This whole thread makes me very uncomfortable. How does gurmukh or manmukh relate to whether you use your mind? Are people saying that the mind should not be used to be a gurmukh (blind faith) or are people saying that not using the mind to follow and focus on the gurbani makes one a manmukh? I am confused!
Gurbani encourages the use of bibek buddhi-our intellect and discerning to understand the message of gurbani so not using the mind is not an option!
This is an interesting point, watching the religious tv channels again the other day, I watched a preacher talking to a large number of people about his definition of gods will. The religion concerned is not important, but it was not a sikh channel. He stated that if everyone followed the rules as set out in their holy book, then they would all go to heaven, where everything was wonderful, and if they did not, they would go to hell, and there was much mention of fire, implements of torture etc. At no point was the subject of 'understanding' mentioned. The message was clear, do these things, go to heaven, do these other things go to hell. The preacher talked about how hard it was to resist doing bad things, but we all had to attempt to shut off that bad voice and listen to the good voice.
Findingmywayji, this is the type of religion that , in my view, does encourage you not to use your own mind. I could have stopped living as a fool years ago, but in my view, that would have been blind faith, what I personally needed was intelligent and reasoned arguments why I would not want to live like that anymore, and that I found here on this forum.
That has been my search, not for some authority to tell me whats wrong and right, but for my mind to develop to a point where things that I could do without even thinking before, now, I have no desire or need to do them anymore. I hope to die in peace doing what I do, not out of fear of hell, or desire of heaven, but because in my heart, I have no attraction for them.
I still drink sometimes, I know that each drink I have takes me further away from the truth, and each absent day helps me get closer, at some point, I will have to make a decision, which is more attractive to me?, I will have to ponder the effects of even the odd drink with my beliefs and attempt to reconcile that as to what I actually am. In time, I will not even have my weekly odd lager, as the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks, this takes understanding faith and a working brain. I personally would rather throw myself off a cliff than adhere to a religion that deep down, was a fight and struggle all the way to the end, blind faith..
