As I am preparing for my trip to Hong Kong, I think about lesson planning and activities, but of course, also about the weekends. I love nerd camp, nerd peoples, and creations, but I am absolutely not looking forward to waking up at unfortunate times in the morning, haha. I don't know one teacher who wakes up later than 5:45 AM. I only have to hold it out for 2 weeks though, so thank goodness for that! I figured that I would definitely need mental health days, so I hopped onto TripAdvisor and other travel websites to get information.
Anyone who knows me knows that as much as I like hitting the tourist hotspots, I also very much like to hit the beaten path or the Middle of Nowhere, Wonderland. But I started with the former, and quickly came across 2 of the most highly rated "Things to Do in Hong Kong": the Big Buddha and the Chi Lin Nunnery. As much as I was thinking about going (my head: oh you can just go for the historical information and religious education--I make literally everything educational), my spirit felt the worst it had been since the last time my family visited a Buddhist temple in China.
When I walk into places of worship (regardless of the faith), I can always feel the spirit realm. Unfortunately, when I walk into Buddhist temples, I feel sick. It doesn't matter how many nice ornaments or gardens they have, I am always being attacked by the Devil's work and I feel something completely inexplicable. This is sadly the case because the spirits that have taken up the place are ones of our so-called "worldly wisdom", which in reality, leads to evil. It always looks nice, but in reality is just a facade. The best way to describe it would be a feeling of being trapped and pressured, as well as part of Matthew 7:15:
...They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ferocious wolves.
That is precisely what it feels like. And when I see it, I feel a sort of frustration that cannot be described. I can guarantee you that when I was in the temple, I could sense that not one person felt peace. I sensed frustration, temporary emotions created by the incense, guilt, grit, and people who didn't actually care about the faith, but was just there for fun, almost even mocking the faith.
As a child, I never understood why someone would worship "items" they themselves made. But now, I see how they are actually worshiping a spirit inhabiting the Buddha. Unfortunately people don't see it with their bare eyes. And because they don't necessarily see it, it is hard to comprehend its strength, and it is easy to think the Buddha is on your side. Oh no. No, it is not. Behind the Buddha is not something or someone that can protect you--it is an evil spirit who gives out empty promises to lure you in, then kick you back out (and everything or everyone that does this has something evil in it). It is something that blinds you with tradition and rituals that do not deliver. And it can be sensed. Since I tend to be sensitive to these things, I also tend to stay away from them. While I should be able to tolerate a trip to the nunnery and the Big Buddha, I don't see a point in putting myself through a sort of torture and sadness that I cannot deny. The word evil may sound too serious, but the truth is that it is a very serious matter. To understate it would be to support what we were originally against.
As a child, I used to wonder why God wouldn't let unbelievers into Heaven. God is all-loving, right?
But Habakkuk 1:13 says:
As a child, I never understood why someone would worship "items" they themselves made. But now, I see how they are actually worshiping a spirit inhabiting the Buddha. Unfortunately people don't see it with their bare eyes. And because they don't necessarily see it, it is hard to comprehend its strength, and it is easy to think the Buddha is on your side. Oh no. No, it is not. Behind the Buddha is not something or someone that can protect you--it is an evil spirit who gives out empty promises to lure you in, then kick you back out (and everything or everyone that does this has something evil in it). It is something that blinds you with tradition and rituals that do not deliver. And it can be sensed. Since I tend to be sensitive to these things, I also tend to stay away from them. While I should be able to tolerate a trip to the nunnery and the Big Buddha, I don't see a point in putting myself through a sort of torture and sadness that I cannot deny. The word evil may sound too serious, but the truth is that it is a very serious matter. To understate it would be to support what we were originally against.
As a child, I used to wonder why God wouldn't let unbelievers into Heaven. God is all-loving, right?
But Habakkuk 1:13 says:
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do You tolerate those who are treacherous? Why are You silent while one who is wicked swallows up one who is more righteous than himself?
God cannot oppose himself, and so, in the end, he must separate the light and the darkness. This is why I always say that life and God can be such a paradox. I think Bill Pratt put it well:
God tolerates the presence of sin in order to accomplish his purposes with mankind.
Judaism...what do the spirits in a Jewish synagogue feel like? When I went to my classmate's Bat Mitzvah, I could only sense something that, if I had to put into words, would be described as "stressful striving". This makes complete sense given what Jews of the Jewish faith believe. I really wanted to leave a Bible at my seat because I thought, "Man, you are missing the ending to your story!" The spirit just felt extremely weighted, but yet, weighted for something that didn't really count. To humans, on the physical dimension, it looks nice, but if the spiritual dimension isn't truly there, the physical can only go so far. They had joy, but it wasn't perfect joy. It was almost like a stressful joy I couldn't quite pinpoint.
I have never been inside a Muslim mosque or to a Catholic church, but the building and the religion aren't even the important parts. Only the faith that is practiced is important. I know that if I ever get the chance to go, it will be the faith that gives everything away. It either leads to a spirit of perfect, beautiful peace (Holy Spirit) or one of something similar, but external and emotional (all other spirits). This is the seemingly physical 0.00001% difference that will make the biggest difference in your life-- in the spirit world, it accounts for 100%.
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