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A Teaching: Many Women Are Souls
You may be interested to learn that Self-Realization Fellowship is headed by a flock of women who claim "original Christianity" a lot, and "women's lib" - and also learn that many early bishops of Christianity taught that women have no souls. But many women are souls.Confucius in the Lunyi (Analects) 13:24:
Tsze-kung asked, "What do you say of a man who is loved by all the people of his neighborhood?"
Confucius replied, "We may not approve of him for that."
"And what do you say of him who is hated by all the people of his neighborhood?"
The Master said, "We may not for that conclude that he is bad. It is better than either of these cases that the good in the neighborhood love him, and the bad hate him."
The Law of Jante
The "Law of Jante" by the Danish writer Axel Sandemose:- Don't think you are special.
- Don't think you are of the same standing as us.
- Don't think you are smarter than us.
- Don't fancy yourself as being better than us.
- Don't think you know more than us.
- Don't think you are more important than us.
- Don't think you are good at anything.
- Don't you laugh at us.
- Don't think anyone cares about you.
- Don't think you can teach us anything.
Long-standing "Jante experiences" are the bad conformity that "bakes" persons into unfulfilled patterns.
We should prefer good and savoury sayings to blunderbuss talks because it is decent to do so. Also: "Strive or try to make it on your own. Try to get on and up to stuff in some local here and now."
Bad conformity cows, and cheerfulness can be a token of excellence in one's work.
Good instructions are terse - brief and to the point. Yet for the lack of a good education nowadays, many get unfulfilling life conditions in the long run.
The "Get Tao" pearl-stringed points may be put nicely into a way of presentation that is much like how Eihei Dogen (1200-53) arranged main outputs. [LINK]
"Women have souls" - by one vote
In Buddhism women have had far better conditions than women in other main religions, inspired by statements and practices of Buddha.But there has been considerable progress in Christianity too. During the Nicaean Council in 325 a vote was cast in the council, to decide whether women had souls. The idea that women had souls won by one vote.
It appears the adaptations to the Roman emperor cost the early Church much, also in the 300s. The emperor Constantine in 321 AD passed a law making Sunday the Sabbath, and thus setting aside a cornerstone commandment. Similarly, the doctrine of priestly celebacy was unknown to early Christians. The day of the Sun, 25 December, was declared by Constantine to be Christ's birthday. It made the Church of Antioch write: "How come you suddenly know when Christ was born, when we have not known for 300 years?" [MORE]
♦ "Religion may in most of its forms be defined as the belief that the gods are on the side of the government." [Bertrand Russell]
The two hallmarks of being of the chosen people were enforced by death penalties in Judaism: ritual Saturday rest (i.e. Sabbath rest, from Friday evening till Saturday evening) and "foreskin off". Then one day God was born with a foreskin and circumcised. I think I would have claimed my foreskin back in such a case.
Jesus also had difficulties with recognising his mother. "Who is my mother? My followers. (Paraphrase)" He said things like that and refused to greet his own biological mother. But she is the one Catholics have made icons of, pray to by Hail Mary and so on, because they think she is GOOD against a saying of Jesus that none is good but God alone, and Medieval Catholicism maintained that Mother-Virgin Mary was the Catholic Church itself.
Stepping Things Up a Bit
Many women are souls. By 'soul' I mean 'Seele', a Jungian term.Did not all the bishops at Nikea that voted against women having souls, sin against them thereby? If they denied them being souls, those old fogeys most likely did. And did not all the bishops and prelates who held the same idea, also sin against the women who had given them birth, fed and cared for them, and slept with them?
If your brother sins and does not repent, eventually treat him as a tax collector, says Jesus. [Matthew 18:15-17]. One of the evangelists had been a tax collector. How was he treated? As a follower of Jesus. So were not a few bishops in the early church treated too.
How is life as a follower of Jesus? "Do you think I came to bring peace . . .? No, . . . but division. From now on . . ." [Luke 12:51-54]. In the last passage Jesus does not say that man and wife should be against one another and separate, but he does tell that "A man's enemies will be the members of his own household" and "Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." [Matthew 10:36-38]. Bishops wear crosses, and others too. Now you see why Christians wear a tiny crucifix in a chain around their neck, thinking "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." [Matthew 11:29-30] If you compare this with what happened to many of his disciples and martyrs, it hardly fits, not on the surface of it:
That is no easy yoke, but take heart. As long as all nations do not know you and have not heard about Jesus, the saying cannot come true. And there is no reason to go for Jesus today, for "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel," said Jesus. [Cf. Matthew 15;24 etc]. Later thoughts in the missionary command in Matthew 28;19 are later forgeries [LINK].You will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me—If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also." [Matthew 24:9 and John 15:20]
Jesus and his sayings and doings were "for Jews only" he said. Gentile followers (most Christians) soon got Acts 15 (and 21:25) as their deal. Words by Jesus were not included in the four requirements for Gentile followers, but refraining from blood sausages and blood puddings is.
Besides, the "worth" of following Jesus is like that of an ill sheep, he communicates. [Mark 2:17; Matthew 12:12; John 21:16]. You can hopefully become better than being an ill sheep. How? By going for the self-help way of life of basic Buddhism and meditation - TM, for example.
Whether you thinks that someone has or is a soul or not, he or she might take up the kind of living and training that improves the future and get a better life.
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| Padma Sambhava |
Philosophically, what are the key differences between those who are souls and all the others if they exist [1]? Good souls function mahayanic, irrespective of religion, I think. Mahayana Buddhism holds that the mind is real, and that enlightenment is had through right conduct and wisdom and meditation. That souls have an indwelling Buddha Nature [2], or such a seed to develop, is also in it. This said, there are many schools of Mahayana, and different viewpoints and opinions and nuances in the teachings. The essential points above are the most generally helpful ones of it in my opinion. And I very much like Padma-Sambhava's corner-stone teachings.
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Literature
[1] (a) Soul, centre of being. (b) For the idea of otherness, the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics contains interesting opinions [Thd]. (c) Wikipedia, sv. "Other".
[2] Wikipedia, sv "Buddha Nature". Cf "Tathagatagarbha".
Efe: Drucker, Peter. Effektiv bedriftsledelse. Oslo: Gyldendal, 1970.
Thd: Zukav, Gary. The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics. London: Rider, 1979.
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