- Jan 6, 2009
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There's a reason I'm a Buddhist and you are not. The Buddha's teachings make complete sense to me. They totally baffle you. Christ's message makes you happy. Enjoy.
It has nothing to do with religion one way or the other. I could just never relate to calling my father's passing fortunate under such circumstances, that would be a totally foreign concept to me. I can see where some may see it that way if they felt that the person who passed would no longer suffer, but I could never see it as being fortunate, that's all.
Suicide is a tragedy. Tragedy can turn into fortune. There waa NOTHING in the Catholic teachings that I was raised in that prepared me to deal with my father's suicide. My father's death was a turning point in my life. One year later I went to my first ten day silent meditation retreat.
Buddhism had the answers I was seeking.
I wasn't critisizing or questioning your experiences with your father's suicide, Sky. I was simply saying that I cannot relate to your feelings or your outlook on it, that's all. Good things can come from bad experiences all the time, and it's great whenever that happens, I guess I just never looked at the bad things as fortunate before, even though they may have resulted in something positive happening. In my outlook, the good things could have just as easily happened without the bad, so I don't give meaning to something bad happening. Our backgrounds and expereinces are obviously very different, so we see things in different ways. We all do what we must in order to survive, make sense of things and get by.