Westerners approaching non-Western traditions

Good job, Surya Deva.

You licked them fair & square.

And exposed them for the bigoted small-minded hypocirts they really are.

Ugh

Core789

Happy Days Everyone

[QUOTE=core789;33921]Good job, Surya Deva.

You licked them fair & square.

And exposed them for the bigoted small-minded hypocirts they really are.

Ugh
[/QUOTE]

Small minded! Small minded is believing something without evidence, with is what being done. ANYONE can just assert religious dogma.

White supremacist's rant :rolleyes:

don't you think you're generalizing here a bit??

anyway, here's something to add to your woes:

The richest European is a devout Hindu

since majority of scientists & doctors & engineers in India are born in Hindu families, no one should object if I credit Indian hindus for any worthwhile contribution of India.

Indian hindus develops solar powered touchscreen laptop at less than $35

India double billionaires (all except one Indian billionaire are Hindus & a few Jains)

Circa 2017: Indian billionaire club to be world's biggest
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/corporate-trends/Circa-2017-Indian-billionaire-club-to-be-worlds-biggest/articleshow/2987745.cms

Indian(Hindu)-origin executives head a dozen Fortune 500 firms

NASA pros send resumes to India (I wonder why?)
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/bangalore/NASA-pros-send-resumes-to-India/Article1-347387.aspx

Wonders of Vedic math
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Indian-students-swear-by-Vedic-maths/357240/1/

Bill gates follows Vedic wisdom
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/Software/Geek_god_Gates_follows_Vedic_wisdom/articleshow/3175391.cms

Role of Hinduism in world economics
http://www.helium.com/items/562442-the-role-of-hinduism-in-world-economics

Time and Reincarnation

U.S. Buddhists, Hindus Back Evolution, Says Study
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=5dbb57b1707ee3b07cb20c2abc5994e4

[QUOTE=PatR;33937]White supremacist’s rant :rolleyes

don’t you think you’re generalizing here a bit??
b]The richest European is a devout Hindu[/b]
][/QUOTE]

If it makes you feel better to think of my opinion as white supermacist rant, than I don’t want to take that pleasure away from you.

Now, doesn’t announcing that the richest European is a devout Hindu, completely cheapen your argument? Just because people are wealthy, or generously contribute to society, doesn’t automatically make their religious beliefs factual. Come on, your clever enough to know that.

Just because people are wealthy, or generously contribute to society, doesn’t automatically make their religious beliefs factual. Come on, your clever enough to know that.

Actually the people are a reflection of their religion. .

What do Christians have to show for themselves? About 2000 years of intolerance, persecution of others who thought differently, inquisitions, suppression of progress. Orthodox Christian still believe in absolutely ridiculous beliefs like satan is out there to destroy us, has founded every other religion other than Christianity, and god is a tyrant that will send us to eternal damnation or eternal salvation for the actions in one life. Simply accepting Jesus as your lord and saviour is enough, it does not matter if you are a murderous tyrant.

What does Muslims have to show for themselves? Extreme violence and genocide of non-Muslims, fundamentalism, terrorism.

I mean a question that needs to be asked is why are Hindus just so damn cool? Why did we have urban and middle class civilisation before everybody else? Why did we build universities and hospitals before everybody else? Why did we do science and philosophy before anybody else? Why did we have industries before everybody and were exporting to everybody? Why did we navigate and explore the high seas before everybody else? Why even today we have been able to rise to the top and become pionners in science, technology and business. Why do we have so many scientists, doctors, engineers?

To answer this question I am going to invite you to compare the religions of Christianity, Hinduism and Islam by some their top most spokespersons and the answer will become very clear:

Christianity


Islam

Hinduism


If you think these are equivalent then you are blind.

One thing becomes absolutely clear by comparing these three discourses.

First let us examine the Christian and Islamic ones:

  1. The Christians and Muslims preachers are more interested in destroying and each others relgiion, ironically using the same reasons against one another. Hypocrisy.
    Zakir Naik points out the the flat earth theory in the bible, not realising that the Quran itself mentions flat earth theory :smiley:

  2. The violent tendencies is very clear in the forcefulness of the preaching. In the Chrisitian video above the preacher is saying, “I want to punch his face out” and the mindless repetition of “HE IS THE WAY” and uncritical appreciation by the audience.

