Interview For Someone of Another Faith
Azula
New
Hello, my name is Kelly and I've been a taking a class on World Religions. An assignment we've been given is to interview someone of another faith, different from my own and not one I've been raised in. I was raised as a Roman Catholic but my beliefs have changed to probably athiestic is the best way to describe it. After learning about the basics of Buddhism from my class and from my brother, who has been on this forum as Captain America, the concept of Buddhism intrigued me, as there is no belief of a creator God and focuses on what you, as a person should do and can do to prevent suffering. So, I was wondering if someone would maybe want to answer these interview questions, as well as to help me get a better understanding of Buddhism. I know there are different groups of thought on Buddhism, but I didn't really get into the differences between them. Really, any one would do to answer the questions.
Interview Questions:
1) Do you practice religion?
a. If so, which one?
2) For Believers:
a. What does your religion do for you?
b. What do you think it means to be a follower of _________? (Fill in the appropriate religion for yourself or your interviewee. For example: If you are a Muslim, you would answer this question – What do you think it means to be a Muslim?) c. What is the single most important aspect of your religion to you, and why? d. How did you come to be a believer of your religion? Were you raised in this tradition or did you seek it out yourself? Would you consider converting to another religion? e. What is your concept of god? f. How do you determine right from wrong? The dictums of a religion or another source? g. Do you believe life has a purpose? What is it? h. Are you spiritual? Is there something you think/feel connects you with the rest of humanity and other living things?
3) For Nonbelievers:
a. What does the term religion mean to you?
b. What do you think it means to be an atheist/agnostic/nonbeliever? (Fill in the appropriate term for yourself or your interviewee. For example: if you are an atheist, you would answer this question – What do you think it means to be an atheist?) c. How did you come to be a nonbeliever/atheist/agnostic? Were you raised in a religious tradition? Would you consider joining a religious tradition? d. Are you spiritual? Is there something you think/feel connects you with the rest of humanity and other living things? e. Do you have a concept of god? f. Do you believe life has a purpose? What is it? g. How do you determine right from wrong?
4) Question(s) that you create.
I am not entirely sure which one Buddhism would fall under, but I think it may be believers, since nonbelivers seems to only be for hard agnostics and atheists. And one question I had personally is this:
Since Buddhism teaches one to not worry about the future, and not dwell on the past, because it causes suffering, it tells one to focus on the present and only the present. So what do you do about things like deadlines and papers and things that must be done by a certain date in the future? Thinking about that can cause a person to worry, which, again, is suffering, so how do you deal with something like that? Do you just get whatever it is done and out of the way first thing? Or end up worrying anyway until you actually finish it?
Thank you 
Comments
It is hard for me to answer the questions in their format with having to scroll right and left. Otherwise I would be happy to answer. Can you cut and paste and format your text within the post?
1) Do you practice religion? a. If so, which one? 2) For Believers: a. What does your religion do for you?
Yes. Buddhism. My religion is something to investigate. It has helped me view the world from a vantage point that each day I feel on the right path. Meditation is something to investigate and it is even more transformative of the mind than exercise is (for me). Exercise is good too. They say letting go leads to happiness. I want to find out if that is true for me.
b. What do you think it means to be a follower of _________? (Fill in the appropriate religion for yourself or your interviewee. For example: If you are a Muslim, you would answer this question – What do you think it means to be a Muslim?)
Buddhist. It means you are trying to find the teachings and ways of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
c. What is the single most important aspect of your religion to you, and why?
My guru for her vision and compassion. I want to follow her teachings and become a better person. Past that it is said that there are even more realizations than just trying to improve. There is also a pointing out instruction from the guru to overcome claustrophobia caused by wrong thinking. That is like letting go of ego: me, mine, and myself. We get defensive because of our ignorance and claustrophobia/fears. How can we be happy if we are defensive and not letting things be?
d. How did you come to be a believer of your religion? Were you raised in this tradition or did you seek it out yourself? Would you consider converting to another religion?
I tried meditation when I had a nervous breakdown and it was a comfort. I was not raised Buddhist. I would be curious to learn about Christianity because you can bond with more people as there are hardly any Buddhists where I live.
e. What is your concept of god?
I don't know. I am agnostic and I hope there is a loving God. If he/she is a creator I want to know why the world is so much suffering.
f. How do you determine right from wrong? The dictums of a religion or another source?
I use my conscience together with trying not to do anyone any harm. That is called ahimsa in Buddhism. But we are all learning so we make mistakes.
g. Do you believe life has a purpose? What is it?
The earth is good. The purpose is for self and others to be happy.
h. Are you spiritual? Is there something you think/feel connects you with the rest of humanity
Yes I am spiritual. The desire for love and happiness is linking me to humanity. We all wish for it I think.
@Azula
a) Soto Zen Buddhism/ Lessens sufferings cause.
b) Buddha/ Taking refuge in what he offered, his teaching and those who also take such refuges.
c) truth..... because our own conditioning makes it such a scarce commodity.
d ) Discovered meditation/ sought it out myself/ No.
e) That such a possibility can not be actually be contained by a concept.
f) If it is ceasing from evil, doing only good and purifying ones heart=mind.
g) to bring resolution to the ignorance that brought us into existence.
h) Yes/love/
Good luck and I hope these studies bring you peace and liberation.
1) a. Yes. Buddhism.
2) a. It helps me be more accepting of life, and helps me deal with causes of suffering. It brings me peace.
b. Being a Buddhist means that one puts their faith in the teachings of the Buddha, the truth of the Dhamma, and the community and support found in the sangha. It also means practicing the Eightfold Path.
c. Meditation. It has changed my life in many positive ways, and is the practice that the Buddha recommends in order to cease suffering.
d. I suffered from Social Anxiety Disorder, and (unknown to me at the time), part of my therapy involved mindfulness exercises. Later in life, I felt the urge to become more spiritual, and read Huston Smith's "The World's Religions." His vivid description of Buddhism got me hooked, and I sought out more information and tried to practice right away.
