Last week I joined a little web-based sharing (fine, contest) by LitReactor that showcases a myriad of literary-based tattoos their readers wear. In lieu of mine being a literary form of skin, I decided to share it with the website, and also considered it my own little post to remember Holy Week--albeit not in direct, specific relation to it. So anyway, you may find the whole contest shebang here
Inspired by the novel Eat Pray Love, my tat is a symbolism that translates to "Om Nama Shivaya" or "I honor the Divinity that resides within you"
Half-agnostic and partially confused with my sense of self two years ago, I took initiative on a little soul-searching in between places that I haven't really visited, looking for faith in myself and faith in a Supreme Being. My realisation is, the Personification of one's faith need not be pronounced as an item of celebrity. The heart of religion is faith--and by that, it should not defy that notion itself by being culturally or geographically imposed. For that I have RESPECT for all religion that have their own sense of Divinity--the Divine what, or the Divine who.
Whether your religion's Divinity or "god" if you may, translates to Love, Buddha, Allah, the Universe or the Michelin man (who always saves you from skidding on the freeway), my religion is Respect for the maybe twisted, maybe love-filled, graceful, unexplicable, convenient, politically-structured, vanity-infused, orally-evolved, painfully proverbial, culturally-satisfying or most of all, esoteric (in every way shape or form) faith that gives birth to what any person's Religion is (in every way shape or form).
I respect the fact that you are human by the basic virtue of faith and belief in that which you call Divine, or your Divinity.
Respect is the religion that fuels my travels and cross-encounters with the plethora of cultural religions of the globe--it does not boast, or criticize, or debunk theoretical dogmas of science or argue the kind of fruit that fell from the Tree that seperates the Yin and the Yang. It does not necessarily persuade you to believe that walking on water will bloom lotuses in a freezing pond. It is what it is--a humble, grounded expression of faith for faith, of reverence for reverence--to that which is Divine--for you, your neighbor, your neighbor's dog or your cat's (and its 9th coming.) It is not dogmatic, pragmatic or dance-on-burning-coal ecstatic. It binds the central human propensity of believing without seeing, and enabling by feeling.
I will not discuss which 'god' I have chose to love and will love for the rest of my life, much like I will not review and persuade anyone of my political stances. I have a very loving Divinity that I choose to respect, by virtue of respecting other Divinities that may exist in the hearts of the devout, or in those fueled by doubt..
I honor my Divinity in many ways I keep private and may not subject it to arbitrary debate.
I like to keep it simple.
I believe in my Divinity, but I hold religion in Respect. And this religion of mine will not wage wars against yours, as it surely doesn't create that much difference between your 'god' and mine.
