On Buddhism

Gautama Buddha spent most of his life trying to find the meaning of life. He sought truth. What he finally came up with was: that one should love everyone as a brother, that we should deny ourselves to help others and that the only way our trials and suffering could be relieved is to help others. Is that true? Pain in life comes from our selfish desires and if we will just help others our problems will be gone? While I agree that we should help other and love everyone, I have to ask, where does that love come from? Why should we love them? Who gives us the ability to do good? Buddha never taught about God. So if it isn't God helping us, then who? In ourselves we cannot truly love. Many people are "good" people. They are nice and get along with people, but deep down they don't have peace and their goodness is only superficial. Their love is merely the carnal love for people who treat them right. It's true that some problems in life come from our selfishness and we know that all pain and suffering is a result of the Fall but not all come directly from our selfishness. The hurricane that killed 200 people, even many loving, selfless people, was it caused by them? The child who will never walk because of a birth defect, did his self-centeredness do that? And yes, our constant focus on ourselves is a problem. However, can we in our own strength overcome it? By what power do we change something that was in us before birth? We need assistance from Someone higher, an all-powerful God who can shape us into something better. Without God, all reason for love and goodness would disappear. A happy and peaceful life cannot rely on our own futile efforts. I guess what I'm trying to say is "Virtue without God is nothing."

Cut my life into pieces...this is my last resort

In the teen culture today there has become an increasing amount of "cutters". Self-mutilation is not as unheard of as it used to be. There are close to 3 million cutters in America. The majority of them are girls; women tend to turn anger towards themselves whereas men direct anger at others. I absolutely loathe the attitude that a lot of people (Christians) have toward cutters or even just the gothic/emo lifestyle (for lack of a better word). I hear comments at various times that frustrate me to no end. People think it’s weird, creepy, scary, or stupid. They have this idea that those people are so strange and almost evil, they’re intimidated and freaked out by them. They want nothing to do with these types of people. They think that people cut themselves for attention, sometimes teens cut themselves so someone will notice and hopefully care, but many times cutters hide the scars so no one can see so that's not usually the core reason. I mean come on, it's self-inflicted pain. Cutting is a poor coping mechanism. People who cut have something that they don't know how to deal with. It usually starts as a ‘I’m hurting inside, I need (want) to express it’ mentality. Sometimes they do it as a means of punishing themselves. Cutters often say “I would rather feel pain on the outside than feel pain inside.” It’s the same concept as when you have a splinter in your pinkie and you pinch your index finger to take away from the pain from the splinter. It’s a distraction. It also many times comes from the need to feel alive. They feel numb inside, like they're sinking into oblivion so they cut and hurt themselves to feel something. Also, when you get an open wound your body secretes a healing endorphin that rushes to the wound but it also goes all through your bloodstream, making you feel a little better for a moment, it's almost a high. I’m not trying to normalize or legitimize it, I just want people to get past the craziness of it and reach out. It IS bizarre and weird, but rather than say “That’s creepy and irrational” and leave them in that category, we need to realize it’s sad and very serious, understand why, and then move on to lead them to the Healer.