I have this crazy idea that in order to promote religious tolerance effectively, all the people have to at least get an idea how others’ faith worship their divine being. So, I decided to visit a temple last Friday, partly to interview them about their meals-on-wheels project of providing meals to the poor and partly to understand how they worship.
I sms-ed to the person I met previously. And on Friday morning, I arrived there with fellow CJ Jimmy, all equipped with our tripods, video cameras and DSLR camera amidst heavy rain that morning.
Jimmy and I went into the residential house, not knowing at all what to expect. We were asked to leave our shoes at the gate and wash our feet. Then, we were ushered into the house which is actually a temple, but a very understated temple, going by the colourful and shiny temples standard we found around here.
A person (whom we later learned) is a priest shoved joss-sticks and asked us to kneel. I did, not a bit disturbed because I take it as a polite gesture. My faith doesn’t shake because I know who I am and who I worship. But then, we were left to kneel for a long time and I was beginning to find it funny and trying to hold my giggles. Jimmy too got a bit bored kneeling so we started talking. I was whispering to him, “Die lah, if I am on video now, sure die lah. I wonder what the headlines will be? Blogger 5xmom turned to ’some faith’.”
Much later, we learned that the priest didn’t know we had made an appointment to meet the administrator and we were there to interview, not to pray. The priest thought we were there to pray so no wonder, he gave us the whole nine yards of praying.
I interviewed the administrator of the temple and I had an enlightening time listening to him explaining his faith. As he goes along, I can see so much similarities between our faiths, like Buddhism, Taoism and Christianity. To sum up the interview, I said his faith is a simple way of trying to do good, not sinning and live a prayerful life.
I was fortunate to also witness their more elaborate prayers and I was given a good dose of holy water, holy incense, roses and etc.
When Jimmy and I got out of the temple, I remarked that it is not easy for a person to touch on religious tolerance because it takes a lot of maturity to do so. When the administrator goes on explaining, there are things that are totally different from my Christian faith but hey, religious tolerance is the ability to accept others’ differences. I am not there to discuss our respective faiths so I just listened attentively.
However, I do dropped hints that as Catholics, we were told that caring for the least of the brothers (i.e. the poor and homeless or sick and weak) is a way of caring for God. And the faith I was introduced to is totally beautiful.
I was given a few religious books and also a ‘protection card’ of their deity. Jimmy asked if I want to give it away to him since he knows I am a Christian. I told him, “No need, I like the concept of that deity who slayed the devil by turning himself into a lion with a man’s body. ” My faith is not so easily shaken. And really…..if we Catholics have our angels and saints, what’s wrong with other faiths having their deities? Now, the card is in my phone pouch.
I jokingly told my sons that they are still worshipping God, packaged differently. Because their supreme divine too incarnated into a man to help the world from sins. See how similar it is?
My next mission is to seek out another faith. I do not know much about that faith and will attempt to find out. But this time, I will give it a pass if they ask me to kneel for several minutes because my knees feel wobbly if I do that for too long.
I hope to promote a better understanding of the various faiths in Malaysia through my video journalism.
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