TheGreatWhiteBuffalo Posted February 23, 2008 Posted February 23, 2008 In the course of my entanglement with right and wrong, with being the victim of an injustice I came to realize one significant truth. There is something wrong with how we apply religious teachings. What would you give for global peace? What would you offer? There will be a requirement a price to be paid in order to attain the goal we will have to put down the blinders that prevent us from seeing and seeking the finish line. How could religion evolve in a way to create global peace, I'm not talking about the removal of all evil for there will always be evil people, but we will no longer have to be the victims of the bullies and we will not be the meek as we the meek will inherit the earth. What does that mean and what kind of a day would that tomorrow look like in a new way of exposing the evil in our culture and a way of removing the corruption that exists all around us. How could we better protect our children and what would a community of free people with lovely minds living in harmony look like? Do you want to fight into the future? I would like to glide on smooth rails with peace in the present and forever. How could we model for others this new concept? First you have to define the concept... it begins with giving...
Cynthia Posted February 24, 2008 Posted February 24, 2008 If everyone involved in the major religions followed the core teachings of their great teachers the world would be a different place. Imagine if loving your neighbor as yourself and loving God first were as common as going to church or synagogue in the US. It is, paradoxically, completely simple and vastly complex. The LDS (Mormon) church may have the best handle on this. Off to try to follow Christ today - thanks for the reminder!
TheGreatWhiteBuffalo Posted February 24, 2008 Author Posted February 24, 2008 If everyone involved in the major religions followed the core teachings of their great teachers the world would be a different place. Imagine if loving your neighbor as yourself and loving God first were as common as going to church or synagogue in the US. It is, paradoxically, completely simple and vastly complex. The LDS (Mormon) church may have the best handle on this. Off to try to follow Christ today - thanks for the reminder! Well I might have thought there was another interpretation to the question, your response is in step with your beliefs. I'm going to offer this link for all to view and then we can talk about some of the issues that are contained here in: http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/ This is a rather long movie/documentary and the ending is rather compelling to a particular theme that is most fought against. Please take the time to review the whole thing, for what does not seem pertinent in the end is, I'll be glad to tie it all together for you if you don't understand. "The conclusion that I came away with is the same conclusion that I came with, and for that to be, religion does need to progress into the new era and we can begin now." You'll understand what I wrote when the movie is over. and read that line again, I'm going to put that line in italics, it is quite prophetic.
McKenna Posted March 5, 2008 Posted March 5, 2008 In the course of my entanglement with right and wrong, with being the victim of an injustice I came to realize one significant truth. There is something wrong with how we apply religious teachings. What would you give for global peace? What would you offer? There will be a requirement a price to be paid in order to attain the goal we will have to put down the blinders that prevent us from seeing and seeking the finish line. How could religion evolve in a way to create global peace, I'm not talking about the removal of all evil for there will always be evil people, but we will no longer have to be the victims of the bullies and we will not be the meek as we the meek will inherit the earth. What does that mean and what kind of a day would that tomorrow look like in a new way of exposing the evil in our culture and a way of removing the corruption that exists all around us. How could we better protect our children and what would a community of free people with lovely minds living in harmony look like? Do you want to fight into the future? I would like to glide on smooth rails with peace in the present and forever. How could we model for others this new concept? First you have to define the concept... it begins with giving... You ask some really important, difficult questions. I don't want this thread to go away, and I'm not ignoring it, but I'll need to ponder a bit. I'd love to hear others' thoughts as well.
October's Autumn Posted March 5, 2008 Posted March 5, 2008 The only thing that has to be given for World Peace is power. As soon as people are willing to collectively give up their power peace will exist.
TheGreatWhiteBuffalo Posted March 5, 2008 Author Posted March 5, 2008 The only thing that has to be given for World Peace is power. As soon as people are willing to collectively give up their power peace will exist. Thank you October's Autumn, Who and what has the most power in our world today? Who or what can manipulate an entire nation? I personally grew up believing that the political powers had all the control, but today I see that many of our politicians are running nations with a flawed reasoning, a misinterpretation of major proportions. Many of the leaders would call good bad and bad good like children not knowing right from wrong. The one fundemental word is "Love" if you have "Love" you will not kill. For further consideration how many Churches exist in the United States? How much land do these Churches own? How much money do they collect each week? Now take all of those questions addressed about one nation and consider all of the other nations, look around and see all of the houses, the wealth, the controversy, and contradictions in all of the teachings and then consider what could be given for world peace? You can not buy peace, you can not fight for peace, you can only decide that you are going to be at peace even when the whole world around you is in ruins and chaos seems to run rampant, with corruption in all systems high and low. Surely you know we are coming to the end of an era, with a new Son, a new song, and a new understanding where the furtile ground gives Love a chance to grow.
