What a great question!
Until joining RF, I truly has no idea there were so many religions to learn about, and choose between. And I plan on spending a lot of time reviewing the DIRs and discussions for a number of the positions offered for comparison.
I was raised reform Jewish, by good hearted parents who I am not convinced actually believed in God, but thought they should follow the religion of their forebears to some point. Due to this upbringing, I really had no strong God-concept. Over the years, I have poked around here and there... a little Buddhism (unfortunately, I was young and it was pseudo-Buddhism)... a few differing forms of Christianity, etc. My closest friend and her family were/are evangelical Christians, and i have spent a lot of time in their churches over the years. While I envied their strong belief that they and God were close, ultimately I rejected the rigidity of belief that I found there... And especially after the churches started pushing political stances more obviously. And when it became "crunch time", so to speak, I realized that I could never accept the divinity of Jesus, making the entire exercise null and void. Since then, I have read books written by Talmudic scholars that enforce my personal belief that Jesus lived, was a good man and rabbi, but not the son of God.
There was a long period of time in which I utterly rejected the God-concept, after two tragic, excruciating, and unnecessary deaths in my extended family within one year. I knew as I was doing it, on some level, that I was "punishing God" for allowing these deaths to happen, as silly as that now seems to me. Slowly, I started to come back to a belief in a God.... Simultaneously, I began reading the words and teachings of the Dalai Lama. At some point I realized that I really never knew my own religion, and started to fully explore the different denominations within Judaism. There is much to treasure within Judaism, although I am not sure where within Judaism I belong... or even if I can fit within one belief system.
So, a very long winded story, and thank you to any who had the patience to wade through it. But to answer the question - based on what I know now - I would choose to follow the Buddhism of the Dalai Lama. it will be interesting to revisit this answer after I have studied the amazing options offered here.
