tolkien's desire to create a Christian mythology, and of course Lewis did the same with The Chronicles of Narnia. In their own way perhaps the most significant contributions to the field since the Arthurian Legends and, of course, Dante.
I'm not saying it doesn't happen, just I don't know of any examples ...
Attending the rites or liturgies is, perhaps, the hardest test of all. We are so quick to judge, and when everything seems to strange, even alien, even ridiculous, then the outcome is hardly likely to be positive. Tribalism, I'm told, is wired into the fabric of our being. I know I've attended Greek Orthodox liturgies and been a complete outsider ... again, find an 'intellectual' communion at a university or in one of the 'better' neighbourhoods and you're probably more likely to feel welcomed, but a local congregation can be testing. I often joke that I never became Orthodox because I can't grow a strong beard! But the other contributing factor is, I'm not Greek.
My brother in law went and lived in Japan to study kendo. He used to train at the Tokyo University dojo, where he was welcomed as a foreigner coming to study an ancient tradition. He also went along to a kendo club in the docks at Yokohama, where, for a while, they thought it really funny that a round-eye reckoned he could be any good at kendo, and they beat the living crap out of him. Then, when he kept coming back, they took to him as one of their own. Then, when they realised he was actually getting quite good, they trained him as hard as they could. He went on to be the first Brit to reach the final of the All-Japan Kendo Championships, losing on a split decision. His Tokyo student friends were delighted. His Yokohama docker pals went wild. (He was told later that there was no way in the world that the final, resting on a split decision, was going to a foreigner.)
It's a tough road.
For the seeker, I suppose the first step is study, and then 'the rubber hits the road' when one throws oneself into the way of the tradition in question, as Senthil and others have said. There was a famous Zen master who would lecture for no more than 10 minutes at at time, then end with 'enough talk, let's sit.' One might embrace the philosophy, but zazen is a whole other thing.
On the other hand, I've read of plenty of occasions when the seeker, and even the non-seeker, found his calling, as it were, in a moment.
Cardinal Avery Dulles, for example, had his 'Damascus moment' watching a rose bloom through a window when he should have been studying at university. The author of 'Meditations on the Tarot' (the handbook of Christian Hermeticism) was in line to succeed Rudolf Steiner as the head of the Anthroposophical Society, but was converted to Catholicism when his moment came as he was looking at the stained glass windows in Chartres Cathedral. Archbishop Kalistos Ware, author of perhaps the most accessible book on Eastern Orthodoxy, had his moment when he heard the Divine Liturgy being sung whilst walking passed a church when he was a student at Oxford.
My mother knew the agnostic husband of a Catholic friend of hers who for many years accompanied his wife to Mass, but would sit at the back of the church and speak freely of his agnosticism. When he announced his conversion, she asked him what happened, but he could only shrug. It just did. He couldn't explain it.
Then again, I heard of one of the world's leading authorities on the philosophical method of St Thomas Aquinas was agnostic. There's a big step between seeing the argument, and embracing it.
C.S. Lewis, a famous Christian apologist, was one of those who saw the New Testament as essentially a mythical text, but had his moment when a friend and fellow student said, 'But what if it's not?' He went on to become a well-respected lay theologian, and his essay Fern-seeds and Elephants is a recognised critique of the short-comings of Biblical Criticism and theological intellectualism.
The friend, by the way, was J.R.R. Tolkien, who was happy at his friend's conversion, but sad it was to the Anglican Communion, not his own Catholicism. The Lord of the Rings was in some part inspired by Tolkien's desire to create a Christian mythology, and of course Lewis did the same with The Chronicles of Narnia. In their own way perhaps the most significant contributions to the field since the Arthurian Legends and, of course, Dante.
I'm not saying it doesn't happen, just I don't know of any examples ...
Attending the rites or liturgies is, perhaps, the hardest test of all. We are so quick to judge, and when everything seems to strange, even alien, even ridiculous, then the outcome is hardly likely to be positive. Tribalism, I'm told, is wired into the fabric of our being. I know I've attended Greek Orthodox liturgies and been a complete outsider ... again, find an 'intellectual' communion at a university or in one of the 'better' neighbourhoods and you're probably more likely to feel welcomed, but a local congregation can be testing. I often joke that I never became Orthodox because I can't grow a strong beard! But the other contributing factor is, I'm not Greek.
My brother in law went and lived in Japan to study kendo. He used to train at the Tokyo University dojo, where he was welcomed as a foreigner coming to study an ancient tradition. He also went along to a kendo club in the docks at Yokohama, where, for a while, they thought it really funny that a round-eye reckoned he could be any good at kendo, and they beat the living crap out of him. Then, when he kept coming back, they took to him as one of their own. Then, when they realised he was actually getting quite good, they trained him as hard as they could. He went on to be the first Brit to reach the final of the All-Japan Kendo Championships, losing on a split decision. His Tokyo student friends were delighted. His Yokohama docker pals went wild. (He was told later that there was no way in the world that the final, resting on a split decision, was going to a foreigner.)
It's a tough road.
I suppose that approach could work as long as it were understood that it is not the only way to practice Hinduism, but to me it's a little like jumping into the ocean before learning to swim. If I were contemplating another religion, I'd start with the basics and work from there.
We all have friends of various religions....isn't hard to ask about their beliefs, ask if we can attend temple/synagogue church... over the years I've attended various weddings, bar/batmitzvahs, baby namings, christenings, baptisms, etc... and then gone with the friends/families for regular services...
While it hasn't lead me to other beliefs....it has increased my respect for other beliefs...and my ability to observe rather than let the skeptic consciousness rant on....
While it hasn't lead me to other beliefs....it has increased my respect for other beliefs...and my ability to observe rather than let the skeptic consciousness rant on....
S
Shibolet
Guest
Hence, I would advise you to try it.
With all due respect, going to a Hindu temple IS extremely basic. When Christians evangelise, one of the basic things they say is "Come to Church."
But I do understand how people coming from a POV outside of Hinduism would see it as 'advanced'. That's because several (mostly the 3 large Abrahamic ones) of the world's faiths put a very heavy emphasis on scripture. So the first steps are to become acquainted with scripture. Then they project that idea onto other faiths, including Hinduism. And of course it doesn't work, because Hinduism isn't a scripture dominated religion, but an experience one. I can't imagine how that would go projecting onto faiths that have little or no scripture.
Most of my friends (and me too) have very little knowledge of scripture. But we all go to temple regularly.
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That whole story about Ramakrishna is debated. http://koenraadelst.blogspot.ca/2013/08/did-ramakrishna-practice-other-religions.html It's long been retold by universalists looking for a way to defend their basic assumption. Personally, I figure it is either totally exaggerated or outright myth.
I'd say that is common with many religions... You say you have little knowledge of scripture... were you raised with your mother and grandmother telling you stories of oral traditions?
Going to temple... every trip I've made has been incredibly interesting... you've made me want to put one on the calendar soon.