  3. There is an absolute reliance on scripture and copious amounts of quotations are made from scripture

Now compare it to the Hindu discourses.

  1. There is no attempt at destroying any other religion or faith. The entire emphasis is on the subject matter which is about spirituality, personal development and practical methods to do that. There seems to be no interest at all in attacking the beliefs of others.
  1. There is no violence in the teaching or aggression. The speakers are calm, humerous and relaxed and are speaking slowly and clearly using logical arguments, examples and speaking to the reason in the audience. The audience is therefore given the opportunity to critically assess what is being said.

  2. There is virtually no quotation from any scripture.

It becomes very clear why Hindus are so cool.

[QUOTE=Surya Deva;33958]Actually the people are a reflection of their religion.[/QUOTE]

This is still not evidence for God. I like that Hindu guy on the Youtube clip. I have even taken notes in the past about some things he said, that I liked. I like Hindus. I like BKS Iyengar, I like Ravi Shankar, I like Gandhi. I like all my Hindu friends. But that’s not evidence for God. Cool does not equal evidence for God. Clever, rich, educated, Loving, does not equal evidence for God. I have never seen any evidence to support the metaphysical claims made by any religious believers. This is because, God is just pretend. I doubt that you are actually convinced of the idea God yourself, because you are going to suspicious lengths to convince me that your right. If you really were convinced that there is a God, you would be too secure to seek so desperately for others to agree with you.

Yogiadam the ultimate teaching of Hindusim is there is no god. I am not trying to convince you there is a god, why should I? We believe god is nothing more than a potential within us. This is why Hinduism is a religion of the “self” We place the self at the centre of religion and its observation, reason and direct experience as proof.

I have long rejected god. Many learned Hindus are actually atheist. We are monists. That is we declare
"All is Brahman" All is the same consciousnes or impersonal force, the ultimate reality. So god is not some person somewhere, but
a state of realization that we can all tune into and from that get abundant knowledge, wisdom and love.

The great teachings of Hinduism are:

prajnānam brahma: "Brahman is knowledge"
ayam ātmā brahma: "The Self (or the Soul) is Brahman "
aham brahmāsmi: "I am Brahman"
tat tvam asi: "Thou art that"
sarvam khalv idam brahma: “All this that we see in the world is Brahman”,
sachchidānanda brahma: “Brahman is existence, consciousness, and bliss”.

It is a state of our being. Not a god.

[QUOTE=Surya Deva;33958]
What do Christians have to show for themselves? About 2000 years of intolerance, persecution of others who thought differently, inquisitions, suppression of progress.[/QUOTE]

Old western proverb: “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.” (or is that Russian?)

Flex, can you show me 2000 years of intolerance, persecution, inqusitions, suppression of progress by Hindus. It has been widely accepted that Hinduism has had a history of tolerance for other religions. We have had Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs living alongside with us for thousands of years. Never did they ever had to face inquisitions or persecution or suppression.

[QUOTE=Surya Deva;33966]Yogiadam the ultimate teaching of Hindusim is there is no god. We believe god is nothing more than a potential within us.

I have long rejected god. Many learned Hindus are actually atheist. [/QUOTE]

Ok, so your an atheist. I was not aware of that. So you still like to use the word God. But you used it to define human potential. Ok, well if God is defined as human potential, then that’s perfectly plausible. I, however will use the term ‘human potential’ when talking about human potential, as it would get very confusing for the person whom which I am conversing with.
Similarly, a friend of mine said ‘God is nature’. However, we do have a word for ‘nature’ already. It called ‘nature’. If I was to go around referring to ‘nature’ or ‘human potential’ as ‘god’, that would cause a lot of confusion.

This is why god is a superfluous term and I only use it because there is no equivalent term in English for the Sanskrit. Hindus do not use the word god they use the word “Brahman” or “Shiva” meaning the infinite and pure consciousness which is our true state of being that we can realise. This is a perfect state of being where one realises all their potential and becomes fully enlightened and full of love, compassion and wisdom.

