If something bothers you, so that it leads to modifications in the mind that absorb you, it makes you suffer. By virtue of this self-inflicted suffering it hampers you from being who you are in your svarupa. If it is your dharma to do profit maximising business, do it with a laugh. If it makes you suffer, due to your inner moral, then it’s probably not your dharma. Then find out what is your true dharma. This true dharma is a self-replenishing source of energy. Doing it is knowing it.
The thing that jumps out at me in this thread in two posts.
“There is no right and there is no wrong.”
WTF !!!???
(Excuse my French).
(No disrespect intended to Frenchmen).
(Or Frenchwomen).
There is no favorite color that’s right. There’s not necessarily a right or wrong school to attend. It’s not necessarily right or wrong to decide to eat at McDonald’s.
I would agree these things depend upon the person and his circumstances.
But it’s always wrong to steal. It’s always wrong to murder. It’s always wrong to gossip about someone. It’s always right to do be virtuous.
Did I miss the point?
If anyone wishes to discuss or enlighten me, please see my thread in the religion forum.
Well, very interesting points…but for me,I find I cannot do wrong without a feeling, a strong feeling it carries a bigger sentence than the crime say, I have committed whatever that sentence is, I don’t know, I just feel it.so it corrects me either at the time or later to never do it again…hopefully!!
Off to bed. Catch you later.
I followed you by about 10 mins…so late, got up at 11am, what about you Core? …
[QUOTE=yalgaar;19251]Do you also go thourgh any thing similar? How to you finally settle down?[/QUOTE]Dear One,
Please develop your state of Sakshi-Witness and everything around you will be like play.
"All the world is a stage, and we are mere actors". ... Shakespeare
Looks like we went to bed at the same time then.Okay you know what i mean.Yes i also got up at 11am funnily enough now you mention it.A beautiful day…still learning.What a kind thoughtful soul you are.xxx
[QUOTE=core789;43034]Looks like we went to bed at the same time then.Okay you know what i mean.Yes i also got up at 11am funnily enough now you mention it.A beautiful day…still learning.What a kind thoughtful soul you are.xxx[/QUOTE]
Core789 and kareng meet up late at night here on the board, and then are discussing going to bed AT THE SAME TIME…
Something scandalous seems to be going on here…
[QUOTE=thomas;43060]Core789 and kareng meet up late at night here on the board, and then are discussing going to bed AT THE SAME TIME…
Something scandalous seems to be going on here…[/QUOTE]
Hahahah Thomas…us Brits stick together…we take solace in our predicament of the different time zones…
I think that this has something to do with attachment…
I try to be as morally and ethically ‘correct’ as possible, but in what humans call ‘the real world’, sometimes a little ‘underhandedness’ may be called for by others…I mean, we have to eat/survive, don’t we?
We may feel bad, but that’s only us being attached to the consequences of our actions and not the actions themselves.
Of course, karma will bite us on the arse later on down the track, but that’s not our job to worry about. We all must do what has to be done and screw whatever happens:
“Karmanyeva adhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana
Ma karmaphalahetur bhurma te sangostvakarmani.”
This is not to say that we must forgo the very principles of Dharma. We still have to try and do ‘the right thing’ and try not to offend/upset anybody.
We must realise though that not everybody is a ‘yogi’ and in the material world, certain material standards apply that do not correspond with our own ethics and ideals.
As long as we try our best and not get attached to the desire for wealth, success, promotion or whatever, it’s all good.
This may sound like a huge ‘cop-out’, but there’s just no other way around it.
Story time (you may have heard this one):
In this village, there was an enlightened Sadhu…
One of the village girls got pregnant and not wishing her beloved boyfriend get punished, she blamed the Sadhu for her condition…
The village ‘elders’ approached the Sadhu, accusing him of impregnating the girl and making a mockery of the Holy Scriptures…
Do you know what the Sadhu said in his defense? “Is that so?”
So, the Sadhu was banished from the village…
Many years later, the girl married her boyfriend, had a family and confessed to the ‘elders’ that the Sadhu was innocent and she just used him as a scapegoat so she/her boyfriend (husband) wouldn’t get punished…
Then, the elders went out to find the Sadhu to apologise and welcome him back to the village…
They found him, apologised profusely and explained everything…
Do you know what the Sadhu said? (you guessed it)…“Is that so?”
He then disappeared into the forest never to be seen again.
This relates…somehow. lol
Slander people is wrong.And try to see what they are doing is wrong to.Mind your F***$#$$^%^^bussines.
What one considers as “right” and “wrong” are simply your own ideas about it, it has no roots in reality. Morality is as relative as relativity can be, you can paint whatever you want out of it. Depending on the relative standards that you have created in your mind, you are going to have different ideas about it. Thousands of years ago, it was absolutely good and ordinary for the Aztec civilization to conduct human sacrifice on a mass scale. Not only was it ordinary, but it was considered divine. Today, for the mind of the average person in the society in which we are familiar, the same thing can only be sickening and grotesque. There have been, and there still are, African tribes for whom cannibalism was an ordinary part of life. Again, the same thing can only be simply barbaric according to the mind of the average person in the society in which we are familiar. For the Christian, to have sex before marriage is a great sin. But for a tantric yogi, sex is a vehicle towards one’s enlightenment.
