[FairfieldLife] The Politics of Spiritual Belief
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 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/
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Politics of Spiritual Belief
--- TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: snip > > "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 I see this as a non-dilemma. You're assuming, in your proposition, such a teaching/technique exists and such an assumption is false. It is the belief that a teaching is universally beneficial to all people that creates the horrible religious conflicts and spiritual elitism that have always wracked the world. the only way to know if a spiritual practice is beneficial to you is to practice it for some time and see what happens. > > > > > > > > > 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 > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > __ Discover Yahoo! Have fun online with music videos, cool games, IM and more. Check it out! http://discover.yahoo.com/online.html 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/
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Politics of Spiritual Belief
on 6/1/05 4:15 AM, TurquoiseB at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > "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?" You can't force people to do a spiritual practice. Even if it is theoretically beneficial for all, it won't be beneficial for someone forced to practice it. 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/
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Politics of Spiritual Belief
I'd be worried that Tony Blair would learn this. --- 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 > > > > > > > > > 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 > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > __ Discover Yahoo! Stay in touch with email, IM, photo sharing and more. Check it out! http://discover.yahoo.com/stayintouch.html 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/
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Politics of Spiritual Belief
As a believer in the unfathomable importance of Free Will I would say "no way!". TurquoiseB wrote: > 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 > 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/
