Theos-Talk Archives (June 1998 Message tt00414)

"Thus, if a man feels immediate hatred when (for example) someone says
something about his chosen spiritual teacher that threatens his own view
of that person, there's no way to reason with these emotions." and "Thus
I'd say that there is a kind of faith that goes hand in hand with
*practice* and that this is necessary and healthy; it leads eventually
to proof.  But there's another kind of faith that is in the unprovable;
it leads eventually to conflict with others. That's building one's house
on sand instead of the rock of personally testable propositions.  And
people who attach their faith to phenomena or specific historical claims
are the most susceptible to fear reactions, leading to hate, when they
feel the object of their faith to be under attack"

To put everything down to a FEAR complex is far to simplistic it seems
to me.  Defense may spring from experience, from logical conviction,
from study of accumulated witnesses, -in  a court of law in some
countries one witness is enough, in others two are required;  from
proven faith in those who have proved to be Trust worthy, from desire to
protect the defenseless again slander.  It seems an incomplete thesis to
my way of thinking.

How do you prove to a blind man the beauty of the sunset.  He has not
the sense required to see the colours and does he know this kind of
beauty?  But by listening to sighted people describe sunsets again and
again, if he too taking there witnessing as truth, gains faith in the
existence of beautiful sunsets, is he a fool?  When we may not possess
the  perceptive faculties into the psychic/astral world, and especially
into the spiritual, are we to say that these do not exist.  And even if
such a person should say as the materialists sometimes do say ,they do
not exist, even then;  Fear cannot be  the only motivation?
Psychologists are not so naïve.

I am reminded of a story told about the Buddha.  He had been speaking to
collection of Bhikus (monks) and lay people about the bliss of
Sukhavati-The Happy Land.  One from the crowd raised his voice and said
he did not believe in Sukhavati.  The Buddha asked him from where he
came, the man named a tiny little village far away/  The Buddha asked
the audience, had anyone been to that village and could substantiate the
man's claim to the existence of that village, none could.  So the Buddha
said as none could confirm the man's statement, obviously the village
did not exist.  The man was quite indignant, and he went into a lengthy
description of the main street, the houses and who lived where.  The
Buddha after listening to the man said, "I have dwelt in Sukhavati, I
can describe Sukhavati, as you describe your village."

Just a contribution,              Sophia


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