Q&A from rustymetal770

1.) Do you believe in the super­nat­ur­al, and if so, do you fol­low any par­tic­u­lar reli­gion? How have your beliefs changed over the years?

I do not believe in the pos­si­bil­i­ty of the super­nat­ur­al. I believe that there are things that are beyond my under­stand­ing, but I don’t for a moment doubt that they are a part of the nat­ur­al order of the Uni­verse. There is more under Heav­en and Earth than lies with­in my phi­los­o­phy, Hor­a­tio, but being out­side my phi­los­o­phy or yours does­n’t make it unnatural.

My beliefs are prob­a­bly best described as pan­the­ist or ani­mist. I was bap­tised as a Con­gre­ga­tion­al­ist but received only the vaguest of reli­gious instruc­tion grow­ing up. I was an athe­ist for sev­er­al years and dis­cov­ered the Tao Te Ching one night when I did too much acid when I was 20. I got my own copy the very next day and have kept it with me on a dai­ly basis since.

When I was 25 I had a mirac­u­lous occur­rence that I can­not explain and almost simul­ta­ne­ous­ly was intro­duced to the idea that any idea of God was OK except to believe that I am It.

When I was 28 I began attend­ing Epis­co­pal ser­vices on occa­sion, although I still don’t con­sid­er myself to be a Chris­t­ian. At about that same time I began sit­ting with a Soto Zen Bud­dhist teacher. I haven’t been for­mal­ly prac­tic­ing in either of those paths in a cou­ple years, but I con­sid­er myself a dis­ci­ple of Bud­dha for the pur­pos­es of observ­ing the Ten Grave Precepts.

I believe in tak­ing refuge in Dhar­ma; that life and the life les­son are not sep­a­ra­ble and that the only com­fort from our suf­fer­ing comes from the refuges of the enlight­ened being that speaks with­in us, our com­mu­ni­ty, and in the suf­fer­ing itself. Accept­ing suf­fer­ing can ease suffering.

2.) What is the one song you iden­ti­fy with at this moment?

Cit­i­zen? by Nash the Slash.

3.) Besides Elvis, Jesus, Ein­stein or John Lennon, what person(s), liv­ing or dead, would you like to have a con­ver­sa­tion with?

Prob­a­bly Abe Lin­coln. That guy seemed to actu­al­ly get it, for the most part. I think I could learn a lot from him.

4.) Do you believe in True Love? What does True Love mean to you?

True Love is rec­og­niz­ing the con­nect­ed­ness and inter­de­pen­dence between our­selves to the extent that one desires for the oth­er’s well-being the way that one yearns for one’s own well-being. I believe in true love. I don’t know if I believe in roman­tic love.

5.) If you could be any­thing “when you grow up” (any­thing phys­i­cal­ly pos­si­ble), what would it be? Are you pur­su­ing that career? If not, why the hell not?

I just want to draw pret­ty pic­tures all day. Instead I pro­gram computers.

6.) What are you pas­sion­ate about?

Not much any­more. I’m pret­ty low-key and boring.

7.) What is your favorite word? Least favorite word?

Parox­ysm. What a cool word that is.

8.) Where is the one place you’d like to vis­it before you die? When are you going? We’re not promised tomor­row, you know.

9.) Do you believe dogs have souls?

Mu.

10.) What’s the best cure for unre­quit­ed love?

There is no “cure.” There are only two ways to go from unre­quit­ed love: to denial of the love or to a truer def­i­n­i­tion of love. If I want that per­son to be tru­ly hap­py, and the best way for that per­son to be hap­py is to be with some­one oth­er than me, then I want that per­son to be with that some­one else. Or else it’s not unre­quit­ed love, it’s unre­quit­ed desire.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the two some­times go together.