'Wish' what would it be for you?

This matter is actually more complex. I want to mention different aspects.

In northern Thailand early in the morning I frequently saw the monks walking along the streets begging alms. The monks there have no own property. The people there give them food and in return they get their benison.
The inhabitants live like do every day at least one good thing. It’s an tradition and it’s no money.
Anyway it is an article of value they give away and they get something from ‘above’.


And there is the act of donation. Also almost every Buddhist temple I saw has a donation box to put in money. It’s the same like in a Church where the collection bag moves through the rows.

I don’t see a problem when somebody is donating. Important is the reason why the one donates.
I donate because of respect and I donate there where the people are poor. And I donate because I want that this culture and religion remains vivid and lively.

But there are people who are secretly hoping: It can be only good to donate to an institution which has connections to a higher power.
This motivation I personally find already questionable.

And there can be blank despair.

A family has a 12 year old daughter who suffers from leukaemia. It seems their daughter has highly probable to die. This story is a true story btw. untill now.....(I tell the rest later...)

Let’s say the family is strongly religious, Catholic, for instance. But they were only involved into conservative traditions, yes objects.
(I mean: They go every Sunday to the church, they donate all the time, they have an image of god, they would not dare to miss a Sunday to go to church, they are christened, they had communion, they are married. All they did because of the 'force of the traditions' to remain, 'normal', you know what I mean?)

The medic say they cannot do anything.
So wouldn’t the family give all their money away to keep their daughter alive?
Or even if one says, pray and donate and your daughter will come to heaven?

One who is despaired and not self aware can become a victim of religious traps.


And finally there is a original meaning of donation. To give away something (an object) I don’t need.
The action is a preparation of the total loss of all objects every-body will encounter.
Propertylessness is a condition which is conform to the ‘Self’.
And the desire for objects is a power which keeps me away from Self awareness. The pseudo-subject, which is actually an object. An object that accumulates objects.

It does because the identification (I-idea) is restricted and hence there is a lack of objects.
(I am my body and my mind and anything else is a probable object for my desire).
The lack of objects causes a sort of incompleteness and this incompleteness causes unhappiness.
So we accumulate objects which is pure consuming.

So to donate can make one self aware, it can be a good thing!!!

This is absolutely right. And I myself wouldn’t consider me being a religious person.
I do not care much about religious institutions. I talk to monks and I read books when I have the feeling it is good for me. I meditate and I do some yoga when I want. I have friends I talk about frequently.

Btw: There are methods which easily make you experiencing the Self. Much more effective than visiting religious institutions.
The so frequently claimed evidence is experience.
But nobody (here) who has doubts doesn’t make the effort.
By waiting for a book with theories and evidences you will never explore the Self.
There are breath controlled meditations revealing the Self.
They only should be used when instructed. Because to some it’s just a immense event when the ‘I’ illusion breaks down at once and you stand to god and you see your Holy Face.

But I live at a place where Christianity is a major aspect of my culture.
The people here are christened and had communion or confirmation. They either are Catholic or Protestant. Most still make their wedding ceremony in the church. And all funerals are happening in the church.

When my grandpa died I was young, I had no clue about spirituality and religion.
I was sad and angry, I felt alone, I felt fooled.

The preaching sounded like total taunt to me.

Blahblahblah…was a good man…blahblahblah…time is now god will take him home…blahblah…god help the immediate family to stand the hard time…blahblah…the Lord had given it the Lord takes it…..blahblah alpha omega..blahblah….


It took a real long time until I felt there is own need to change something.
My study of Chemistry had been over already and I came through my travels to Buddhism.
Really fascinating and very scientific. Buddhism is IMHO no religion.

I did things on my own. I read books, I met people, I talked. I visited only a small group of spiritual interested people, no people of a religious institution.

But I have Christian roots. And when somebody maries in church or a funeral ceremony happens in the church the priest uses stuff from the bible.

So I had a ‘problem’. I am on the way to the ‘Self’ but did not get the stuff from the bible.
I saw no need to read the bible again, because I have found something valuable for me.

But later I had the time again and I resolved some allegories of the bible. Later when my grandma died and there had been the funeral ceremony again, there had been a completely different situation.
I would not say the priest was ‘better’.
I’d say it is me I have changed. This time the funeral ceremony and the preaching conveyed comfort.


So yes, nobody needs religions to ‘believe in god’. But to get their ceremonies a little effort is needed to have a look at religions.


The story of the 12 years old daughter with leukaemia is true. It had been the daughter of a workmate of a good friend.

But what is different:
Her father is a Zen master, a Buddhist. He requested audience with the Dalai Lama when it happened. As the father had to inter the body of his daughter he consoled the other family members.
An actual happy father who has lost his daughter was there for the others.

And nobody ever had a doubt about his feeling, you just needed to have a look into his eyes.

These are all stories of life which made me think about…..and the happiness that there IS a way lived by others gave me hope……..

Today I can say yes. I am. And it feels right.
I could tell a lot of more stories, it’s my destiny to be confronted with those matters.

Yeah, Ganesha is a good one, actually and does not represent money.

This is not the happiness I am talking of. There are opposite meanings in duality, but both are object dependant. (Happiness / unhappiness)
Both have the same quality, they are not permanent. So both are actually equally meaningless.

To be perfectly happy means to be without wishes and to be without wishes means to be Self aware.
The true nature is happiness / bliss. There is nobody who could miss something and everything that is happening is perfect.

 

No morality does not exist because of religion. That what you really are and that IS the matter of religion exists all the time. That what you really are needs no religion to exist and has existed before religion already.

"In my opinion the most negative thing that religion promotes is the doctrine of 'we are right and you are wrong' (though of course, it does not apply to all religions, or all followers of the religions it is classically thought to apply to) - that brings this destruction."

The destruction comes always from the people who don't know who they really are. And they have chosen their 'destructive way'. Another individual that is judging about that can then say the destruction comes from the particular religion.
In fact it is denying of responsibility.
I never have said it is easy there are traps. And in the bible there is that mentioned also. There is written that god forgives them who had been wrong IF they TAKE responsibility.

And another thing, there is no possibility to convey 'right' values to an individual without to say what is right and what is wrong. The same is when a family educates their children. They have to say them what is right and what is wrong, even to educate them.
That's the reason why the bible has its 10 commandments. It are instructions to live a life which is conform to the 'Self'.
The values which are conveyed by each religion have only one goal. To let the humans know who they really are.

There is no absolute right or wrong. Hence there is always something to somebody relative right or relative wrong.
And this lasts as long as the one is a individual.
So every-body has his own way with his right's and wrong's

 

You are completely right, but you are talking about dualistic matters.
Each individual lives in a dualistic world. Means there is always a counterpart for each thing.

good/bad
happy/unhappy
warm/cold
black/white
positive/negative

Most people say: "Think positive!"
This sounds to be a good way, but it isn't! It is not better than to say: "Think negative!"
Why?

As you already have said. Without to know unhappiness one cannot determine happiness. In other words, happiness becomes unhappiness and unhapiness becomes happiness in time. Or happiness creates unhappiness and unhappiness creates happiness in the time.

This back and forth CANNOT be satisfying.
There is something else which makes it possible that you can be happy and unhappy.
It is you! And being this 'yourSelf' is perfect happiness. This happiness is much much stronger than the relative happiness.

A happiness which is not related to anyThing. It is real happiness, in fact the only thing that is real, it is you, yourself!!!
I am sure you have experienced what I mean already....probably a short time only..I don't know....it is the overwhelming feeling that you are, pure being.