Let me ask you why do you think it is foreign? If you see on tv, people in Pakistan or Vanuatu do you feel they are foreign? I do not. Every nation and culture is different but every book I have read and every movie I have seen has shown me how humans are ultimately the same everywhere. I am often struck when watching American tv shows, how similar the lives of people who live 12,000 miles apart are .. how similar our predicaments, how alike our joys and sorrows (particularly This Is Us and The Wonder Years .. because these shows have three brothers and sisters like my own family .. and how tense and fragile the relationship between three adult siblings is .. exactly same in USA as in India)binocular wrote: ↑Sat Jan 13, 2018 9:37 pmI'm not complaining, nor expressing dissatisfaction, I'm saying that the Asian elements and references in Buddhism are foreign to me. Foreign to the point that it sometimes makes me think that I would do better to stay away from Buddhism altogether, rather than be a (European, white, female) impostor.
And you don't feel like an impostor in Christianity? How come? Why do you think that Christ somehow cares about you?I have never seen any of it as an obstacle in coming closer to Christ. I pray to him daily .. which is as far as I know more than what most Europeans do .. but I have never expressed any dissatisfaction that he was not an Indian/Asian.
(Even I think that I would be an impostor to Christianity, if I were to approach it.)
Why do you keep repeating the descriptors single, white, female .. why put yourself into a set of boxes?
I do not feel an imposter to Christianity. See, I am not trying to prove anything to Christians .. I am only trying to follow Christ's teachings to the best of my ability (with lots of slip ups along the way). When I am in a church I do not worry if I seem as Christian as possible. I concentrate on the message.
I do not know if Christ cares for me .. all I know is that he was a self-actualized person who taught us how to be a better human being and I like to read his teachings.