Every Religion is "Violent"!

[renuka]

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Does anyone else get the feeling that there is not much difference between war and religion?

Both are acts of violence in my personal opinion.

Even so called peaceful religions like Hinduism and Buddhism too are "violent' in a subtle way.

For example...In Hinduism and Buddhism we humans are supposed to be in constant battle with our senses and I feel both these religions seem outwardly Ahimsic but tend to be like an auto immune condition where "self" is seen as enemy.

We are always expected to "annihilate" our so called evil qualities and work along those lines..there seems to be no actual peace propagated.

Its always a battle of the senses ..an internal Mahabharat.

Why do we need to be warring with our own selves?

Can't we just practice acceptance instead?

Whatever we are..we should be ourselves.Good or Bad why cant we be happy with our faults and short comings?

That is why now I sort of have slowed down reading any religious books..it just seems like war to me.

Its better I spend sometime watching some romantic movie..at least there is love.

 

[krish44]

It took you so long to reject religion.I did that with very little effort long time back. I did not get indoctrinated when I was young

We can accept ourselves as we are with our shortcomings and weakness.

Only others will not accept us as we are as they find it difficult to live with our shortcomings/faults.lol

with your mindset , you might reject romantic movies also.and replace it with cynicism of sorts.

everything will be reduced to self love and need to fulfill your desires .lol

that is not a bad objective per se.

 

[zebra16]

Does anyone else get the feeling that there is not much difference between war and religion?

Both are acts of violence in my personal opinion.

Even so called peaceful religions like Hinduism and Buddhism too are "violent' in a subtle way.

For example...In Hinduism and Buddhism we humans are supposed to be in constant battle with our senses and I feel both these religions seem outwardly Ahimsic but tend to be like an auto immune condition where "self" is seen as enemy.

We are always expected to "annihilate" our so called evil qualities and work along those lines..there seems to be no actual peace propagated.

Its always a battle of the senses ..an internal Mahabharat.

Why do we need to be warring with our own selves?

Can't we just practice acceptance instead?

Whatever we are..we should be ourselves.Good or Bad why cant we be happy with our faults and short comings?

That is why now I sort of have slowed down reading any religious books..it just seems like war to me.

Its better I spend sometime watching some romantic movie..at least there is love.

It is quite simple. Societies over a period of time viewed some characters like speaking truth, being helpful to others, being kind and charitable etc. as "positive traits" and branded some like speaking a lie, selfishness etc. as "negative traits" as this would minimise friction in the society.

The easiest way to incorporate these in a human being would be to fill devAs with positive qualities and asurAs with negative qualities and sing glories of devAs and speak ill of asurAs or create "mental enemies" as you put it.

The added advantage is one who is fighting with his own senses all the while can hardly have time to fight with others, so a less disturbed society, at least in theory.

After endowing living things with "outward looking" eyes, it is a mystery to me, as to why all the scriptures exhort them to "look within" without the help of the eyes.

 

[renuka]

with your mindset , you might reject romantic movies also.and replace it with cynicism of sorts.

I might replace it with p**n!LOL

 

[renuka]

It is quite simple. Societies over a period of time viewed some characters like speaking truth, being helpful to others, being kind and charitable etc. as "positive traits" and branded some like speaking a lie, selfishness etc. as "negative traits" as this would minimise friction in the society.

The easiest way to incorporate these in a human being would be to fill devAs with positive qualities and asurAs with negative qualities and sing glories of devAs and speak ill of asurAs or create "mental enemies" as you put it.

The added advantage is one who is fighting with his own senses all the while can hardly have time to fight with others, so a less disturbed society, at least in theory.

After endowing living things with "outward looking" eyes, it is a mystery to me, as to why all the scriptures exhort them to "look within" without the help of the eyes.

I agree a 100%.

 

[krish44]

I might replace it with p**n!LOL

Ha Ha Ha

 

[sangom]

Does anyone else get the feeling that there is not much difference between war and religion?

Both are acts of violence in my personal opinion.

Even so called peaceful religions like Hinduism and Buddhism too are "violent' in a subtle way.

