Conduits to God
The supreme being in organised religion is not God but the conduit to
him, whether self proclaimed or elected. Organised religion creates
power structures that only serve to increase the power of the select.
Jung, in his essay, The Undiscovered Self paints communism and the church with the same brush when he says, "changes can come only from personal encounter between man and man, but not from communistic or Christian baptisms en masse, which do not touch the inner man."
Fundamental change can come only from understanding the self. And conduits to god tend to affect adversely this process.
What I like about Buddhism is that the Buddha spoke only about ending suffering and refused to deal with questions on the existence of god and creation, saying that such questions were not useful for ending suffering.
Krishnamurthy said about preachers, “Please, I have nothing against Christian priests or Hindu priests – to me they are all the same. I say they are unessential to humanity." Krishnamurthy also believed that the origin of religion was primarily psychological: the occurrence of sorrow.
The way power is exercised by organised religion over people is explained very well by K. He says, "“There is in each one of you, in one form or another, a desire for continuance, a search for spiritual security which you call immortality. He who offers or promises this security, this egotistic continuance, this selfish immortality, becomes your authority, to be worshiped, to be prayed to, to be followed. Thus you slowly give yourself over to that authority, and so fear is cunningly and subtly cultivated."
To me, heaven and hell and god and the devil are here on earth. Any organisation that preys on fear and promises security in return for unwavering faith, whether it is a religions organisation or political organisation is evil.
Jung, in his essay, The Undiscovered Self paints communism and the church with the same brush when he says, "changes can come only from personal encounter between man and man, but not from communistic or Christian baptisms en masse, which do not touch the inner man."
Fundamental change can come only from understanding the self. And conduits to god tend to affect adversely this process.
What I like about Buddhism is that the Buddha spoke only about ending suffering and refused to deal with questions on the existence of god and creation, saying that such questions were not useful for ending suffering.
Krishnamurthy said about preachers, “Please, I have nothing against Christian priests or Hindu priests – to me they are all the same. I say they are unessential to humanity." Krishnamurthy also believed that the origin of religion was primarily psychological: the occurrence of sorrow.
The way power is exercised by organised religion over people is explained very well by K. He says, "“There is in each one of you, in one form or another, a desire for continuance, a search for spiritual security which you call immortality. He who offers or promises this security, this egotistic continuance, this selfish immortality, becomes your authority, to be worshiped, to be prayed to, to be followed. Thus you slowly give yourself over to that authority, and so fear is cunningly and subtly cultivated."
To me, heaven and hell and god and the devil are here on earth. Any organisation that preys on fear and promises security in return for unwavering faith, whether it is a religions organisation or political organisation is evil.
posted by Anon @ 1:10 AM
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