OT: A Day In The Life Of My People

Originally Posted by philthygeezer
This is something that confuses me as well. The website says that,




So why bother adopting the dress code if 'there are many paths'? If 'there are many paths', then how does one know the 'fine line of the truth' and defend it with a sword? The Guru seems to preach tolerance while the religion seems to preach intolerance. I have the same problem with Christian and Muslim religions: They preach love for all neighbours and then act in violence and intolerance. I have some trepidation about Islam preaching love for all as well, but I have only just begun reading the Quran.

As I was passing by a presumably Sikh temple in Ontario I noticed a large flag across the wall that said, "Long live Khalistan, our Homeland". What am I to make of this? I object to having people in my country who use it as a safe base for rebellion in others. If Sikhs come to Canada, then, understandably, I want their allegiance to be to Canada and not the Free State of Khalistan. Also, what of the Air India attack? So far my exposure to Sikhism has been an awareness that they are a political group fighting for a free state in India.

Please try to understand and answer these hard questions, as they are a great source of consternation to me and I am trying to understand Sikhism.



Very good post!

Something I find interesting is that with Christianity, at least as far as the New Testament is involved, and really Buddhisim as far as I can understand, the actual texts support almost a pacifist view, but sometimes in it's expression their is support for violence. Then with Judaisim there is a lot of violence in the scriptures , but in it's expression generally speaking it has gone beyond that.(in the US) On the other hand Islam and to a degree the Hindu religion seems to have much more of a holy war tradition that has persisted even as the religion has come into the modern age.

Big difference between Christianity and Buddhism.
Christianity under blindness of the "log in your eye" tries to undertake the crossroads of "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.

While Buddhism tries to embrace the above in search of self enlightment with the inclusion of disregarding Genesis.

Islam looks at Judaism and Christianity as a hypocrisy, while disregarding its own "log in the eye" and boasting to be the executioner for Allah.

Still, with regard to the truth and many paths.
Both are correct.
Many paths are the many lifes.
Each life, yours, mine, others...have its own road.
Which to seek in order to find the truth.

This road is yours, sometimes shared with others for a while.

Truth is in the Absolute.
That which has been, is and will never change.
The only constant, that is.

The sword, the double edge blade represents the Absolute.

As you say, pacifist lifetyle is suppose to be the theme.

Take notice, religions are but an attempt to understand God.

But..in err...things of this world take present.
While the Absolute is not of this world yet is.

Blessings,

Coyote Crosses
 
Semper Fi said:
Ya know, there is something called "common sense" which unfortunately is not so common these days.

For example, would I wear my confederate flag t-shirt at a NAACP convention. I don't think so. I would not expect to be greeted with open arms. Excercise your right to use common sense!

Wearing a turban in the aftermath of 9/11 is asking for problems. In the thousands of spectators at the football game, I guarantee you there will be some rednecks who will jump at the bait. Now the turban wearers are indignant that their rights were some how violated? Get real!!! The bleeding heart sheeples of the world will cry foul, but I tell you that is the way of it. Always has been and always will be. Get over it.
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I share your views, Semp. I wouldn't deny anyone the right to dress as they wish, or display ethnic identifiers. However, it might be wise to anticipate the possible consequences.

Last month I was traveling in Xinjiang Province in China. There is a substantial Islamic population there. Xinjiang shares borders with both Afganistan and Pakistan. Prior to entering Xinjiang I shared lunch with an American businessman in Beijing. He told me that he had been chased through the streets of a Xinjiang city by Muslims after speaking English to one of them.

When I traveled in the heavily Islamic areas I dressed conservatively, to blend in. Caucasians are common in the region and I was even mistaken for Muslim on occassion. I did not proclaim my ethnicity, and I never ran into any problems. I did see a Han Chinese guy run into some difficulty with an Islamic merchant. I stopped to watch and the problem disolved.

Here is a picture of the grape and raisin market in Turpan, in the Gobi desert. The vendors with the cloth hats are Muslim.

IM002035.JPG
http://www.aolisi.net/images/China/SilkRoad/IM002035.JPGhttp://www.aolisi.net/images/China/SilkRoad/IM002032a.JPG

War or conflict almost always involves dehumanizing the enemy, whipping up frenzies of hatred, etc. This may not be nice, or just, or indicate high spiritual development, but nevertheless someone who ignores this phenomena may have some rather unpleasant consequences to pay.
 
I do not believe 'public education' can cure ignorance and bigotry. We've had decades of education. If anything, the division between black and white America is deeper. Education has widened this gap.

So, it is a tricky subject. I don't believe in hate crimes. I believe crimes of violence are to be punished. I really don't give a hoot why some clod killed a human being. Most efforts to understand 'clod' are misguided. By establishing similar crimes to have more weight than the same crime commited for a reason society finds less troublesome, you have helped maintain a class of people who have the right to be offended. Further, you have subtly reinforced their seperation from the larger society. I don't think murder of a Federal employee should be a capital offense if the murder of Clod is not. I don't think the murder of a Hindu, a Christian, or a Moslem if done on the basis of religion has any more validity than the murder of an old woman for her purse containing 37 dollars.

