With Buddhism, there's the notion that it's simply a way of thinking about the universe or life: karma, reincarnation, nirvana. No soul, no gods, nothing outside the self. Then there's the Buddhism where the original Buddha is venerated as a god, and Buddhist pray to him to change their negative karma to positive karma so they come back as something better than what they are now. Priests and other Buddhist clergy talking about coming back as cockroaches if the lay believers don't do certain things.
My mother grew up in Thailand, where Buddhism is the state religion. That Buddhism was practiced by her until we were stationed on Okinawa (my father was in the US Air Force). There, she was introduced to a Japanese Buddhism called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichiren_Buddhism>Nichiren Buddhism</a>. It looks and feels a lot like Shinto stuff. It also reminds me a lot of the American fire and brimstone evangelical Christianity wherein you're always threatened with dire consequences for not chanting enough, praying enough, or being fearful enough.
When I turned 18, I left my family and joined the Marine Corps. Religion doesn't really figure much even though there are lots of religious people in the military. It's a private thing and most people respect that.
So I never received my own gohonzon or kept chanting namu-myoho-renge-kyo. The feelings of guilt, if that's the right word, certainly dissipate over time. My mother still practices but I have no desire to discuss it any further with her.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-09-18 11:07 pm (UTC)My mother grew up in Thailand, where Buddhism is the state religion. That Buddhism was practiced by her until we were stationed on Okinawa (my father was in the US Air Force). There, she was introduced to a Japanese Buddhism called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichiren_Buddhism>Nichiren Buddhism</a>. It looks and feels a lot like Shinto stuff. It also reminds me a lot of the American fire and brimstone evangelical Christianity wherein you're always threatened with dire consequences for not chanting enough, praying enough, or being fearful enough. When I turned 18, I left my family and joined the Marine Corps. Religion doesn't really figure much even though there are lots of religious people in the military. It's a private thing and most people respect that. So I never received my own gohonzon or kept chanting namu-myoho-renge-kyo. The feelings of guilt, if that's the right word, certainly dissipate over time. My mother still practices but I have no desire to discuss it any further with her.