My thoughts and experiences continue to draw me towards something ‘broader,’ and the more introspective time I spend contemplating and ’soul searching,’ the more I find validation. Yet the skeptic in me is wary of adopting any beliefs without confidence that I’m not being naïve, gullible or adopting mythology as truth. If I wanted to do that, I would have joined the LDS church in 1997.
Just as one of several current examples, my pursuing the acceptance of the Buddhist precepts requires a modest degree of concession or adaptation on my part to rituals and behaviors that I don’t innately embrace or feel are necessary, as the tenants are not ceremonial, they are behavioral. This resistance is based on existing and conflicting beliefs (and fears) that I would have to relinquish, which is a challenge in itself. Even if these existing and conflicting beliefs might be absurdly limiting and rote. Like insisting that there’s nothing ‘else’ going on beyond what we consciously perceive and interpret with our limited senses and inherent cultural biases. And ignorance.
This is where a balance of personal experience and their attribution to something “greater” than the limited knowledge we can validate scientifically comes into play.
I’m eager to explore it all. But with an aggressively and consistently open mind and heart, seeking balance and harmony between the two.