--- In [email protected], turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "wayback71" <wayback71@> wrote: > > > > I find your idea interesting, Barry- what would loss of a > > belief in God do to a community like Fairfield. > > That's why I threw the idea out. I thought it would > be fun to trip on. :-) > > > If you lost your belief in God, would that necessarily > > mean that enlightenment does not exist, at least in the > > TM framework? > > Well, I don't believe in God and I still believe in > enlightenment, although I don't give it the importance > that TMers might. > > > Do they really go to the Dome to create world peace? > > That's what I was thinking. The virus spreads and all > over town people wake up the next morning think, "Oh > shit...I have to hurry or I'll be late for the dome. > No...wait. Let me think this through. I'm about to rush > around and skip my breakfast because I think I have to > go across town and bounce around on my butt with a bunch > of other people to...uh...create world peace. Hmmmmmmm. > What could I have been thinking? Honey, get the kids... > let's go out to a cafe for breakfast this morning." :-)
Exactly. God and world peace were never the reasons and are still not the reasons I meditate. Or do anything, really. All too abstract for me, and I have enough reasons to meditate for myself and in my own life. Sounds selfish I know, but it is true. > > > And if they believed there was no God but meditating in a > > group did increase peace in the world, would people still > > go to the Domes - or become more "selfish" with their time? > > > > And if you are in middle age, how much more time would you > > devote to meditation if you knew that enlightenment (if > > you achieve it) died when the brain died and there was > > nothing else? Would you start to spend less time with > > your eyes closed and pretty much give up on the > > enlightenment? Or would you continue to devote hours a > > day trying to train the brain to function in a manner > > that creates feelings of enlightenment? > > Good questions all. I have no answers to them. > > > Or would people still head to the Domes because all that > > meditation makes them feel calm and happy? > > Would the absence of belief in a God and the feeling > that you *had* to do the things that He wanted you to > or expected you to do manifest itself as feeling calm > and happy, as if a great weight had been lifted off > one's shoulders? > > > If you found out God did not exist, is there still a > > possibility of an afterlife of some sort? > > Again, I don't believe in a God, but I believe in > reincarnation. One is not dependent on the other. > I am hopeful about reincarnation, and God and Shiva etc. But not sure. Reincarnation sure solves a lot of the injustice and ugliness of the world, which makes me wonder if that is why I hope it happens.. Are you willing to say why you believe in reincarnation?
