Ambarsaria ji,
Quote: Originally Posted by Confused
strip people of all their religious influence and lead them to consider the fundamentals of experience. This is where the common lies. It is where we are all the same. ..
Why should I or others give dis-proportionate weight to your comments and not of the people in the one I quoted?
Yes, so long as you do not recognize the difference between what is real / truth and what is not, you will read my comments as just another set of ideas amongst many.
I do not believe they are making any statements under any duress and perhaps are making these as naturally as you and me.
I wonder why you bring this question about duress up. Everything anyone says is of course natural, no matter what the circumstance. The question is who is making a statement in line with the Truth and who is not.
Don't they have such right to speak and us to listen or read or try to think about what they say?
They have the right to speak, I have the right to speak, you have the right to speak and this is a discussion list. But is this the issue here? Have I missed something?
My purpose is not to gloat about Sikhism.
I did not think at the time, that you were. Besides is it not so that the number of outside people who praise any particular religion is so few as compared to those who criticize it? And why should the opinion of such people as those you site matter? Perhaps it would be more significant had the founder of one religion expressed praise for another religion. But then, here too there will be questions….
It is simply to see others, who may be less tainted than me, perhaps more objective than me about Sikhism, to read or hear their opinions…..
This is where the problem is.
I don’t see anything useful coming from this idea. Will you not end up agreeing with any praise and disagreeing with the criticisms? Have you not made up your mind what the correct understanding is? Besides, I see this as similar to the idea of interfaith dialogue, which I consider to be nothing more than an attempt to solve the problem of ignorance and hatred by encouraging instead, ignorance and attachment. And attachment in my view is a greater problem than hatred.
What I therefore was suggesting, was for all, be he a Christian, Sikh, Muslim or Buddhist, to question the preconceived ideas related to one's own as well as that of other religions, and thereby come to realize that in the end, there are just the basic experiences through the five senses and the mind to be known. And this is common to all and is where we are all the same.
If you don't agree with this, please tell me why?
I believe it is a pretty fundamental and natural way the humans communicate.
What is being communicated is the question.
