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View submission: Why Buddhism?
You don’t have to make this decision in the way you’re framing it. I still go to a Christian church because there are folks there I like and admire and want to keep knowing, and because it’s genuinely the most diverse community I’ve have access to, including a bunch of queer feminist people of faith who are actively resisting empire and participating in real community. I also go because I find the story of marginalized people struggling under imperialist rule and the character, words and actions of Jesus,m in that setting, to be a consistently deep and relevant topic to engage with.
I go to zen temple for similar reasons: because I love the people there, admire the elders, am deeply moved by the teachings and the stories, and love the overlaps with Taoist thought. There isn’t as much direct talk about patriarchy, capitalism and empire there, but I get that from my Christian community. On the flip side, the thing I don’t get from Christian community, is a clear embodied practice that has huge immediate benefits and even bigger long term ones. The way the precepts are framed is a relief coming from the super complex and often fraught morality conversations in Christianity, and they are thus easier to simply follow, the refuges are deeply moving to me, the practice of Zazen is super impactful on how calm and centered and present I am, and the chanting of sutras and bowing and refuges and oryoki eating and veneration of teachers and ancestors and everything is beautiful and balancing to me.
You don’t have to choose between these communities and practices. You can deeply value and engage in both, or if time is limited, deeply engage with Buddhism, see what you experience, and don’t worry that your abandoning something else in doing so.
There's nothing here!