humility is so over rated, Thomas...
for me, with a foot in both the buddhist and the christian camp I am often accused of picking to suit myself, and I do, and its deliberate.
I was brought up a catholic but on the rare occasions I go to mass although I genuflect I wont recite all of the apostles creed, as I dont believe it all, so why should I recite it for the sake of nothing but tradition? Similarly, I dont take communion either, as I feel that because of my buddhist interests it would somehow be wrong to. I will always have a soft spot for jesus, but that softness does not carry through to jehovah, who I dont believe is god the father, and although I attempt to do the basics- uphold the ten commandments (even the honour the lord your god one), go to mass at christmas and easter, I am often accused of not being a real christian. Although I dont quite know what one of them is, I am happy with my "version" of christianity. I do not pick and choose what suits me so that I do not have to give my coat to the beggar or can lie and cheat ppl with a clear conscience, I do it because I am able to, and because I feel a lot of what passes itself off as holy law is not. For instance, I do not think we should burn witches, or murder sorcerers, like the bible suggests, I do not think homosexuals are sinners, and I don't think that women are cursed creatures who are unfit to be priests by virtue of having vaginas. I dont think he died on the cross to take away our sins. Not everything in the bible is gospel. Or at least, this is the reason why I pick and choose my christianity. I am able to see that successive generations of catholics/christians have altered the bible and debated its most fundamental tenets, I see that there are holy books which are deemed holier than others within the bible, I see that some writings, labelled false by the church, might well have been part of the original canon, and knowing all this causes me to have less faith in the bible than most of those who profess to be christians. But that doesn't mean I have any less faith in what I believe jesus was, or have less faith in what I feel he wanted to say.
Similarly, although I profess to be a buddhist I do not venerate the precious jewel of the sangha, and there is not much in the way of compassion within my interpretation of the path. Although I don't feel that buddhism is about compassion above all else, I do attempt to be equinanimous, and non judgemental, and be happy for others and attempt to be reasonable and rational, etc, etc, and I observe the precepts- don't tell lies, etc, and I meditate every day, although I don't believe that the masters are holy beings who have reincarnated through the centuries to give us great dharma, and I think a lot of what passes itself off as buddhism is not buddhism.
As an adult, it is my right to think what I like. There is no reason why another persons views should usurp my own. There is no real measure of their validity, we are all conjecturists, and just because I am told a person is great it does not mean they really are. I can be my own priest, my own teacher, my own guru. If my views differ from the party line, then so be it. At least they are my own, and not something I've been told to repeat without thinking about the words.
As for slacking... You think its easy to be alone, without a group, to not fit in anywhere, to not take things a face value, to have everyone dismiss u? It is hard to try to be rational and a believer at the same time, and even harder it is to have two paths instead of just one. How much easier it is not to think for yourself and believe everything you're told. How easy it is to defer to the kings and priests, to be small and inconsequential in the face of such great wisdom, because hey if it all goes wrong you can blame somebody else. You think you can't be wrong because a million ppl say they believe the same thing you do, but what if you're all wrong? What if only some of you believe and the rest are pretending?
keep the bits that are useful, beneficial, to us all, and dismiss the bits which are not. that's my justification for unorthodoxy...