McKenna Posted March 5, 2008 Posted March 5, 2008 The only thing that has to be given for World Peace is power. As soon as people are willing to collectively give up their power peace will exist. I'm not sure I agree. I would perhaps agree with you if you said people need to give up their greed for power. But I don't think "power" needs to be eliminated, because then we're left with no leadership, which seems to me to be a bad idea (anarchy = bad in my book). But then, there are other greeds that also create violence and hatred - monetary and sexual greeds, for example. Maybe it is greed that needs to be eliminated? Not sure how we could do that. I do think humility is important, though. When one is truly humble, even being placed in a position of power will not corrupt one, because one will be concerned with one's duty to one's people rather than one's personal ambitions. Sigh. The world is too complicated...
October's Autumn Posted March 6, 2008 Posted March 6, 2008 You make good points, McKenna. I think we need a sense of personal power, it is the seeking of power over others, or greed for power, as you put it so well that is the real problem... we need to be content with shared power -- power with not power over.
McKenna Posted March 7, 2008 Posted March 7, 2008 You make good points, McKenna. I think we need a sense of personal power, it is the seeking of power over others, or greed for power, as you put it so well that is the real problem... we need to be content with shared power -- power with not power over. Exactly, and good point about needing a sense of personal power - in other words, confidence. I guess there has to be a kind of balancing between confidence and humility? Your post made me think of relationships. A relationship is, of course, quite unhealthy if one person is completely dominant over the other. But it does no good for both people to be overly meek and hide their feelings all the time, either. Both people need to have a sense of personal power - an ability to stand up for themselves and express their feelings - but they need to share that power, using it constructively rather than destructively, and they need to have the humility to lose arguments every once in a while. "Power with not power over." Confidence and humility. Eliminating greed for power would still allow for some people to have power over others, but in ways that are constructive - i.e. the power of a parent over a child, or the power given to an elected official (hopefully it's constructive). Yet we are far from eliminating greed. I heard the other day (from a reputable source) that for years a survey of elected officials in the US has been conducted, asking why they ran for office, and the #1 reason has consistently been "power." Money and fame switched back and forth as the #2 and #3 reasons. "To make a change" was consistently #4, behind those other 3!!! So I guess that brings us back to square one.
Wayseer Posted March 8, 2008 Posted March 8, 2008 I think this a areally good question - but I would change the initial question slightly but impoartantly to read - What would you give UP to obtain world peace? It is too easy to give - in fact with the way altruism is promoted by professional companies trying to obtain $$$$ it has become all rather impersonal and distant. What I would urge one to consider is the way the individual is promoted by Westernised standards - that the 'I' is all important. That there is a substance that can be labelled 'I' is questionable to say the least yet we live each moment as if such is the case. We need 'our' rights we chant endlessly - the 'right' to education, to 'right' to be heard, the 'right' to vote. The emphasis is overdone - it is exagerated - the ego reigns supreme. So what to give up? Birthdays. Yes, that so-called all important day that shouts out aloud that we are suppose to be this really important person which others have to pay homage. How conceited! How egotistical! How arrogant! That anyone should be 'expected' to remember, and to offer some suitable recognition of the fact, that I have a birthday sends shudders down my spine. I cringe. I am not that important despite all the hype. I struggle to get by but that's OK. I rather be respected than acknowledged - and there is a difference. When we escape the 'I' we become a community. When we become a community we can hears the cries for help so much clearer. When we 'hear' others and less of ourselves the answers will easily follow.
October's Autumn Posted March 8, 2008 Posted March 8, 2008 I don't think ceasing to celebrate birthdays will bring world peace... nor is there anything wrong with how most of celebrate our birthdays.
