--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Here's a question that came up first on another forum > of which I am a member. The responses were interesting, > and members have since posted it on a number of other > forums -- Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, > atheist, Native American -- in which the responses were > equally interesting and even more varied. > > So I'm posting it here to see what the responses might > be on this primarily TM-centered forum. I think we all > know what Maharishi's answer would be to the question; > he has made it clear many times in the past. I'm just > curious to know what individual people here think. The > original question, posed by a Tibetan Buddhist monk, was: > > "If you knew of a spiritual practice that you were > *certain* produced beneficial effects to all who > practice it, and produced equally beneficial effects > for the world as a whole, and you had the ability to > legislate the practice and force everyone to do it, > would it be ethical to do so; that is, would such an > approach be in accord with the dharma?" > > Unc
**** If you are `certain' that a practice produces beneficial effects to everyone in every circumstance even when people are forced to do it, this certainty still doesn't guarantee that the practise actually is beneficial. And what you understand to be beneficial may not be that according to somebody else's standards. If a practise is truly beneficial to most people, it will spread by itself as fast as people are capable of appreciating and adopting it. E.g. meditation may have some beneficial influence on many people in some aspects. But it also takes time to do it and because of it you may have to drop some other activity. If it means that you spend clearly less time with your children or drop physical exercise, the overall effect may not be beneficial. Irmeli To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
