Recently, I seem to have more passion towards Buddhism, I attended a few ativities under KDUBSC and I assuming myself to have benefited quite a lot from it. Maybe you will think that participating in activites like this isn't a big deal but for me it does. For person like me,who was quite resisting to religious-related things,I developed passion towards it once I took the chance to know it better.This is just like the philosophy of a relationship or life,where we dislike a person due to the reason that we never know him/her well, but once we try to know them,the situation changed, in a positive manner.
My problem now is that I don't know whether should I take the refuge under Buddha Dharma or not. To persuade myself to take the refuge, I appoached myself to the question sounds ''Why should we take the refuge under Buddha Dharma and what is the benefit for doing that?'' Geshela, a venerable resident teacher of a buddist society,LCD PJ, said that refuge has the power of multiplying our merits to 100 millions times, it somehow inlustrates that we will not be born into the hell in the 'coming-life' for sure (if you do believe in things like this).
'Journey to the hell' is not my main concern here, as I can really foresee the benefits of learning Buddhism in a proper manner, with the fact that there must be a reason for numerous believers out there and I, myself to a certain extent do have gotten something from it. Regardless of the merit we will obtain from it, I can only choose one among a number of beneficial religions around me, including my original religion, Taoism. Once, somebody asked Geshela can we still attach to our original religion after we have taking the refuge, and Geshela's answer was that when we already have something which is the best, and there is nothing better than ours, why should we approach the other ? So did my mother tell me before, she told me that when we already have something which is considered good to us and comfortable with, it is just enough to stick to one and put our faith on it whatsoever.
This has in fact worsen my situation, in the sense that when everyone is taking good about their own, which one should I choose? I know that I have to be ''loyal'' to only one of them, but I really can't make my decision now. Should I take the refuge and precepts under the Buddha Dharma without my parent's consent, given that I am sure they will not agree with me if I were to tell them the truth in the first place?However, I choose to believe that they will be thinking in a different manner if I were to prove to them that I am getting better with this 'new teaching'. Taking refuge is kind of a significant and transitional moment which may affect the rest of the life, at least to me personally, so I really need some guidances now...