A man walks into a bar …

An anorexic nitrous huffing klepto with prodromal schizophrenia jogs into a buddhist monastery. Cue the first meditation, first instruction by Chodron, Rinpoche, His Holiness, then the fractured assembly of ethics. I had self-proclaimed the absence of some moral compass, led a semi-satisfactory faithless existence with mixed levels of suffering. But at 20 — addicted, indulgent, speculative — Buddhist theology was the supernova, a catalyst for direction I didn’t know was lacking. 

It was the unsuspected inevitable crisis of religion so many have in college after vigorously testing divinity throughout teenagehood. Despite the secular education, undergrad years have become a vibrant time to align with passed-on spiritual ideals, abandon the old or build values anew. As faith leaps the hurdles of campus sin and hardship, the stage is set to move from conditioned to convicted about what you believe.

The Sinful Triumphs of Adolescence

Religious bias is an inescapable aspect of childhood: Whether family hammered home doctrines with sermons, mantras and holiday tradition, or followed less pious cultural handbooks, all children develop some understanding of personal faith, particularly oriented around punishment.

I grew up in a mixed-race Americana suburban household with quiet Christian undertones that manifested in repentance for sinful behavior. If I flouted parental law, repercussions arrived in reflection and being grounded. That staple of teenage times — rejecting authority — led to testing boundaries, violating the inherent moral legislature to align with ‘the truth.’

So often framed as nihilist deviance, rebellion at this stage is less symptomatic and more necessary. Late adolescence grants the freedom to explore without the consequences of permanence  like careers or marriage, so emerging adults defy expected behaviors, in spite of karma or the........

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