Theos-Talk Archives (October 1999 Message tl00237)

----- Original Message -----
> From: Gerald Schueler <gschueler@iximd.com>
> Date: Sunday, October 17, 1999 6:33 PM
> Subject: Some More on Right & Wrong

> From your perspective (and for most of the world including
> me) it was evil indeed.  But I suspect that Hitler & Company
> believed they were doing the "right" thing.

For *themselves* they were doing the "right" (necessary) thing.  It was
still (vide Auschwitz, etc. etc.) evil.  I have little doubt that evil
exists as such within the human potential. Give it an excuse and it will
act.  The same goes for good as well, though good needs a reason,
reather than an excuse.  Some people may be born evil.  I was once
introduced by a proud mother to her new born child (a boy, for the
record).  I looked, he looked.  If looks could kill, I'd be dead.
>
> All I was trying to say is that we need to purge revenge
> and hatred from ourselves and let karma take care of
> sorting out right/reward and wrong/punishment.

Karma, as I undersatnd karma, will do this anyway, whether or not we
purge.  How do I understand karma?  suppose we meet and I am able to
deeply hurt you.  In the moment of hurting I am hurting myself, as we
are connected through the threads of universal Being.  Come the
judgement (life review during the death sequencing process) I will
experience the emotions of both of us simultaneously as I relive that
moment.  Why do I understand it this way?  Like some others on this
list, I've been there, but got brought back to temporal existence.

> If
> an assassin shot HH the Dali Lama, would he shoot
> back or would he forgive?

If an efficient assassin shot him, he would be dead.  Either way, being
the Dalai Lama, he would probably forgive, as that would be part of his
belief system.  If a less efficient assassin shot me, and failed to kill
me - and I had a gun - I would almost certainly shoot back before he got
a second shot, as bodily reflexes will always promote self-preservation.

I wonder if the Dalai Lama carries a gun?  Do his attendants carry them?

Reminds me of the tale of the Quaker who had an early homestead in the
US.  Two bad guys rode into his yard thinking to have an easy time of
it, as Quakers are known pacifists.

"Friend," said rhe Quaker, pointing a fully loaded shotgun directly at
them, "I would not harm a hair of thy head, but thou art standing where
I am about to shoot."

Alan

Alan@ambain.softnet.co.uk
http://www.soft.net.uk/ambain/