For example...In Hinduism and Buddhism we humans are supposed to be in constant battle with our senses and I feel both these religions seem outwardly Ahimsic but tend to be like an auto immune condition where "self" is seen as enemy.

We are always expected to "annihilate" our so called evil qualities and work along those lines..there seems to be no actual peace propagated.

Its always a battle of the senses ..an internal Mahabharat.

Why do we need to be warring with our own selves?

Can't we just practice acceptance instead?

Whatever we are..we should be ourselves.Good or Bad why cant we be happy with our faults and short comings?

That is why now I sort of have slowed down reading any religious books..it just seems like war to me.

Its better I spend sometime watching some romantic movie..at least there is love.

If undisturbed, we all will be what we are, there is no doubt about that. But the "we" which we are talking about does not include murderers, rapists, thugs or various other kinds of criminals, nor do we consider people who have to toil all day just to eke out one-time meal/food. Imagine yourself to be born in your next birth (I don't subscribe to this view, this is just for discussion's sake.) as an orphan, thrown into the garbage bin by mother and brought up by an orphanage which is not very loving and accommodative kind. As a child, what will be your likely thoughts? If all people are left to be what they are, there is a strong possibility that such lives with unbearable pains, hardships and diseases, etc., will increase further. That is why certain corrective steps are necessary.

In your case, I feel you believedin the existence of external gods and goddesses too much (like most people) but then started reading too much, with the result that you are confused now and do not know which path to take.

This 'looking inwards' has been emphasized because the universe we experience through our senses need not necessarily be the truth. For example, if we could see all the electromagnetic frequencies from gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet to the waves created by the sun and stars, if we could hear all the sound frequencies, if we could taste everything from king cobra poison to potassium cyanide to molten steel, etc., and similarly touch/withstand the temperatues in the sun and stars, and so on, the universe may look very different from what it appears to be now, to us humans; don't you think so?

'Looking inwards' does not mean 'not looking outwards at all'; what is envisaged is that you try to find out for yourself what is it that makes you tick? Somebody said recently, "avan inti Or aNuvum asaiyAtu" (without Him not even an atom can move); the idea is to find out where that "avan" is inside you yourself. There has been one set of seers like the siddhars who have decried idol worship and imagining a god (anthropomorphic or any other kind) outside of yourself and ascribing God status to such external entity. They have said so in lines such as நட்டகல்லும் பேசுமோ நாதன் உள்ளிருக்கையில் (naṭṭakallum pecumo nātaṉ uḷḷirukkaiyil = will the stone (idol) speak to you when the God (which you want to see in that idol) is resding within yourself?), தெள்ளத்தெளிந்தார்க்கு ஜீவன் சிவலிங்கம் (teḷḷatteḷintārkku jīvaṉ civaliṅkam = for those who have clear knowledge, (their) jeevan itself is the Sivalingam.) and so on. Adishankara also has advocated "nididhyaasana" as the best method for realisation of Brahman knowledge, but our existing religious practices involving temples, idol worship, religious discourses which emphasize the existence of so many gods and goddesses in the form of stone idols, metal idols, photos, paintings, etc., are blinding people and leading them astray.

There is no "war" between us and our senses. It is as though your son has been found smoking charas, by you and you want to caution him in the most affectionate way and tell him not to have certain friends and avoid going to certain places; will it mean a "war" between you two? In a very similar manner you tell your senses, in the most friendly manner, to stop behaving in undesirable ways.

Hope I have been able to explain, though my ability to do so is not satisfactory, I feel.

 

[a-TB]

If undisturbed, we all will be what we are, there is no doubt about that. But the "we" which we are talking about does not include murderers, rapists, thugs or various other kinds of criminals, nor do we consider people who have to toil all day just to eke out one-time meal/food. Imagine yourself to be born in your next birth (I don't subscribe to this view, this is just for discussion's sake.) as an orphan, thrown into the garbage bin by mother and brought up by an orphanage which is not very loving and accommodative kind. As a child, what will be your likely thoughts? If all people are left to be what they are, there is a strong possibility that such lives with unbearable pains, hardships and diseases, etc., will increase further. That is why certain corrective steps are necessary.

