I have to state that I normally love standoffs and debates. I don't think that harmony, unity, and interfaith dialogs do any good; the only good that can come from it is a bunch of people not exactly preaching what they are supposed to preach in the name of "unity," "harmony," and "learning." What these themes mean only God knows, and what it is supposed to do remains a mystery; something like a rotten Pandora's box. And most interfaith dialogs don't go far. HECK! we are Asians and God Bless if most of them are small-town people; we'd nod at all your points and then back stab you! If you're going to do a follow-up on that, then we'd say "I have to go outstation laaaa!"
So interfaith dialogs won't go anywhere; at least for now (debates might? But probably I'd get killed for that right?...Malaysia bolllleeeeehhhh....bblllaaaahh) *to all my foreign readers, if the italicized words are to much for your comprehension, "boleh" means can and "blah" or "belah" actually means split, but for the more educated it means "get lost" with an exclamation mark (!).
But my dialog with KL centered upon the precept that I just needed to know what makes someone different from me. It was not a place where I just blindly nodded, but here's the case where in a conversation I've decided to talk to someone ordinary to get to the heart of the matter. Which hopefully, would make me a better communicator of the Christian faith.
KL, just like most of us are, a student and also works part-time at an events company. He resides somewhere in Subang, goes to college, hands up assignments, sits for exams, lepaks....the ordinary jargons we are all familiar with.
His conversion to Buddhism came about from a personal soul-searching. He went through some rough rounds in life, family issues mostly, and was momentarily staying with his godparents who are goo catholics. And with any good catholic, KL was absorbed into the catholic lifestyle. He went to mass, Sunday School, you name it. After the tough times, KL went back to his family and at the persuasion of his mother, decided to attend classes on Buddhism. He found the classes a little dull, in fact boring but what got him keen on Buddhism is it's insatiable diet for knowledge. After being spurred by a western Monk, he latched on to Buddhism because of it's philosophy and its curve for learning and knowledge.
He is currently active in a local Buddhist society; actually very active from his Facebook page that is. There he finds room to express himself in leadership and in imparting ideas. He mentioned that he even saw a transformation in the life of his mother; as she is also an active participant.
He also did not like the way certain Christians use methods to proselytize; the usual come-its-just-a-concert routine and suspects that most of the time those who respond to Christianity during those events are coerced to do so (which might be quite true la). He likes a religious belief that educates and not just rely on superficial ideas like miracles and things like that.
I find KL to be a very nice guy and this are his opinions or his opinions as per how I wrote. So I do hope I condensed KL's conversation with me well *fingers crossed* If I didn't than I bet KL would clarify it in the comments section on this blog post.
My quest for difference still continues...I think this sort of posts would color my blog for more educative purposes and hopefully with more questions to work on. As for myself, I think the journey still continues for a more comprehensive faith and to learn the dynamics of setting up a faith community; a Christian faith community that is more relevant, and way cooler too.
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