Well, I was raised Christian, mainly Methodist, then started going to a non-denominational church with my mom. At this point, my father, who had grown up Southern Baptist, decided to become muslim (a decision that took him 20 years to make). I mention this because his freethinking and experience with prominent teachers from different religions contributed to my expanding my views.
At some point, without apparent cause, certain things said by the preacher just didnt feel right. So I started studying and prayed to God "show me the truth." I wanted to know the reality of God, free from bias and ideas.
My first exposure to a spiritual path outside of Christianity, but still related, was Rastafari Movement. It appealed to me because it displayed a more open and living way of expressing ones beliefs. It wasnt just going to church, it was something that you expressed through all your actions. Also, it was close enough with what I was raised with, that I felt comfortable with it.
In a funny way, that lead me to start studying Hinduism. Actually, I was reading about dreadlocks (because of my current interest in Rastafari) and saw a picture of a hindu sadhu. I learned a bit about them. The next progression was learning that the Rastafari beliefs are highly influenced by Hindu beliefs (the dreadlocks and marijuana as a sacrament as one thing). At some point I started to identify with Hindu beliefs and realized that I couldnt continue with the Rasta thing.
From Hinduism, I learned about various mystic beliefs and learned about the Sufis as well. From there I was mainly interested in real religion that wasnt just believing something and going to church once a week. It was a practice, and a devotion, something to realize (in fact, now that im writing it, I notice thats the thing that has attracted me to most of these is the fact that they contain a daily practice, something I can actually
do as opposed to just believe).
From my interest in dharmic ideas, I learned about the various sects of Hinduism, of Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, and through my interest in sadhus, Sufism. At a certain point, I successfully managed to completely change my paradigm, and started to see reality from a dharmic perspective. After a long time apprehensively studying studying Buddhism, which originally I had problems with (the no self and no God thing), I finally found comfortable ground in it, and because of the practices decided to set up camp there. Not only did Buddhism have daily practice, but practice every moment of every day, which attracted me a lot. (I think this was around the time that I stopped coming to these forums for a good year because I was very conflicted about a very many things, and all the debatable topics would have just made my head spin). So this was a very introspective time. After having studied all these religions externally, I now had to abandon the external and search internally.
Nowadays, I practice Buddhism, and eventually, may just drop all labels when the point comes (as it inevitably will) that religions and practices have served their purpose for me. Its funny looking back, how each of my progressions have gradually dropped more and more features, and also dissolved my perception of self and God. Its rather like the refining process in extracting the essential oil of a plant, or the essential psychoactive compound in a plant. All the impurities are being removed, and someday there will be nothing remaining.
Eventually, I imagine that all will be dissolved and I will have finally realized the true "God," that I set out to understand; at which point, my journey will have come to a close. So far, I believe that "God" has answered my prayer.
Much longer than I intended, but I guess it hasnt been a short story by any means so far.
