Happy Easter - Reflecting on Christianity and Eastern Religions

Happy Easter to all my Christian friends!

To me this is another holiday among other Asian festivals announced by spring:

I missed Nowruz, the Persian New Year, where people jump over fire,
I missed Holi, the Indian festival, where people throw powdered color at each other,
and now I feel like I’m missing Easter, where people are playing games of finding eggs and candy.

So I can’t say anymore that Easter is the most important spring holiday I know of, but I know that it is still the most important Christian holiday. According to Christians, today is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead after dying so that everyone could be redeemed from sin. It’s a time to renew one’s faith, and to revel in the Christian spirit, and to relate with family and church.

It’s hard for me to admit this to my Christian friends, but I really can’t identify as Christian anymore. Still, I think there is a Christian part of me that doesn’t die, a part that does continue to be renewed in me. The spirit of Christianity in me is this: That I accept others unconditionally for who they are, and to love them more than myself. That I try to keep an attitude of self-sacrifice, humility, and love.

However, what distanced me from Christianity was that I drew near to other religions and other peoples. Unfortunately, I was raised to think that Christianity was an exclusive religion, and that non-Christians were people who simply failed to know and accept Christ. That Buddhism was just a philosophy, that Hindus worshipped idols, that Muslims hated Christians. This kind of thinking is so narrow, so offensive once you actually meet people from their respective cultures!

Once I was able to let go of the conservative Western religious thinking, Eastern religions felt so freeing to me. I remember a moment in Eastern religion class where I distinctly realized that I must accept Buddhism as equally valid to Christianity if I were really to give my life to studying Japanese. I remember embracing a spirit of Buddhism (though I don’t think a true Buddhist would let me word it this way!), and that adjusting perspective and perception truly led to inner peace. I remember visiting a Hindu temple with my close Indian friends. I remember one Turkish Muslim woman explaining why it was important for her to wear a headscarf, even if her mother fought with her against it, while another Turkish Muslim woman explained why she didn’t wear a headscarf though Islam is so important to her too - and her husband teaching me the first two names of Allah - Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim... 

And so I can't think of Christianity the same way. I can't think of this Easter the same way either. International people have shown and shared too much with me. I feel that my life would have been so much emptier if I never met them.

But I still wear a cross necklace, though not openly when it might offend someone. Whether I believe in Jesus or not, the idea of a cross necklace is to remind myself that someone representing God was willing to suffer agony and death for the sake of love for others. That loving and respecting someone sometimes means understanding and enduring their hell.

Actually, this particular necklace was given to a friend, who later gave me a similar one as if to restore my identity. 

And now it’s Easter, where people celebrate that Jesus rose again in triumph over death. In any case, it is a good reason to reflect on ideas of rebirth and renewal.

It seems that many of my friends have all been very stressed lately with exams, applications, and the resulting feelings of stress, inadequacy, and loneliness. I hope that Easter, or at least the spring sunshine here, is a time to reflect that life doesn't always end with suffering, and that even after death - or just a nervous breakdown - life blooms again.

My best friend, a Hindu, joked that Easter must be Jesus’ second birthday. I guess he meant it with regards to the idea of reincarnation. And that suddenly makes the meaning of the holiday even richer.

What really makes me feel born again is having been introduced to the myriad of other cultures and holidays, and the idea that all religions have things to teach people about people. But today I do want to reflect on Easter, and in the light of Eastern influences, and in the new light of spring which shines over all the world.


Notes:

I am sorry that all my links are of Wikipedia. I am relieved at least at finally having written here again even though I wrote this in one night (throughout the night!) rather than going through the research I could have done for such an essay as this. I realized that it's because of all these thoughts running in my head that I feel that I really should keep writing..