This thread is called; "A day in the life of my people". This is an example of what I am talking about. It is not, 'my' people; it is 'our' people. Most of us know this, and I hope everyone on this forum. We are all in this together- this thing called life.
 
munk said:
I do not believe 'public education' can cure ignorance and bigotry. We've had decades of education. If anything, the division between black and white America is deeper. Education has widened this gap.

So, it is a tricky subject. I don't believe in hate crimes. I believe crimes of violence are to be punished. I really don't give a hoot why some clod killed a human being. Most efforts to understand 'clod' are misguided. By establishing similar crimes to have more weight than the same crime commited for a reason society finds less troublesome, you have helped maintain a class of people who have the right to be offended. Further, you have subtly reinforced their seperation from the larger society. I don't think murder of a Federal employee should be a capital offense if the murder of Clod is not. I don't think the murder of a Hindu, a Christian, or a Moslem if done on the basis of religion has any more validity than the murder of an old woman for her purse containing 37 dollars.

This thread is called; "A day in the life of my people". This is an example of what I am talking about. It is not, 'my' people; it is 'our' people. Most of us know this, and I hope everyone on this forum. We are all in this together- this thing called life.
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+1.

It is the divisions that politics would focus on and create that cause hate and violence between all the people on the planet who live and die as one race: Homo sapiens.

Don't let partisan politics knock you off your path to loving your neighbour.

Edit: ms514 thanks for your detailed explanation.
 
"This thread is called; "A day in the life of my people". This is an example of what I am talking about. It is not, 'my' people; it is 'our' people. Most of us know this, and I hope everyone on this forum. We are all in this together- this thing called life."

If the all people could follow this statement and the other ideals you have laid out in the post munk, the world would indeed be a wonderful place.

If only...
 
I always thought that Sihks were very recognizable as such.

I had lunch with a Sihk once, about 20 years ago. He was an opthalmologist who lived in a small city in Kentucky. He was in town to get some computer help. He seemed to know his stuff and seemed like a good guy. We need more people like that in America. Um. Make that "the world."
 
most of the major world religions, whether it be Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Judaistic, Christian, or whatever, all have various expressions, from the most sublime to the most fanatical, from the interior education which passes through and beyond book learning to the literal fundamentalist who has no basis for belief aside from a word for word view of scripture they understand only from the outside, from the lives of those rare individuals who dedicate every fiber of their being and every minute of their life to the search for truth to the simple stories told and accepted by the masses of worshippers far too busy with their exterior life to be bothered with the time wasting of the day-dreamers....and it is from the latter classes still ensnared in delusion and ignorance that violence comes.....
 
I knew a Sikh in grade school, or I too would probably mistake them for Arabs. It's ignorance pure and simple.
If I recall, the turban is worn as a religious symbol and not a fashion statement, so it's akin to asking someone to not wear a cross necklace or a yamulka so they won't get taunted by ignorant drunken idiots.
 
Mr.BadExample said:
I knew a Sikh in grade school, or I too would probably mistake them for Arabs. It's ignorance pure and simple.
If I recall, the turban is worn as a religious symbol and not a fashion statement, so it's akin to asking someone to not wear a cross necklace or a yamulka so they won't get taunted by ignorant drunken idiots.
Click to expand...

True.

There are places where identifying oneself with a cross necklace or a yamulka would enable people to correctly discern one's religious affiliation and expose one to certain dangers.

Both Buddists and American Indians use variants of the swastica. There are certain areas where prominent display of this symbol might lead to an incorrect assumption that the wearer belonged to an out-of-favor political party, and expose the wearer to dangers.

We can say that those mobs that correctly identify religious symbols are perceptive, and those that incorrectly identify symbols are ignorant. However, both types of mob are potentially dangerous.

As far as I can tell no one here has asked that people wear or not wear their symbols or identifying attire. Some religions might make wearing certain items a requirement. For those that do choose to display their symbols, it might be worth their time to devote some thought to possible consequences of their actions and how to avoid the negative ones.

We can bemoan human nature if we want, but things have been like this for a long, long time. Every once in a while you run into a tolerant and peaceful society. It's tempting to think maybe human nature has changed. I thought that when I visited Sri Lanka in the 80's.

A few years later they were blowing each other up.
 
I've liked the Sikhs I've met, both traditional, and the hippie-vegetarians based around Atlanta.

(It is rather cool to meet hippies who encourage you to bring your weapons~ and assure you no blade is too big!)

Sikhs share a similarity with Ghurkas as being people identified long ago by the British as being warlike peoples, and good allies (as some groups were identified as poor ones).

John
 
....there's hippie veg versions of almost everything, except maybe Republicans or Hunters...



munk
 
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