These are good questions and I am actually putting some time answering this. You don't have to reply to everything but give it a good read.
I'm interested in learning more about different religious-faith systems. Can you recommend one article/essay which, in your opinion, summarizes and represents the best of your religious-faith?
Actually, while maturing in faith, I really don't have a religion. I have practices. Accumulating my practices as one belief-system is trying to make different colors so vibrant into one.
As said best by Anne Wilson Schaef (Author of Native Wisdom for White [Western] Minds) "When a rainbow gets constricted, it becomes one color-white.
- Hoodoo/Rootwork (But the Santeria [Lukumi religion] site explains it the closest even though it should not be mixed with Rootwork)
Hoodoo/Rootwork (Ancestor veneration) is one of the many practices (and I practice it religiously and as a religion) that underlines many Pagan, Catholic, and indigenous faiths. Though the practices are severely different, the outlook is pretty much similar. In Hoodoo (I rather say Rootwork), one goes to their ancestors before going to god. I believe god is life not an entity. So, going to my ancestors is learning about life itself and my relationship with others. Summarizing it: Communion with the ancestors, spirits, and god.
Ancestors of blood relation or of religious lineage are collectively called
Egun.
Egun are critical to our religious functions in
Santeria. They are always propitiated first (even before the
Orisha Eleggua) because we say the dead give birth to the
orishas (The dead give way to the
orishas). As part of our veneration of
Egun, we call upon the names of our religious
ancestors and our blood
ancestors every time we recite our moyuba (mojuba) prayer. We also make offerings of food, favorite drinks and songs to our
Egun before any religious ceremony, and before the ceremony can proceed,
Egun must give us permission through Obi divination. ~
Church of Santeria
Practices such as blessings usually involve Biblical prayers from Psalms given the Catholic mix before they came to the South U.S. where my family is from. My family practices it to an extent. I don't read the Bible, but I find that helps connect with family even though in and of itself, it's not my faith.
Other things I share with both Rootwork and Lukumi is the interaction with the spirits in our everyday life.
Here are the differences between the two (and Vodun) to avoid confusion:
What is the difference between Voodoo, Hoodoo and Santeria
- Catholicism: Living through sacrifice of self (things that prevent us from living a spiritual life), repentance (turning from our old ways), penitence (practice new ways through actions) via the life (living for others), death (living in repentance), and resurrection (to live a spiritual life as a result) through the example of Jesus' Christ's Crucifixion. You can read about it in full in the Catechism of the Catholic Church; but, it's best experienced by the sacraments rather than text.
I practice it in context.
- Mahayana (Ten Tai) Nichiren Buddhism: Having full understanding of the nature of life via suffering (positive and negative) by cause and affect and how it affects us in our rebirth. Nichiren summed it up in the title of the Lotus Sutra: Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. I devote myself to the mystic Law of cause and affect. It is chanted morning and evening. Though, like Catholicism, I practice it in context. It's a common sense teaching that I wouldn't even call it a religion. It's life.
"The foremost treasure of sentient beings is nothing other than life itself. Those who take life are doomed to fall into the three evil paths. Wheel-turning kings observed the precept of "not to kill" as the first of the ten good precepts. The Buddha preached the five precepts at the starting point of the Hinayana sutras and made "not to kill" the first of them. The Buddha also taught "not to kill" as the first of the ten major precepts in the
Bommo Sutra of Mahayana. The
Juryo chapter of the Lotus Sutra contains the blessings of Shakyamuni Buddha's precept "not to kill." Consequently, those who take life will be forsaken by all the Buddhas in the three existences, and the gods of the six heavens of the world of desire will not protect them. The scholars of our time are aware of this, and I, Nichiren, also have a general understanding of it." ~
On Recommending This Teaching to Your Lord and Avoiding the Offense of Complicity in Slander
There are two many suttas and sutras to count that mirror my beliefs. There are no teachings in Buddhism that I disagree with nor find questionable.
That is, if you wanted to persuade someone that your chosen path is the best path, and you had one short opportunity to convince him, what would you have him read?
The Buddha (or so his disciples written in the Lotus Sutra) says not to say ill things of other people's scriptures. I'd extend that to evangelism and not persuading people to think my way rather than, as a Bodhisattva, teach them in a general way enlightenment but in the manner they understand instead.
There is more information I could give in addition to the links above.
I basically just practicing gratitude in living life.
Summary: Communing with ancestors, turning from old ways and living in new, and by practicing the laws of causality as well as understanding the nature of suffering: birth and death.
Confusing, I know.
Oh. Here is another website:
How to honor your ancestors.
