The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves.

Ann,
The verb "to have" anf the noun "love" does not fit together in the same sentence.
I supose it is about a wrong translation. When not then ...you need to research deeper the subject "love"

no book required molly. just to observe.

For a Western mind it is not easy to understand all those teachings.

My grandfather was a Christian priest.

My whole family was disappointed when I came one day at home and said.
"for me is more clear what eastern teacher say than all this complicated christian books and rituals."

Everyone goes his way ... follows his nature. This should be respected.

"For a Western mind it is not easy to understand all those teachings."

Why is that Swami. ?
Are we less spiritually enlightened.

I think your humanity is showing in the form of bigotry.
Such a let down

No. I do not want to generalize. And I do not mean that some people are more clever than other.

It is because of the translation. There are words which cannot be translated in western languages.

Is a different culture, different way of thinking. Many practical obstacles which lead to misunderstanding.
Western people are educated to act, to fight. In eastern they are educated to have patience and accept.

Of course if one is dedicating time and has affinity may understand. Everything can be understood in the end.

My personal experience says the western people need a very good translator. And there are some.
Else you may start to put in practice what you read in wrong way ...and you will need to visit the doctor. I have seen cases.

"20 And having been questioned by the Pharisees, when the reign of God doth come, he (Jesus) answered them, and said, `The reign of God doth not come with observation;

21 nor shall they say, Lo, here; or lo, there; for lo, the reign of God is within you.'"
- Luke 17: 20-21, Young's Literal(!) Translation

You might also like the Gospel Of Thomas -


It's a 'Gnostic Gospel' discovered in Naj Hamadi, Egypt in 1945; it is solely the purported sayings of Jesus.
Many of the sayings are also to be found in the four Canonical Gospels.

There's some controversy as to it's age/authenticity.
Some claim it predates the other Gospels; others that it was written significantly after them and distorts Jesus's message.

Interestingly, the Apostle Thomas is only mentioned once in the New Testament...in John's Gospel, the 'Doubting Thomas' incident.
Some regard John's rendering of that incident as evidence that Thomas's Gospel predates that of John (and possibly the other three Canonical Gospels) and the rendering is intended to reconcile some of the sayings in Thomas with the other four Gospels.
That seems quite plausible.

A brief commentary on the Gospel Of Thomas...



...

Miclee,

"the reign of God is within you.'

I understand what you mean. I had a discussion about this with a christian theologian. And he sent me to read about pantheism.

Pantheism is the belief that all reality is identical with divinity, or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent god. Pantheists do not believe in a distinct personal or anthropomorphic god and hold a broad range of doctrines differing with regards to the forms of and relationships between divinity and reality.

Pantheism was popularized in Western culture as a theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza,:p.7 particularly his book Ethics, published in 1677. The term "pantheism" was coined by Joseph Raphson in 1697 and has since been used to describe the beliefs of a variety of people and organizations.

Pantheistic concepts date back thousands of years, and pantheistic elements have been identified in branches of Eastern religions such as Hinduism.

Perhaps one very key phrase in Indonesia that describes how this works is “Asal Bapak Senang” (Keep the Boss Happy). The reason is multifold; but if you extrapolate to UAI dimension you can see that keeping the boss happy means you will be rewarded and if you are rewarded you have no economic or status uncertainty as you will keep being a valuable member of the company.

LONG TERM ORIENTATION

This dimension describes how every society has to maintain some links with its own past while dealing with the challenges of the present and future, and societies prioritise these two existential goals differently. Normative societies. which score low on this dimension, for example, prefer to maintain time-honoured traditions and norms while viewing societal change with suspicion. Those with a culture which scores high, on the other hand, take a more pragmatic approach: they encourage thrift and efforts in modern education as a way to prepare for the future.

Indonesia’s high score of 62 indicates that it has a pragmatic culture. In societies with a pragmatic orientation, people believe that truth depends very much on situation, context and time. They show an ability to adapt traditions easily to changed conditions, a strong propensity to save and invest, thriftiness, and perseverance in achieving results.

INDULGENCE

One challenge that confronts humanity, now and in the past, is the degree to which small children are socialized. Without socialization we do not become “human”. This dimension is defined as the extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses, based on the way they were raised. Relatively weak control is called “Indulgence” and relatively strong control is called “Restraint”. Cultures can, therefore, be described as Indulgent or Restrained.

The low score of 38 in this dimension shows that Indonesia has a culture of Restraint. Societies with a low score in this dimension have a tendency to cynicism and pessimism. Also, in contrast to Indulgent societies, Restrained societies do not put much emphasis on leisure time and control the gratification of their desires. People with this orientation have the perception that their actions are Restrained by social norms and feel that indulging themselves is somewhat wrong.

It is a web site of a researcher who was hired many years ago by South Korean Government to find out what is wrong in their arilines. In one year many flights crashed without a reason. This reseracher find out that is a communication issue between the pilots and the cause was the national cultural environment. The obedience to the authority even when the authority is wrong.

He solved the problem. Since then the researcher and his team evaluate periodic all cultures in almost all countries.

Kal,
can you confirm? Is the research realistic?