In your case, I feel you believedin the existence of external gods and goddesses too much (like most people) but then started reading too much, with the result that you are confused now and do not know which path to take.

This 'looking inwards' has been emphasized because the universe we experience through our senses need not necessarily be the truth. For example, if we could see all the electromagnetic frequencies from gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet to the waves created by the sun and stars, if we could hear all the sound frequencies, if we could taste everything from king cobra poison to potassium cyanide to molten steel, etc., and similarly touch/withstand the temperatues in the sun and stars, and so on, the universe may look very different from what it appears to be now, to us humans; don't you think so?

'Looking inwards' does not mean 'not looking outwards at all'; what is envisaged is that you try to find out for yourself what is it that makes you tick? Somebody said recently, "avan inti Or aNuvum asaiyAtu" (without Him not even an atom can move); the idea is to find out where that "avan" is inside you yourself. There has been one set of seers like the siddhars who have decried idol worship and imagining a god (anthropomorphic or any other kind) outside of yourself and ascribing God status to such external entity. They have said so in lines such as நட்டகல்லும் பேசுமோ நாதன் உள்ளிருக்கையில் (naṭṭakallum pecumo nātaṉ uḷḷirukkaiyil = will the stone (idol) speak to you when the God (which you want to see in that idol) is resding within yourself?), தெள்ளத்தெளிந்தார்க்கு ஜீவன் சிவலிங்கம் (teḷḷatteḷintārkku jīvaṉ civaliṅkam = for those who have clear knowledge, (their) jeevan itself is the Sivalingam.) and so on. Adishankara also has advocated "nididhyaasana" as the best method for realisation of Brahman knowledge, but our existing religious practices involving temples, idol worship, religious discourses which emphasize the existence of so many gods and goddesses in the form of stone idols, metal idols, photos, paintings, etc., are blinding people and leading them astray.

There is no "war" between us and our senses. It is as though your son has been found smoking charas, by you and you want to caution him in the most affectionate way and tell him not to have certain friends and avoid going to certain places; will it mean a "war" between you two? In a very similar manner you tell your senses, in the most friendly manner, to stop behaving in undesirable ways.

Hope I have been able to explain, though my ability to do so is not satisfactory, I feel.

Everyone:
This post should be turned into a paper. It is informative and makes us all think. A masterpiece!
Thanks, Mr Sangom

 

[prasad1]

I could not have said any better than this song by John Lennon. I do try, but I am far from it.
Imagine" is a song written and performed by the English musician John Lennon. The best-selling single of his solo career, its lyrics encourage the listener to imagine a world at peace without the barriers of borders or the divisiveness of religions and nationalities, and to consider the possibility that the focus of humanity should be living a life unattached to material possessions.

With the combined influence of "Cloud Piece" and the prayer book given to him by Gregory, Lennon wrote what author John Blaney described as "a humanistic paean for the people." Blaney wrote, "Lennon contends that global harmony is within our reach, but only if we reject the mechanisms of social control that restrict human potential." In the opinion of Blaney, with "Imagine", Lennon attempted to raise people's awareness of their interaction with the institutions that affect their lives. Rolling Stone‍‍  '​‍s David Fricke commented: "[Lennon] calls for a unity and equality built upon the complete elimination of modern social order: geopolitical borders, organised religion, [and] economic class."

Lennon stated: "'Imagine', which says: 'Imagine that there was no more religion, no more country, no more politics,' is virtually the Communist manifesto, even though I'm not particularly a Communist and I do not belong to any movement." He told NME: "There is no real Communist state in the world; you must realize that. The Socialism I speak about ... [is] not the way some daft Russian might do it, or the Chinese might do it. That might suit them. Us, we should have a nice ... Socialism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_(John_Lennon_song)

[video]https://youtu.be/XLgYAHHkPFs[/video]

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Read more: John Lennon - Imagine Lyrics | MetroLyrics


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[krish44]

nice post prasadji