TheGreatWhiteBuffalo Posted March 9, 2008 Author Posted March 9, 2008 I don't think ceasing to celebrate birthdays will bring world peace... nor is there anything wrong with how most of us celebrate our birthdays. Our birthdays are just fine, and the celebration of love is just fine, what would bring world peace has more to do with how we are leaders of civil rights and how we protect the freedoms of others in truth. We do not get pulled down to the level of being a terrorist by becoming bullies like others who need to be exposed for their crimes against humanity. We lead others to know love and peace, we do not force them to love us, we bring them to want to know us and we are available to those who will see, hear, and speak with us. Peace begins with Love and Communication. The Church can only reach a few in a pew... There is a better tool, a new way to right the wrongs with a word. A good word that combines and removes the allowance of sin to go unpunished. I stand accountable for all of my sins of which I have repented, I'm not perfect nor do I expect to be absoultely perfect in my lifetime, but I do know right from wrong and I do know that my GOD exists. I am at peace, and blessed I am a victim and cursed I wish you,
Wayseer Posted March 9, 2008 Posted March 9, 2008 Peace begins with Love and Communication. Now that sounds like something straight out of a textbook. Neither love nor communication can become effective until there is a suspension of the ego. Spong uses the phrase 'Loving wastefully' - without thought of 'I'. Birthdays tend to reinforce the idea that there is a substance called 'wayseer' or 'october's autumn' or 'august moon' or whatever - when there is no such independent thing in existence. Until we learn that we are all interconnected - that there is no separate substance deserving a birthday - then the rest will forever remain smoke and mirrors.
McKenna Posted March 11, 2008 Posted March 11, 2008 Neither love nor communication can become effective until there is a suspension of the ego. Spong uses the phrase 'Loving wastefully' - without thought of 'I'. Birthdays tend to reinforce the idea that there is a substance called 'wayseer' or 'october's autumn' or 'august moon' or whatever - when there is no such independent thing in existence. Until we learn that we are all interconnected - that there is no separate substance deserving a birthday - then the rest will forever remain smoke and mirrors. While I agree with your criticism of the rather obscene level of individualism in our society today, I disagree with the importance you assign to it, and feel the 'birthday' idea is taking it a little too far. First of all, we experience the world as individual consciences, and while it may or may not be true that we do not actually exist as independent things, I don't see a problem with acknowledging the fact that that is what our experience tells us. Secondly, I don't think eliminating individualism would solve the world's problems, because clearly there are many areas of the world where tribalism, not individualism, is the problem. I think I happy medium needs to be found between the two; we can exist as individual, independent beings concerned with our own welfare/rights, but we also need to be concerned with the welfare and rights of our neighbors - truly concerned, not artificially. Finally, I don't feel birthdays are really as big a problem as you think; perhaps some people take it to the extreme, but most of the people I've known just have low-key celebrations that are more about seeing their friends and eating cake than they are about some kind of perverse self-obsessed individualism. In fact, the exact reverse is true in some cases; one of my friends this year asked her friends only for donations to charity organizations for her birthday. Thus, while I agree with the spirit of your criticism, I am not quite as critical of individualism as you are.
Wayseer Posted March 11, 2008 Posted March 11, 2008 I must admitt that I was being provocative. You make good points and the concept of balance is justified. What I was doing was alerting people to the underlying problem - that 'giving' something would help world peace. I'm suggesting perhaps we look at the opposite end of the spectrum - what needs to be eliminated. Poverty is the cause of oppression which leads to conflict. It seems eliminating poverty would be the main objective of the West - sadly that such is not the case is obvious - what is obvious is the exaggerated importance in the West of the individual. I was trying to draw attention to this fact in a personal way. It was worth a try.
McKenna Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 I must admitt that I was being provocative. You make good points and the concept of balance is justified. What I was doing was alerting people to the underlying problem - that 'giving' something would help world peace. I'm suggesting perhaps we look at the opposite end of the spectrum - what needs to be eliminated. Poverty is the cause of oppression which leads to conflict. It seems eliminating poverty would be the main objective of the West - sadly that such is not the case is obvious - what is obvious is the exaggerated importance in the West of the individual. I was trying to draw attention to this fact in a personal way. It was worth a try. I definitely agree that poverty is a major concern, but I think you really hit the nail on the head when you said "giving something would help world peace." It is not only the reduction of poverty that is needed, but also a giving from oneself to others - a reduction of individualism - and those two things combined would really help the cause of world peace IMO. So, I can definitely agree with this sentiment
October's Autumn Posted March 13, 2008 Posted March 13, 2008 I definitely agree that poverty is a major concern, but I think you really hit the nail on the head when you said "giving something would help world peace." It is not only the reduction of poverty that is needed, but also a giving from oneself to others - a reduction of individualism - and those two things combined would really help the cause of world peace IMO. So, I can definitely agree with this sentiment I do too. Although the problem of poverty goes way beyond money. A really good book was written by Ruby Payne called "The culture of Poverty" and talks about what people who are in poverty have to give up in order to get out. It is NOT a blame the victim book rather recognizing that poverty is more complicated than just being poor.
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