...
How can you - a cleric - be so open-minded? I asked
"Look. I know what I believe. It's in my soul. But I constantly tell our people: you should be convinced of the authenticity of what you have, but you must also be humble enough to say that we don't know everything, we must accept that another person may believe something else."
He sighed.
"I'm not being original here, Mitch. Most religions teach us to love our neighbor."

I thought about how much I admired him at that moment. How he never, even in private, even in old age, tried to bully another belief, or bad-mouth someone else's devotion. And I realized I had been a bit of coward on this whole faith thing. I should have been more proud, less intimidated. I shouldn't have bitten my tongue. If the only thing wrong with Moses is that he's not yours; if the only thing wrong with Jesus is that he's not yours; if the only thing wrong with mosques, Lent, chanting, Mecca, Buddha, confession, or reincarnation is that they're not yours - well, maybe the problem is you.

One more question? I asked the Reb.
He nodded.
When someone from another faith says, "God bless you," what do you say?
"I say, "Thank you, and God bless you, too."
Really?
"Why shouldn't I?"
I went to answer and realized I had no answer. No answer at all.

Your Faith, My Faith

Another great message from Have A Little Faith :P

...
"Ask yourself, 'why did God create but one man?" the Reb said, wagging a finger. "Why, if he meant for there to be faiths bickering with each other, didn't he create that from the start? He created trees, right? Not one tree, countless trees. Why not the same with man?
"Because we are all from that one man - and all from that one God. That's the message."
Then why, I asked, is the world so fractured?
"Well, you can look at it this way. Would you want the world to all look alike? No. The genius of life is its variety.
"Even in our own faith, we have questions and answers, interpretations, debates. In Christianity, in Catholicism, in other faiths, the same thing - debates, interpretations. That is the beauty. It's like being a musician. If you found the note, and you kept hitting that note all the time, you would go nuts. It's the blending of the different notes that makes the music."
The music of what?
"Of believing in something bigger than yourself."
But what if someone from another faith won't recognize yours? Or wants you dead for it?
"That is not faith. That is hate." He sighed. "And if you ask me, God sits up there and cries when that happens."


Reading this conversation made me recalled what Albert Einstein once said. He was asked whether science could explain everything in this universe. Einstein answered: "Yes, but it is just as boring as explaining Beethoven's symphony with the physic's theory of pressure and so on."

The beauty of life is that the sensation of knowing something greater than us. The mystery of something Supreme. And what makes it even more wonderful is that we have our own ways in explaining and worshiping that Supreme Being. Yet, despite the diversity of beliefs and religions, we come from one God.

secret of happiness

I guess I'll really write much about Have A Little Faith in this blog. This is the second wisest book I've ever read after Mitch Albom's first book - Tuesdays With Morrie. I definitely love this book.

So, this time Mitch and his rabbi were talking about happiness after seeing an ad about pill that can cure desperation. Mitch asked his rabbi, the Reb, about what makes a man happy.

...
"Now, that child," he said, " reminds of something our sages taught. When a baby comes into the world, its hands are clenched, right? Like this?"
He made a fist.
"Why? Because a baby, not knowing any better, wants to grab everything, to say, 'The whole world is mine.'
But when an old person dies, how does he do so? With his hands open. Why? Because he has learned the lesson."
What lesson? I asked.
He stretched open his empty fingers.
"We can take nothing with us."

...

So, have solved the secret of happiness?
"I believe so," he said.
Are you going to tell me?
"Yes. Ready?"
Ready.
"Be satisfied."
That's it?
"Be grateful."
That's it?
"For what you have. For the love you receive. And for what God has given you."
That's it?
He looked me in the eye. Then he sighed deeply.
"That's it."


It really is the secret of happiness. We'll never be happy when we always desire more and more while we've had enough already. Be satisfied for small things. Be grateful for anything we have. Then we'll be able to feel really great and happy when we get more than we have - but not craving for more.

The Reb, at that time, was lying in the hospital bed fighting against his lung cancer. Talking with trailing voice and his hand trembling. But, still, he was able to sing to anyone and made them happy even to strangers. In the morning prayer, he always said: "Thank you, Lord, for returning my soul to me."

how do you know God exists?

It is a common question and frequently asked by people yet, so far, never had I found an answer good enough to explain it: "how do you know God exists?" Until I read the conversation of Mitch Albom and his former rabbi in his book - Have A Little Faith.


How do you know God exists?
He stopped. A smile crept across his face.
"An excellent question."
He pressed his fingers into his chin.
And the answer? I said.
"First, make the case against Him.

Okay, I said, taking his challenge. How about this? We live in a world where your genes can be mapped, where your cells can be copied, where your face can be altered. Heck, with surgery, you can go from being a man to being a woman. We have science to tell us of the earth's creation; rocket probes explore the universe. The sun is no longer a mystery. And the moon-which people used to worship? We brought some of it home in a pouch, right?
"Go on," he said.
So why, in such a place, where the once-great mysteries have been solved, does anyone still believe in God or Jesus or Allah or Supreme Being of any kind? Haven't we outgrown it? Isn't it like Pinocchio, the puppet? When he found he could move without his strings, did he still look the same way at Geppetto?

...

He leaned in. "Now. My turn. Look, if you say that science will eventually prove there is no God, on that I must differ. No matter how small they take it back, to a tadpole, to an atom, there is always something they can't explain, something that created it all at the end of the search.
"And no matter how far they try to go the other way-to extend life, play around with genes, clone this, clone that, live to one hundred and fifty-at some point, life is over. And then what happens? When life comes to an end?
I shrugged.
"You see?"
He leaned back. He smiled.
"When you come to the end, that's where God begins."



I think the question is well answered.