Theos-Talk Archives (November 1994 Message tl00062)

Taking your response to my quoting Lama A.  Govinda, I realised
that I was transmitting only half his meaning.  The rest of the
chapter (& probably the book) describes the Buddhist way without
the concepts of good & evil.  Just another brief quote to
elucidate

"...  greed & hatred are here recognized as the principal
obstacles on the path.  The mind must free itself from these
hampering factors by developing helpful powers to counteract
them.  These are generosity & love, which are the precise
equivalents of nongreed & non-hatred.  "If a person has once
realized this deep within, in heart and mind, and if that person
has only the one wish remaining, to gain enlightenment for the
sake of all beings, then what is 'wholesome' and 'unwholesome'
will become obvious of its own accord.  A truth seeker will not
lie, and one who has the well-being of all beings at heart will
avoid slander & harsh speech as well as all vain & foolish
chatter."

Re the Spanish Inquisition - I didn't know that it started as a
way to root out "conversos".  It sounds 99% like evil intent to
me, but it could perhaps be that they were intent on saving
souls.  Just incidentally, some of my ancestors left Spain for
Germany because of the Inquisition.  Also I'm sometimes asked
whether I'm Italian.  My stock answer is that it's possible,
because my ancestors came through Rome.  Jewish custom was & is
that the children take on the religion of the mother.

I still wish we could think up some ways to counteract unethical
business practices.  I'm not working anymore.  I can't lose my
income.  I've done a few small things in my time.  One of them is
trying to practice our belief in universal brotherhood.  What
bothers me is that this warps our whole way of life, almost all
over the world.  That means that it has an "unwholesome"
influence on the world's Karma.