Response to Karla

"How strong is your faith?"

First, to answer this question, I must describe what faith is for me. Faith is not believing in a God for me. It is not trusting in him when all else seems to fail. Faith is something that is very difficult to explain. It is not being afraid to believe in what you don't know fully if it exists or what. It is also more than this. Believing in things we simply cannot live without. Love, friendship, humanity, existence. Most of the time faith is just automatically associated with a belief in a God. But people can have faith in other things. For example, I have faith in humanity.

So, how strong is my faith in humanity? Very strong. I believe that there is something deep within us that will allow humans to overcome any kind of violence they may act out in. Right now, it seems that the only focus of humans is to be selfish and violent. However, I believe that someday soon, all differences will be put aside. All actions of violence or greed will cease and the goodness of humans will come out. And from this goodness will come a greatness and power that violence could never fulfill.

Question: Do you think it is possible to ever have no faith of any kind in anything?

"Because I could not stop for Death-"

"He kindly stopped for me-" Have any of you every read that poem by Emily Dickinson? I encountered it last year in my AP English class. In fact, I had to write a paper on that poem.

While reading the chapter, I came across something called the four stages of the proper life. The fourth one was of most interest. It is called sannyasa, which is when one leaves his or her family to prepare for death. It is such a different concept than the poem of Emily Dickinson. In the poem, and from what I gather about life, we do not slow down for death. Yes, we may worry about our death which can happen at any moment, but it doesn't really slow us down. In Hinduism, however, people abandon their families to prepare for death. I guess it might be their way to salvation, which is what they strive for their whole life. But, to actually prepare oneself for their death? It's crazy!!

Question: Why is it that Hindus can just prepare themselves for death? It would seem like a topic you would not want to prepare for, that you would rather just happen.