Buddhism and all it's trappings

Yesterday was the start of Buddhist lent in Laos. This means that their were extensive ceremonies all around the city at various temples. These ceremonies happened to start at 4 am and involve load drumming, chanting over a loud speaker, and blaring music. They also involved Lao people buying gifts and food to donate to the monks.

I was definitely a little razed yesterday morning when I was ushered out of bed way too early. I hopped on my bike and headed to work, all the while watching my mind rant about Buddhism and Lao people.

I was watching my mind tell me stories about how religion (any and all religions) can be exploited by silly humans. We turn something as good as the dharma into a means to buy good karma, just as Christians and Catholics exploit their own beliefs to acquire wealth or dictate human behavior.

We use our beliefs (Buddhist or otherwise) to justify how we act and have some backing and rationalization about why we do what we do. It's amazing what you can justify...in fact I would say that most anything can be justified if we spin our beliefs the right way.

For example, in Lao, people won't stop to help at the traffic accident because their beliefs tell them that if they do and someone there dies, it will negatively affect their karma.

Now how did something like that come from Buddhism. How did it get spun in such a selfish way?

The funny thing is that we can't often see our own ways of exploiting our beliefs or manipulating them to justify something that isn't necessarily correct or loving. We are often very blind to these ways in which we deceive ourselves. I know I am. I am working to change that but it's so difficult to see your own blind spots. I think that is where we need to have loving people in our lives to help us see where we are stuck, instead of maintaining old habits.

I was thinking the other day about the idea of laughing at our old habits and seeing them for what they are. Pausing in the moment and choosing a different path. With every action, we can see how we are perpetuating our old habits and making them more ingrained and choose to go down a different path. We can choose a new way of being, doing and thinking. Every moment we have this opportunity. If only we can take the time to pause and consider our motivations, actions, and how they affect us and other people.