--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, akasha_108 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "shempmcgurk" > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > ...fat lot of good it did the 1.5 million of his people that died > > > under his watch and the millions more of his people who suffered > > > because of his myopic, anything-but-non-violent philosophy. > > > > > > I apologize to the group to keep harping on this fellow but it irks > > > me no end that we automatically rever and praise this man whose > > > very actions produced the very opposite of the non-violence that he > > > is supposed to be so knowledgable about... > > > > The man acted in accordance with his beliefs, and > > in accordance with the stated beliefs of Buddhism. > > Would you have had him do less? > > > > Besides, in all these harrangues you haven't shared > > with us what he *should* have done. What exactly > > was the alternative path he could have taken that > > would have worked out better for Tibet and its > > people? > > > > As I understand it, HHDL and Christ (turn the other check)were saying > a similar thing: if you want to break the long cycle of violence and > retribution, you must break the chain and not react to violence with > violence. However this is neither an easy or fast path. It may take > year, centuries and lifetimes. On the other hand, quick fixes -- > responding to violence in kind, may bring some temporary and illusory > resolution and "peace" but simply perpetuates the cycle in the longer > view of time. > > But then perhaps I am reading too much into HHDL and Christ. I am > neither a christian nor a Tibetian Buddhist scholar. Regardless, I > think the above is true.
And that's why I love the story of the Bhagavad-Gita: non-violence is something on a totally different level. It is on the level of consciousness. Indeed, it demonstrates that "true" non-violence is, by definition, completely opposed to the idea of non-violence in the field of action because once Arjuna is established in the consciousness of non-violence (i.e. enlightenment) he comes out and commits the worst ultra-violence we can think of. In this way the BG is totally unambiguous about the nature of violence and non-violence and how true ahimsa should be interpreted. But even without considering actual physical fighting or war, as Arjuna was engaged in, the field of activity even in what we call "peace time" or normal everyday life is rife with violence. "Violence" defines the relative...the relative is a constantly changing field and in order for change to occur there must be continual creation, maintenance and DESTRUCTION. Shiva is continually destroying in order for creation to occur. The bud disappears through the violence of the inner flower unfolding. The blessed cells of my body are continually being violently discarded for newer,healthier cells to take their place. Rotting carcasses of all sorts of life are destroyed through the violent destructive actions of bacterial without which we would all die in about a week because we'd be up to our eye balls in shit and disease. Violence happens everywhere in the relative, all the time. It is to have the experience of that unchanging NON-VIOLENT state of consciousness that all the Saints talk about when they speak of ahimsa. Indeed, to preach for non-violence in the relative would mean the elimination of life as we know it. But without the personal experience of ahimsa they get it all wrong and misinterpret it to mean some sort of teaching for behaviour in the relative life and idiots like the Dalai Lama let it lead them smack into the middle of horrible, unnecessary, and completely avoidable violence. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 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/
