--- In [email protected], "martyboi" <martyboi@...> wrote: > > Though not strictly a TM meditator, I tend to believe in the ME. I have often > noticed an intense internal enlivening of "grace" in around spiritual groups > of various sorts. > > I find this "enlivening" everywhere in so many settings - Christian churches > and monasteries, Buddhist venues and Hindu temples...yes, and even around the > lowly TM meditators ;-)
This may be your own construction. Do you feel the same thing about voodoo ceremonies? How about about a rasta smoke-in? A religious ritual involving killing a goat? A human? When our subconscious expectations are matched in the environment, our brains reward us. We get flooded with the expected good feelings. We have historically been shown to suck at evaluating such groups outside us. You are judging what is outside by a feeling inside. It implies only simultaneity, not causality. Here is what I propose: we get a curtain and you sit facing away from it. Across the curtain we bring in a succession of followers of Sebud, Thug hash smokers from Northern India (the original assassins) and a variety of new age groups along with a group of guys who used to cut up bodies for the mob. Without the visual clues, can you accurately tell what field effect they are emanating? (I can get the Mafia guys and thugs, I need help gathering up the rest.) > > I do believe that individuals and groups of individuals can be conduits for > grace to flow into this world...Each member of the group "tugging" each > member along in a symbiotic manner. > > What I don't believe is that the manner in which that grace expresses itself > in the world is predictable with respect to individuals: as we know, "God is > no respecter of persons." (Acts 10:34) > > Grace influences our thoughts, behaviors and choices in the world and moves > situations towards positive outcomes. But - it's only through action and > behavior that it (grace)becomes meaningful. > > I am sure that sitting and radiating grace is great. But, Krishna told Arjuna > to act for a reason...Action is the bridge through which that grace becomes > manifest. >
