- I have faith in free religion (jiyū shūkyō). While having faith in a specific religion, the endless pursuit and improvement towards universal and ultimate truth is the core of religious life. Such a dynamic religion is called a free religion.
Although I don’t think I will totally agree with the statement that “the endless pursuit and improvement towards universal and ultimate truth” is the core of religious life, I find myself resonating with an endless pursuit and improvement towards something and a dynamic ever-changing religion.
The only end is the end of life. As long as I’m alive, my “way of life” will continuously be improved. But this pursuit is largely personal. For me, although some objective or universal truths can indeed be understood, they’re not as important as the many more subjective truths that will lead one’s life (majority of life is subjective experiences).
In this statement, I remember Henri Bergson’s point that the intuitive combines the subjective and the objective. While I couldn’t accept the destruction of the mutual exclusivity of these two concepts, my intuition does tell me that there are experiences that we share with other people. They are not absolutely and objectively similar with our experiences but they can be considered universal as they could be experienced in individual flavors.
Here enters the platonic realm. While we have relative experiences of love, we could argue that an abstract form of love exists somewhere. I am not sure how this could be useful though.
I am indeed open to free religion. I am listening to it and starting to have faith in it. I couldn’t imagine myself returning to a stringent way of life in a large institution or church. And yet I know that I desire the sublime. I desire a reverential approach to life. I am deeply existential. I desire peak experiences as well as feeling good even in ordinary moments. I desire a pluralistic world where mutual respect and tolerance is possible in a larger context of love.
I have very strong religious and spiritual sensibilities that doesn’t fit both traditional religion and atheistic alternatives. There is a gap to fill, which means there is a ministry for me no matter how small (my ministry). I do have faith in jiyu shukyo.