I don't know of any other religion that I would convert to.
e. I'm agnostic. I don't know if a god exists, but if one does exist, I don't necessarily see them as loving or one that intercedes in our daily lives. Perhaps god set off creation, then sat back and watched. I believe this is called Deism?
f. I seek to do the least harm to all living beings, and to avoid causing unneeded suffering. The Eightfold Path is a good basis for this, but my own conscience does a lot of work too.
g. We make our own purpose in life.
h. Yes I am spiritual. I believe that all beings want to be happy and free from suffering.
I like to think I practice Buddhism, although sometimes I practice more diligently than others.
To me, it means means taking the Buddha, his teachings (Dhamma), and those who have 'practiced well' (Sangha) as guides, and making an internal commitment to put the teachings themselves into practice based on AN 8.25.
It practicality.
I suppose you could say I'm a convert. The short version: I was curious about meditation and wandered into a Thai Theravada temple that was near my house. Have been hooked ever since.
The long version: My first inkling that Theravada Buddhism was right for me was, and that it contained within it existential truths about life, was while reading Food for the Heart: The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah. The more I read and thought about life, about how each living being is subject to aging, illness, and death, and about how much we, as human beings, suffer mentally, the more I became interested in learning more about the Buddha's teachings, which promised to help put an end to suffering.
I found the teachings themselves both rational and empirical in nature. The Buddha isn't talking about anything beyond empirical observations (although some things do stem from extrasensory perception) and divisions of experience that are utilized to eliminate suffering in the mind; and the noble eightfold path doesn't rely or depend upon things I can't easily experience for myself or intellectually grasp on my own. Even its ethical structure is based on the perceived cause and effect relationship between our actions (kamma) and how they're experienced (kammavipaka). The methodology is pretty straightforward.
I spent a lot of time visiting a Thai Theravada temple near my house and meditating, especially during some really difficult times; and I had a feeling that this path had more potential for my spiritual growth and well-being than any I'd previously undertaken. I even quit my job at one point to spent some time living at a Buddhist monastery in Perry, MI.
Over the past decade, my study and practice has helped me in a number of ways, mainly by helping me to better deal with a range of emotional issues that have plagued me since adolescence, particularly depression and violent, angry outbursts, neither of which were abated by medication or pleas to the unknown that's labelled God. While progress has been relatively slow, there's been definite improvements over the years that have been noticeable not only to myself, but to friends and family as well. Much of this is thanks to following the Buddha's advice to his son, Rahula, in MN 61, observing the five precepts, and practicing mindfulness.
That's not an easy question to answer. Sometimes, I find myself leaning towards the idea of God as type of meme, an idea that's passed on from individual to individual, generation to generation, as a way to help give meaning to life, inoculate us against the fear of death, and explain why there's something instead of nothing (i.e., a type of useful fiction). Other times, however, I have discussions that lead me to seeing God as representing the totality of the universe and all the mystery it contains, and I appreciate ideas that others have on reconciling (or maybe more appropriately utilizing) the concept of God in the context of Dhamma, e.g., this blog post by Pannobhasa Bhikkhu (David Reynolds).
A combination of religion/philosophy and science. For more of my ideas about Buddhist morality, see this, this, this, this, and this.
I don't know if it does, and to be honest, I don't see why life has to have some sort of preset purpose, or why we can't just create our own.
From the Buddhist point of view, or more accurately, one particular view within certain traditions of Buddhism, things arise and come together and cease and break apart due to complex causal processes, especially psychological states. The Buddha described the general principle as:
From the arising of this comes the arising of that.
When this isn't, that isn't.
From the cessation of this comes the cessation of that.
It's a natural process that may very well not have any outside meaning or unifying force (like God) behind it, just as evolution is often viewed by some as a natural process whereby species change due to random mutations in genes causing variation, some of which are beneficial and some of which aren't.
Moreover, the Buddha taught that, through a path of harmlessness, one can transcend the process of conditionality that gives rise to suffering altogether. So even if Buddhism doesn't posit a meaning to life, it does provide a goal that, at least in theory, seems worth pursuing. And this should be a source of joy because it's saying that, even if there's no cosmic meaning or point given to life from the outside, we can still give our lives meaning and find things like compassion, goodwill, and happiness all around us.
I'd say I'm a spiritual person, and I tend to seek out other spiritual people and places. I think one thing we share is that we all have the ability to have profoundly emotional experiences of love, ecstasy, rapture, awe, etc., regardless of our religious inclinations, and being social creatures, we definitely like to connect with other living beings on multiple levels. Whether it's mainly biology that's responsible for this or some underlying spiritual force with a purpose, however, I can't say.
Well, I think Buddhism is much more pragmatic than 'don't think about the past or future,' although one should certainly be mindful if and when one is getting carried away and causing undue suffering.
It should also be noted that suffering can be quite complex, and sometimes we have to do difficult and even unpleasant things in the short-term that'll eventually lead to long-term happiness. As Thanissaro Bhikkhu puts it in one of his talks on the importance of meditation:
Conventionally speaking, I'd say it'd be considered skillful to be mindful of deadlines and making sure we meet them if they're important. On a deeper, more contemplative level, however, I think MN 131 explains how one should interpret the Buddha's words that one "shouldn't chase after the past or place expectations on the future":
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Glad not to help the form fillers
Be quiet Mr Cushion, 'Emptiness is form and form is emptiness' indeed . . .
I mostly do it for myself. I find filling out questionnaires to be a pleasant distraction sometimes.