Xinbo Mao: A Religious Biography
Xinbo grew up in a complicated environment. His mother was a devoted Buddhist so he had contact with the concepts of religions when he was very young. However, he was taught to believe in only science during his years in Chinese schools. Xinbo’s uniqueness lies in his sophisticated and contradictory experiences in Chines religious world.
Getting in Touch with Religion
“I can still remember my mom burning joss sticks before the statue of a Deity”
Xinbo’s mother Lijuan was a devoted Buddhist. Even years have passed, Xinbo can still remember her going to temples as a volunteer and helping homeless people and pilgrims. Lijuan was of great importance in Xinbo’s developing process of religions. She showed him …show more content…
He couldn’t find himself totally agree with the whole ideas of Taoism, Buddhism, Christianism or Catholicism so he didn’t pick one specific religion to believe in. Instead, Xinbo believe in the existences of sacred creatures that are in much higher positions than humans. He believes that there exists something that is beyond us and can see our behaviors and hear our prayers. Xinbo doesn’t regard the lack of one definite religion as a problem as he holds the belief that those higher existence don’t actually care whether we believe in some definite deity because they are far above us and we should not use human criteria to judge …show more content…
He believes that religion is totally different from our existence. It is up there, it is far from us but it is also close to us and sometimes he has the feelings that he is connected with them. When Xinbo was having a lot of troubles on his business years ago, religion relieved his anxiety and eased his stress as he believed that those unfortunate things were actually the gifts from deity, and they were arranged to prepare him for bigger success. Xinbo was able to find the hidden meanings behind those frustrations because he was certain that deity is always with him. Religion helped him go through those hardest periods in his lives. Xinbo holds the belief that almost everyone has at least something to believe in and the case that a person doesn’t believe in anything is extremely rare. He defines the term “good religion” as the religion that let people be humble towards the world and stop them from hurting the society’s welfare and stability. He interprets the behaviors of criminals as the results of wrong understandings in their religions. He also mentions that the restrictions of religions are also related to the levels of firmness. He used the example that religious people in Thailand never steal or do bad things because they firmly believe that their deity will punish them once they break the laws or principles. Xinbo defines the term of “bad religion” as those kinds
Xinbo grew up in a complicated environment. His mother was a devoted Buddhist so he had contact with the concepts of religions when he was very young. However, he was taught to believe in only science during his years in Chinese schools. Xinbo’s uniqueness lies in his sophisticated and contradictory experiences in Chines religious world.
Getting in Touch with Religion
“I can still remember my mom burning joss sticks before the statue of a Deity”
Xinbo’s mother Lijuan was a devoted Buddhist. Even years have passed, Xinbo can still remember her going to temples as a volunteer and helping homeless people and pilgrims. Lijuan was of great importance in Xinbo’s developing process of religions. She showed him …show more content…
He couldn’t find himself totally agree with the whole ideas of Taoism, Buddhism, Christianism or Catholicism so he didn’t pick one specific religion to believe in. Instead, Xinbo believe in the existences of sacred creatures that are in much higher positions than humans. He believes that there exists something that is beyond us and can see our behaviors and hear our prayers. Xinbo doesn’t regard the lack of one definite religion as a problem as he holds the belief that those higher existence don’t actually care whether we believe in some definite deity because they are far above us and we should not use human criteria to judge …show more content…
He believes that religion is totally different from our existence. It is up there, it is far from us but it is also close to us and sometimes he has the feelings that he is connected with them. When Xinbo was having a lot of troubles on his business years ago, religion relieved his anxiety and eased his stress as he believed that those unfortunate things were actually the gifts from deity, and they were arranged to prepare him for bigger success. Xinbo was able to find the hidden meanings behind those frustrations because he was certain that deity is always with him. Religion helped him go through those hardest periods in his lives. Xinbo holds the belief that almost everyone has at least something to believe in and the case that a person doesn’t believe in anything is extremely rare. He defines the term “good religion” as the religion that let people be humble towards the world and stop them from hurting the society’s welfare and stability. He interprets the behaviors of criminals as the results of wrong understandings in their religions. He also mentions that the restrictions of religions are also related to the levels of firmness. He used the example that religious people in Thailand never steal or do bad things because they firmly believe that their deity will punish them once they break the laws or principles. Xinbo defines the term of “bad religion” as those kinds