One suffers not because one has done “right” or “wrong”, “good” or “bad”, but simply because one has been living out of unconsciousness. And as long as one continues living out of unconsciousness, one is going to drift according to certain unconscious tendencies, the same tendencies which have been manufacturing all of one’s sufferings.
Nobody,
“We still have to try and do ‘the right thing’ and try not to offend/upset anybody.”
Life is always in such a state of flux, that it is impossible to live it according to any fixed standards. The moment one starts living it according to a fixed pattern, one has in the flash of a moment come into friction with the whole existence. Neither is “compassion” a matter of not offending or upsetting anybody. It is simply doing whatever is necessary to assist another towards one’s liberation. It has nothing at all to do with fulfilling the likes and dislikes of another. And certainly, if one is going to choose, one is going to choose what one likes rather than what one dislikes. What one likes may be a barrier for one’s expansion. What one dislikes may be a stepping stone towards one’s liberation. But because one is prejudiced and short-sighted, one will fail to see into the heart of the matter. More often, to assist another out of compassion is going to trigger enormous disturbance in another. Because the moment one takes even a small step outside of one’s comfort zone, one’s whole system wants to retreat immediately. It is going to resist transformation at almost any cost.
As far as compassion is concerned, there are a thousand and one skillful means. Sometimes, it requires a gentle tongue. Sometimes, a sword which cuts immediately through entanglements.
[QUOTE=AmirMourad;43507] It has nothing at all to do with fulfilling the likes and dislikes of another.[/QUOTE]
What if that ‘another’ is your boss?
Then it may be useful to become friends.
If not friends, then friendly.
If not friendly, then you will have to find the most subtle means possible of transmitting a message without it being too threatening for his self image. But I do not think you are willing to go through such a mess for your boss.
I think it depends on how long you hang on to what is right or wrong in your mind.
You may have heard this one…(might not be entirely correct in words…soz)
Two Buddhist Monks were out walking one day
It had been raining and an attractive girl was attempting to cross, with difficulty, a muddy road.
One of the Monks picked her uo and took her to the other side and put her down.
The Monks continued on their walk.
The other Monk said to his friend “we have been warned against dealing with women and you know it is not right and you shouldn’t have done this, and you…”
The Monk that carried her over, turned to his friend and said “I put her down and let go of her back there, why are you still carrying her now”?
Have you ever heard of Sacred Activism? It is a beautiful and growing movement spearheaded by Rumi scholar Andrew Harvey. Harvey teaches us that in this world that is so different from the one the Yoga Sutras were written in, there needs to be a rebirth of humanity; a humanity that is conscious of the social and moral justices and injustices of our modern world as well as in touch with their deep personal spirituality and understand that two are no way mutually exclusive. They are in fact, supposed to work in tandem. Yoga and Business could not be closer in relation to each other even than yoga and breath. Our world is a natural flow of practice and theory and yoga is a deep part of all of it. I would suggest looking into Harvey’s books. He’ll be speaking this weekend in Boston, not sure where you are located, but if you had the ability, even on short notice I would highly suggest looking into him and seeing if you could get a chance to hear him. Blessings for you
om,
Y3
Thousands of years ago, it was absolutely good and ordinary for the Aztec civilization to conduct human sacrifice on a mass scale. Not only was it ordinary, but it was considered divine. Today, for the mind of the average person in the society in which we are familiar, the same thing can only be sickening and grotesque. There have been, and there still are, African tribes for whom cannibalism was an ordinary part of life.
These things were just as wrong then as they are now.
Isn’t rape always wrong? If a cuture condoned rape, then that culture was wrong.
I too have a problem with the moral relativity argument. I watched an episode of a past life regression show that comes on Indian television where they people come with phobias and special fears, and then they regressed on the show and taken into their past life, where the answers lie. One man that went on had a fear of flowers, priests and temples. His fear of flowers was so intense, that he needed people to walk with him to clear away the petals on the ground, because he was afraid to tread there. When they took him back in his past life he found himself hundreds of years ago in a village in Tamil Nadu, south India. He was a priest himself who use to help at the temple. One day, his peers lured to a special festival of a deity which the local king was attending, to use him as a sacrifice! He was bought in, tied up against his will, they sanctified him and covered him in garlands of flowers, to the point where he could no longer see anything but flowers. Then they took a sword and decapitated his head from his body, allowing the blood to soak into the statue of the deity.
My immediate judgement of this henious and superstituous ritual these people practiced is that it is evil, disgusting, barbaric and savage. I am not holding this ritual to any moral code and if it falls shorts therefore it is immoral. I am responding to it as any human should. I know if I was in similar circumstances lured to a temple, tied up against my will, sactified like a beast and then murdererd, I would not have liked it. I would have gone through all the emotions this fellow went through - betrayal, confusion, anger, fear.
The golden rule is generally a good guide to moral behaviour. Do not do things to others that you don’t want done to you. I do not want to get murdererd or raped, so I should not murder and rape. I do not want my spouse to cheat on me, so I should not commit adultery. I do not want my possessions to be stolen, so I should not steal. I do not want people to lie and slander me, so I should not gossip and bear false witness.
I do want to get praised and acknowledged for my good merits, so I should praise and acknowledge others for their good merits. I do want to get love and support, so I should love and support others. I want people to be honest with me, so I should be honest with them. And so on and so forth.