[QUOTE=Surya Deva;33969]Flex, can you show me 2000 years of intolerance, persecution, inqusitions, suppression of progress by Hindus.[/QUOTE]

Yes, but it would be a pointless exercise. You are much too clouded to accept any views other than what your squinted eyes can see. Open them up and we can talk.

[QUOTE=FlexPenguin;33979]Yes, but it would be a pointless exercise. You are much too clouded to accept any views other than what your squinted eyes can see. Open them up and we can talk.[/QUOTE]

So in other words you cant?

If your view is true and demonstrates your statement, I would have no choice but to accept it.

But the truth is you cannot because Hinduism has historically shown itself to be tolerant of other religions. This is a widely acknowledged fact.

[QUOTE=Surya Deva;33974]This is a perfect state of being where one realises all their potential and becomes fully enlightened and full of love, compassion and wisdom.[/QUOTE]

Love, compassion and wisdom?? I can’t wait till your enlightened then!.. lol I kidding… jokes jokes

[quote=core789;33864]And what pray exactly is your own agenda,Siva?

All i have seen in your posts is what comes across as largely sarcasm and ridicule. And i can’t help but feel this must say volumes about your own practice, spiritual development or whatever.

Whatever you call yourself, a yoga teacher , you can come across as pretty arrogant at times.

Your unwillingness to learn is very unyogic and definitely stubborn.Maybe if your dropped that facade, or false sense of self, you might learn more.

The absence of an effective meditation practice is glaringly obvious in you, and whatever your sadhana might be.:cool:[/quote]

Hello Core,

It’s called a sense of humor. Ever heard of it?

Meditation, for me, came to an end. As it should. How about that? And there I found there is a difference between God and the word that is “God.” I found that God is not cultural, historical, philosophical, ethnic, is not logic, reason, thought, knowledge or memory, is not science, art or anything I had read or been told, but rather was human phenomena: yoga

So when I hear those who have also had the privilege to learn “a word that describes” God such as yoga, but then who mistake it for yoga because they know it only in word, and who instead speak it as it were yoga, as if they owned it because of where their father’s sperm hit their mother’s egg, I believe it only causes fear and suffering for those who have not yet been as fortunate as myself. And so if I had an agenda, it would be encourage those, the other readers out there, not to fear these words, but just to do and keep doing, because when you do God instead of speak God you won’t need to own God: you will not need to know, think about or remember, you will no longer have to analyze, compare, categorize, or judge, you won’t have to prove, defend or argue, because THERE you can only BE, and these words that describe God, that some may speak only to elevate themselves over others who do not or can not (because of where their father’s sperm hit their mother’s egg), will always be only that: words. Until they DO God they will only speak God and continue to exist on your fear.

How ya like me now?
siva

I’ve done God. He’s great. Like the Greatest of all times. Incomparable.

Shanti

Why, after reading all this, am I getting the impression the OP is saying if you ain?t Hindu you ain?t nothing and if you don?t agree 100% you?re just plain wrong.

Interesting argument, flawed, but interesting.

By the way I do not 100% agree nor do I 100% disagree. I see a lot of misunderstandings occur as it applied to things Western and thing Chinese when you do not understand, or at least try and understand the culture and the history. And I am referring to misunderstandings on both sides of the fence which from what I have just read of this post is also going on here?.some misunderstandings from both sides of the fence. As well as a lot of generalizations and I really am not a big fan of generalizations.

That?s all form me, please continue arguing about yoga, its origins and Hinduism?this is fascinating

Know orthodox Christians do/can/able reconcile Yoga, as Muslims and Islam I gather the same. Know orthodox Christians certainly not fundamentally against Yoga philosophy, as I gather (guess) Muslims and Islam similar or same, may yet differ with aspects or in Yoga philosophy(ies).

I just watched the Christian propoganda piece, “Gods of the new age” on youtube which is a paranoid piece talking about a global conspiracy by Hindus to take over the world and destroy Christianity through marketing Yoga as non-religious, non-hindu, scientific and secular. I am now thinking, perhaps I will simply let you and others who want to believe it, that Yoga is not Hinduism :smiley:
Are you, Surya_Deva and Hinduism in global sphere and/or realm? or flat earth?