Dear janssen:

I am not religious. I do not believe in god. I do not believe in the bible.

And I am not a Buddhist. (no group affiliations for me, thank you but no thank you!)

I believe in some principles of Buddhism to be true: to be AWAKE (I think the story goes that the Buddha was asked if he was god and his answer was: no, I am awake!)

I believe in seeing what is, the bare minimum of what is, after peeling off inaccurate projections, assumptions, social conventions. I believe in looking at things with a Beginner’s Mind, as if from the beginning, like a child.

And I believe in Mindfulness, paying attention to so much that we ignore. In us, in others.

I believe there is a lot that I don’t know and will never know. I will not “make up” what I don’t know just to feel safer.

I believe every one of us has to live with fear. Fear cannot be eliminated.

I believe that there is more and more to see, and the more i see, the more there is to see.

anita

Hi Janssen,
Guilt is a mind-made concept. Your mind has a few tools in its arsenal, like fear, comparison, etc., and guilt is another one of those that makes you worry about “being a traitor” to your own religion. In reality, a religion’s job is just to put you on the path to freedom – you shouldn’t feel trapped by it! So if you’re resonating with Buddhism (or any -ism) that doesn’t make you feel trapped, but instead makes you feel free, that’s a good thing! And you don’t really have to convert to become a Buddhist – you just have to be open to who you really are, that’s all!