________________
INTERFAITH
Koran, The New Testament, Jiddu Krishnamurti, and a host of curious books from the "Spirituality" section of the Berkeley Public Library.
The oddball scale increases as you approach my childhood home, a small black affair nestled in the wooded hills behind the university campus. Inside the house, through the red front door, a visitor might happen upon a dinner scene straight out of Le Moulin Rouge, with kids singing and wine spilling and parents launching into unprompted toasts to living and dead saints, as they saw fit. It was loud, lively and seemingly absent of any hint of solemn spirituality.
to choose from, our parents always focused on actions over religious dogma. "If you see somebody who needs help and you can help them, then you are obliged to help them," my mum told me one freezing night as we gave away our extra blankets to homeless folks. From helping orphans in Nigeria and Viet-Nam to fighting for farm workers in California and against corporate globalisation around the world, the common thread in my parents' work has been an earnest belief that selfless work is the most rewarding. My parents meant to bring up their children in a thoroughly secular and atheistic environment. We were supposed to be political progressives first and foremost, even above our mixed ethnic identities. But as the kids have grown up, we have all tried to get a grasp for the underlying principles that drive progressive politics: tenets like a strong belief in social justice, the fundamental equality of humankind and the overwhelming precedence of peace and non-violence in our every decision.
Mum grew up with the traditional Vietnamese belief in ancestor worship (every year on the anniversary of a loved-one's death, Vietnamese light incense and speak to the dead). This identity was grafted onto a peculiar identification with Jewish people. As a Vietnamese immigrant growing up in New York in the 1960s, my mother had a lot of Jewish friends. After many invitations to Sabbat and Passover dinners, my mother gained enough kvetching skills to consider herself a passable Jew. As for my father, he grew up in a Christian Scientist household, but he treated religion
And lo and behold, right in those books, written in plain English, were the precise principles that tied together the essential Love that is the source of the work that my parents, my family and all political progressives practise. In particular, one quote from Krishnamurti struck me as so perfectly formed that I pasted it to the end of all my e-mails for years: "Only love and right thinking will bring about true revolution, the revolution within ourselves. But how are we to have love? Not through the pursuit of the ideal of love, but only when there is no hatred, when there is no greed, when the sense of self, which is the cause of antagonism, comes to an end. A man who is caught up in the pursuits of exploitation, of greed, of envy, can never love."
At some point in their lives, every person, no matter in what kind of
My parents seem completely unimpressed by my modest forays into spiritual meaning. They remain more concerned with the everyday tangible effects of helping out the poor and voiceless. What good is a belief in altruism if it is never manifested in improving people's lives?
photos coutesy of author
Recently, my youngest sister came back from college with a pair of bombshells. For one, she had got a tattoo of our dog on her chest. For two, she had decided to major in Judaism and begin Rabbinical studies. In the classic Miller anything goes fashion, the family celebrated the latter as fantastic news, while we are still getting used to the sight of our dear pet peaking out of her shirt collar. "I've always told you we're Jewish," mum said to my sister. "Now let's get some latkes cooked up for the shelter."
Teddy Miller is a writer living in Hanoi, VietNam. His parents are pro-counsel and board directors of the Human Rights Group Global Exchange. He grew up in Berkeley, CA, with his three siblings and five beloved Airedales.
with mere curiosity and never derived deep meaning from a scattering of Sunday School sessions. Despite the apparent absence of religious principles underpinning dad's life, he somehow got the notion to concentrate most of his energies on humanitarian work (much to the material detriment of us kids).
family they grew up, ask themselves those fundamental questions that have been pressing down upon humanity for millennia. What are we here to do? Why me, on this Earth, at this time? To answer these questions, some people talk with a priest or a monk. In our house, we took out library books. Not wanting to discourage my syncretic reading habits, mum and dad never said a word when I brought home The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, The
For Personal & Private Use Only
WWW.JAINSPIRIT.COM
Even though the Miller family had an
eclectic mix of religious backgrounds Jain Education International
www.jainelibrary.org
