Jerry Sun shares about his experience learning about different religions.
During the summer before senior year of high school, I became increasingly interested in people’s spiritual beliefs, especially how spiritual beliefs can influence the way we see the same nature around us. I began to wonder: When people with different beliefs stand in front of the same tree, do they really see the same thing?
Having this question in mind, I began visiting religious spaces across the Bay Area. On a hill in Milpitas is Thien Long Son, a Buddhist sanctuary Keith Ngo spent years building. Ngo began his time in the United States as a 14-year-old Vietnamese refugee. By the time he retired, he had built a sanctuary, planting trees covering every single inch of that hill. For Ngo, the goal is to give back to the community by creating a place where people of different backgrounds and beliefs could feel welcome. He enjoys seeing families gather under the shade to spend time in nature.
After living on an island, Reverend Dereca Blackmon found her connection with nature not among trees, but along water. She brought that connection back to the city. On Wednesday mornings, Blackmon and her congregation walk along the Oakland shoreline until they reach the pier. There, they pray. Blackmon recognizes there are many pathways to a spiritual relationship. Nature can be one of them.
During the summer, I also visited and interviewed people from GLIDE Memorial Church in San Francisco, Pao Hua Buddhist Temple in San Jose and Community Buddhist Shrine in Oakland. I began this project expecting different beliefs to lead me to different answers, but the more places I visited, the more I noticed what remained the same.
Religions assign nature different meanings, but no religion possesses a different nature. Ngo’s trees grow under the same sky as the water where Blackmon’s congregation prays. Perhaps nature is our common sacred ground. We don’t understand it the same way, but we all exist within it. With a Perspective, I’m Jerry Sun.
Jerry Sun is a high school student. He loves to hike and play tennis on the weekends.