Karam
I like Christmas.
When I was a kid I would basically celebrate both, often spending Christmas morning with Christian neighbors and their kids.
I come out of the Reform tradition, for me it was all just one Big Holiday Season and I loved it.
Peace.
.
The Day of the Dhimmi is Done - Michael Lumish, PhD, proprietor. (mike.lumish@gmail.com)
Yeah, I've always liked the Christmas season, too. Although I always had ambivalent feelings about it also, because of the perverse racist anti-Jewish tenets of Christianity - the religion of which Christmas is a holiday of. However, at this particular time, I have no qualms about the celebration of Christmas in culturally Christian countries, and I think that, at this particular time, the celebration of Christmas in culturally Christian countries is good. I think that, at this time, think that. I especially don't have any qualms about it being celebrated in the United States - where there hasn't been the Christian extreme anti-Jewish racism that has always existed in Europe.
ReplyDeleteI attended a nominally Episcopal Protestant Christian private school when I was a kid, from grades 1 to 8. The Christmas season at school was always "magical" (very pleasant) to me. Also, throughout the school year, every thursday morning, we attended Chapel (nominally Christian - but mainly Judeo-Christian - religious services - which were mainly moral lessons drawn from stories from, I think, mainly, or soley, the Christian "Old Testament" (That is: the Torah)) at the small Episcopal Christian Chapel that was right next to the school. I liked going to Chapel. I loved the music - which was pipe organ music played on the pipe organ in the Chapel, and of which the introductory waiting, and procession, music was, I think usually, music by J.S. Bach. The music was played on the pipe organ by the music director of the school, who, as part of his capacity as the music director of the school, also led and conducted the school orchestra- which I was a member of in my later years at the school).
That's one of the reasons why I'm so intimately familiar with Christianity, and, as part of that, that's also why I have no qualms about pointing out the racist anti-Jewish nature of Christianity.
But the Christmas season (in culturally Christian countries) is another thing, especially at this time, and especially in the United States of America.
And I always resented, and was disgusted by, the association, in the United States, of Hanukka with Christmas, which are holidays of two different separate religions, and which, only by unrelated co-incidence, happen to occur at around the same time. My feelings were: "Christians, who the hell do you think you are?" and "Jewish people, have some self-respect."
And, at this time, with the arising, in Western societies, of the influence of the modern Islamic supremacist political movement, I think that it's important to, in Western, culturally Christian, countries, observe specifically, and only, Christmas, during the Christmas season.
Sorry for my typos. I'm tired.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm sorry for my harshness in my second to last paragraph. I'm sorry if I hurt Jewish people's feelings who (like me) enjoy the Christmas season, and who have associated Christmas with Hanukkah.
ReplyDeleteI just want to promote mindfulness. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. But I do have a lot of anger about the difficult painful situation that Jewish people are in, and have been in, in Christian societies, so I do tend to lash out with harsh speech. I'm sorry about that. I apologize for writing harsh speech.
Are such apologies, however unnecessary I may find them to be, a part of your Buddhist practice?
ReplyDeleteYes. :-)
ReplyDeleteThey're actions that I do as a result of views that I hold, and understanding that I have, which are views that I have come to hold, and which is understanding that I have come to have, as a result of having come to know and understand the teachings of the Buddha.
But, also, they're actions that I do as a result, partly, of OCD that I have (which involves my feeling deep fear of causing harm, and which involves my feeling deep fear that I have caused harm). That part of the reason why I do those actions is not so wholesome. :-/
Although, being afraid of causing harm - feeling moral dread, and feeling moral shame - is a quality that the Buddha said is beneficial and necessary for the well-being of all living beings.
Correction:
ReplyDeleteBeing afraid of causing harm - feeling moral dread, and feeling moral shame - is a quality that the Buddha said is beneficial and necessary for the well-being of the world - all living beings.