I am in the mood of talking about religion now, I hope you don't mind. As you all know, I was raised with a strict Catholic value because my whole big family is Catholic and I went to Catholic schools, too. But in the way, I interacted with other religions, too. First, with Islam, which was my ex's religion, and also some of my best friends'. That was why I interested on getting to know more about it.

Soon after my relationship with the Moslem guy finished, I found Buddhism as something new to learn. I got this lessons from Supreme Master Ching Hai that made me a vegetarian for 8 months. It was as a practice on getting hold of my anger from the betrayal and I found it helpful at the moment. I liked the Buddha teachings for inner peace and peace with others. It was a great way of life. But not likely a religion to me.

Not long after, I went to Bali. Until that time, I could never understand the theory of gods and goddesses of Hindu. But in 2 years I could say that Hinduism is the closest religion to Catholic in so many ways, only Hindu was much older. If anyone said Hindu came from India, I'd say no on this. The name indeed came from Indus river, but the original teachings came from Indonesia, far older than any other religions in the world, way before the Judaism even existed. For the past few centuries, Bali is the only place that still continue this tradition to this day.

In my two years stay in Bali, I started to see things differently. To help you to understand, see it like this: the three gods in Hindu is similar to the Trinity in Catholic. The other things are pretty much the same, only differentiated by local culture and tradition; Catholic by Roman, Europe and Hindu by Balinese, Indonesia. It's just in the way we 'communicate'.

I picture the gods in Hindu as God's faces in different moments. When God creates, his character was pictured as God Brahma. When He destroys, He became God Shiva and when He cares He became God Vishnu. Gods and goddesses are just personification of God's many faces--or what's called the 99 names of God in Islam.

This is how I see the different Deities in religions: If the Supreme Being is one big round thing like the sun, for example, I see the religions as a 'point of view' that looking at this ball from different angles. This was why each religion has their own name and/or description of God and most of times it's simply different. Anyway religion is man-made. God, on the other hand, is divine.

I used to think that Catholic was the best religion in the world although I still take some teachings from other religions also, as long as it fits in my life values. But now as I know more, I start to think that religion is not that holy. What's holy and sacred is human's heart. Our intuition. Religion is a mere vehicle, but once you get 'up there', you abandon the vehicle and continue the journey on your own feet.

Actually the more I know about Hindu, the more I believe in Indonesian elder's power back in the ancient times. I still believe in Jesus Christ and Mother Mary as the figures I go to whenever I'm troubled and to give thanks to when I feel blessed. But somehow I believe there was still something greater hidden in this whole universe, waiting to be revealed. About this, only time can tell.

But let me tell you one thing: never be too attached to the things you know/were told. There are more that we don't know yet and are beyond our knowledge. Be open always and think with your logic. Sometimes we believe with emotion that made everything just personal when the truth is just in front of our eyes. We just forget to think clearly, blinded by emotion. In order to accept the greater, we need to empty our cups once in a while.