Merle,<br/><br/>Thank you for your thoughtful and considered reply. My comments
are embedded below.<br/><br/>>no i do not believe in original
sin....<br/><br/>I'm relieved to hear it! But I sometimes feel you really focus
on the negatives of humanity and come across as overly pessimistic and even
cynical. I'm sure you're not, just a thread I pick up here.<br/><br/>>i do not
understand when you say "end our suffering?."..<br/><br/>Have you heard of
Buddha's Four Noble Truths? The 3rd and 4th Noble Truth shows us that there is
a way out of suffering and how to do it. <br/><br/>>let me give you a concrete
example..<br/>there have been in australia recently 1 horrendous murder and
rape and one attempted rape and murder been committed on young women and that
being because the accused were released recently on parole...<<br/><br/>Yes,
I'm all too aware of these recent crimes against women. <br/><br/>>now i hear
folk..saying how evil the 2 men are...<br/>one
of them wants the death penalty...which is not available in australia...as he
says if he is released he would kill again...<br/> i actually identify with
their suffering..as much as i do with the victims<<br/><br/>Then that tells me
that you have a good depth of compassion. I agree with you. We often hear about
being One with life, nature, other people etc. But if that's the case then we
are equally One with the murderers, rapists and child molesters. We vow to save
"all" sentient beings.<br/><br/><br/> >in fact the suffering of the accused has
me bowled over with compassion...<br/>of course folk will say but if it
happened in your own backyard how would you feel and think?... <br/>that i
cannot answer..<br/>however either the prisoners are not getting any firm
grounding in rehabilitation or they are beyond help. <<br/><br/>Not sure if
everyone is beyond help, but us not giving up on them is just as important.
Some people need to be locked up
indefinitely for the community's safety and some people deserve to be locked
up indefinitely for the crimes they've committed, but we can still feel
compassion for them whilst also turning the key.<br/><br/>>saying that is not
anything to do with original sin..but the brain chemistry gone
haywire..<br/><br/>I think there are as many reasons why people commit crimes
as there are criminal acts. Mostly bad choices and a lack of imagination and
empathy (for the victim), I'd say.<br/><br/><br/>> then i think... we are all
players on a stage as shakespeare once said...the world is a theatre and we all
have our parts to play..<br/>how very sad to get to play a less noble creature
<<br/><br/>As long as you don't mean 'fate'. We can change our "roles" in an
instant if we choose to<br/><br/><br/>>i think there will be a golden era when
we are all enlightened and all caring and loving.."flower power and peace and
love" <br/><br/>We have that potential.
<br/><br/>>as jesus said in the gospel according to thomas.." the kingdom of
heaven is spread upon this earth and men do not see it"...<br/><br/>I prefer
his, "The kingdom of God is within you", but ultimately they both
harmonise.<br/><br/>>it's so so sad and makes me weep how lonely must they who
have the roles to play that are not so nice for what ever reason they are doing
and being and causing untold misery<<br/><br/>There's been a lot of work in
neuro-science on the meaning of free-will and it has been argued that it
doesn't exist. It's not found anywhere else in the universe, so humans are no
exception. If you take an "evil" person as an example, you can see that prior
conditions have an enormous impact on the choices they make. The work of Sam
Harris in this area is worth reviewing.<br/><br/>> how can we not feel
compassion..this is an issue that will not settle with me..i cannot make my way
through this to understand the why......<<br/><br/>It's
tough. Just the other week that British soldier was slaughtered on a busy
London street. My first reaction was anger and hatred. But that's the problem.
I reacted to strong emotions. This is the root of suffering.
<br/><br/><br/>>when you say no other organism has these gifts... how do you
really know?<br/> our communication skills with other life forms on this planet
are very dim...<br/>we seem to think and we believe we are the lords of the
earth...<<br/><br/>Well, I certainly don't think we're the "lords of the
earth"! I've no doubt that sometime in the future the world will "shake us off
like a bad case of fleas" (George Carlin). I'd say we're more custodians than
anything else. I think I'm on pretty safe ground to say that no other animal
can transcend basic instincts though. We have an ability to be introspective
and demonstrate empathy which is pretty rare in the animal
kingdom.<br/><br/>>the only lord of the earth is: mother nature..she runs
the good ship earth...we are at her mercy..and we treat her so
poorly...<br/><br/>Yes, I believe in Gaia too. This was my earlier point about
entheogenic plants and shamans. I think Mother Nature has given us the means
(said plants) to communicate with her. I think that it's no small coincidence
that at this time of destruction of the forests, there is a plant (ayahuasca)
coming from the Amazon that teaches people how to respect and live in harmony
with Her.<br/><br/>>for this we will pay with our own destruction..
<<br/><br/>Everything is impermanent. Even us.<br/><br/><br/>>from these ashes
there will rise those organisms that you so kindly refer to as not... can i be
so bold as to say... do not have our extraordinary gifts?...<br/><br/><br/>That
may well be true. But those organisms will also have to go thru the long
process of evolution before they become as self-aware of their place in the
universe as us. Of course, their process of evolution might
also take them on a completely different path of awareness. But I believe the
universe is intelligent and evolution leads to it getting to know itself. It's
taken itself 14 billion years, but here we are discussing such things. That's
pretty damn amazing to me!<br/><br/><br/>>we are one with those organisms..we
are those organisms..we were never anything else<br/><br/>We are, yes. But
we've also evolved differently. <br/><br/>>ultimate reality is the
understanding that all is one..there is no separate, no other...
<br/><br/>>ONE<br/><br/>Ultimate reality can be experienced, but not
understood. But I know where you're coming from :
)<br/><br/>Mike<br/><br/><br/>Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPad
