Dalai Lama - Tumblr Posts
“𝐈 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐬𝐭
𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬
𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭..
𝑰 𝒅𝒐 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒅𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆…”
~𝓓𝓪𝓵𝓪𝓲 𝓛𝓪𝓶𝓪
~~~~~~~——-~~~~~
How deep does the lotus blossom's color run through your curiosity?
Dalai Lama
We need to understand the inadequacy of an educational system so slanted towards material values. The solution is not to give an occasional lecture, but to integrate ethics into the educational curriculum. To do this effectively requires a secular ethics, free of religious influence, based on common sense, a realistic view and scientific findings.
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I don't believe that this post is from the Dalai Lama. What stands out is that the Dalai Lama is making several judgments, which he would never do. The Dalai Lama projects a vision about what education could be. The judgments are: inadequacy of an educational system, slanted towards material values, not to give an occasional lecture, and secular ethics free of religious influence based on common sense. The vision of a better education system looks at the problem of getting young minds to engage in the process of discovery. For example, how does a lotus blossom's color come to be? What minerals are needed? How do these minerals move through the flower? What role does water, mud, sun, and surrounding environment play?What sounds are made as a lotus grows? What do cross sections of the flower look like if drawn by hand? If the child were curious about just a flower and nothing else, how could this motivation to learn as much about a flower as possible be used to shoe horn in other subjects needed to study the flower .. like reading, writing, composition, comprehension, science, art, music, competition, ecology, and so on. The vision is to improve education. How then does judging and deeming it inadequate help? This creates two, separate, and unequal parts. It is better to point towards the flower, and say, "There is only 1, when two are of the same mind". The master guides the student's curiosity and discovery.
by Kenny Maths on Flickr.Morning view of Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet.
Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.
Dalai Lama
dedicated to my colleagues
Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.
Dalai Lama (via onlinecounsellingcollege)
Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.
Dalai Lama
HAPPY NYC PRIDE 2024 - Exciting News! scopOphilic has two pieces in Brooklyn Pride! 2024.
BROOKLYN PRIDE: “PRIDE: ALL DAY, EVERY DAY” (June 1 thru August 31, 2024) Outdoor Art Exhibition
Arts Gowanus and Old Stone House, and Brooklyn Pride IS hosting this public outdoor art exhibition that honors and uplifts Brooklyn’s LGBTQIA+ Community.
“Vogueing Is Not A Crime (In Honor of O'Shae Sibley), photo collage, 2024” is just one of the amazing artworks on display. These artworks beautifully depict and celebrate various facets of the LGBTQIA+ experience and community.
You can find these vibrant works adorning vinyl banners along the fence surrounding The Old Stone House & Washington Park and J.J. Byrne Playground in Park Slope (336 3rd Street, Brooklyn, NY). The exhibition runs from June 1 to August 31, 2024.
Let’s celebrate love, diversity, and creativity together!
Impulse, Discernment, and Daoism
What is your first impulse when you find a bug in your home? Almost invariably, our first thought is to squish the thing. Whether out of fear, anger, or annoyance, we instinctively take action to kill the creature, even though very often it presents absolutely no threat to us. We are conditioned and raised in the modern world to despise all sorts of creepy crawly creatures, so this reaction is not surprising. However it does demonstrate how our impulses can lead us to do things that are frivolous, wanton, and off the Path. Simply because something feels right in the moment doesn’t mean you are acting in harmony by embracing it. Another example would be the sort of people that eat compulsively in reaction to stress or boredom. It is something that I have struggled with in the past, and even today I sometimes find myself drawn to the fridge for no other reason than procrastination. It is a habit that can range from being just unhealthy to absolutely life-threatening in some cases.
Instead of giving in to every one of these impulses, we should always take a moment to think before we act on them. How do I really feel about this action? Are my emotions clouding my judgement? Is this really the only or best course of action for this situation? The Dalai Lama calls this use of our faculties “discernment,” and that it is a vital step for us to truly live our lives more peacefully, more wholesomely, even simply more happily. Although it sounds silly to think about, it is surprising to see how often we are led by our impulses to act without thinking things all the way through. Once we recognize such situations in our everyday routines, we can then begin addressing them and righting ourselves from any number of bad habits and choices. Daoism is about seeing the truth in things, and that means that we must search for the truth of our own actions first of all. And while it may seem daunting to try and examine every action we take over the course of every single day, once you undertake the mindset of choosing your own path down the mountain, it becomes almost second nature to pause yourself before acting out of anger or fear and reevaluate the situation.
Like any new skill, it is difficult to begin, especially when we have been conditioned our entire lives in the opposite direction. In America, it is often a point of pride for people to act without thinking, to go in on nothing more than a “gut feeling.” On one hand, this can appear very Daoist indeed, to simply act in alignment with one’s nature and to not waste time overanalyzing the situation. But because so much of our culture has taken us off the Path already, it is imperative that we exercise our faculties of discernment to truly determine whether our instincts are on the Path or not. If our first reaction to a rude word is immediate violence, you can imagine all the sorts of trouble we could find ourselves in. Only after we have already developed a calm mind can we start to trust our gut feelings again, and even then our gut feelings and intuition are only informed by the breadth and depth of our past experiences. If we react strongly to something we have very little familiarity with, it once again brings up the need for us to introspect ourselves to see what it is we are truly having a reaction to.
Exercising discernment is a passive skill; once you begin to practice it, it is something you can constantly carry with you throughout your journey. It should always be on, always present to help you stop and breathe before committing to a rash decision. For further reading on discernment, I highly recommend the Dalai Lama’s Beyond Religion, a beautiful little book on pursuing a non-religious system of ethics.
“People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.”
— Dalai Lama
What Is Original Sin?
By Psychologist & Bible Researcher Eli Kittim
Most of us think that we are good people. We haven’t harmed anyone. We’re not that bad. So, what kind of sins do we have to confess? In fact, sometimes we can’t even think of any. Yet 1 John 1.8-10 (KJV) reads:
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. If we say that we have
not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word
is not in us.
——-
Original Sin
Original sin is the Christian doctrine that human beings inherit a sin nature at birth, with some Protestant theologians even arguing for total depravity, namely, that we’re in such a state of rebellion against God that we’re not even able to follow him, by ourselves, without his effectual grace. Other Christian theologians, such as Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215 AD), totally dismissed the thought of original sin by giving it a more allegorical interpretation.
Unlike Christianity, both Judaism and Islam hold a more positive view of human nature. They assert that human beings have an equal capacity for both good and evil, and that they don’t inherit another person’s sin at birth. They also claim that although humans might be culturally conditioned to sin by decadent societies, nevertheless they’re not born that way. To back that up, the Jews often quote the Torah (Deut. 24.16), which states:
The fathers shall not be put to death for the
children, neither shall the children be put to
death for the fathers: every man shall be
put to death for his own sin.
To drive the point home, they usually cite Ezekiel 18.20:
The son shall not bear the iniquity of the
father, neither shall the father bear the
iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the
righteous shall be upon him, and the
wickedness of the wicked shall be upon
him.
But these passages are only referring to actual sins, namely, to behavioral sins that each individual is personally responsible for. These verses, however, are not addressing *collective sin* that resides in human nature.
——-
The Collective Unconscious
Carl Jung (1875 - 1961), the famous Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, defined the concept we now know as the “collective unconscious.” This phrase refers to the deepest layer of the unconscious mind which, according to Jung, is genetically inherited and is therefore not part of individual history or personal experience. In other words, it’s not part of the personal unconscious.
Jung held that each person retains these innate unconscious impressions of humanity as a collective knowledge of our species. They’re in our genes, so to speak. But, here, also lurk all the dark, animal instincts of man, as well as the archetypes. One such archetype is called the “shadow,” an unconscious aspect of the personality that the conscious self doesn’t recognize or identify with. It represents a large portion of the *dark side* that is completely foreign and unknown to the ego. These collectively-inherited unconscious archetypes are universally present in every human being.
Over the years, many artistic works, like Star Wars, have addressed themselves to the dark side of human nature, from Pink Floyd's album Dark Side of the Moon, to horror movies like American Psycho and Hannibal Lecter, to the constant violence that no current Action film seems to be without. Life imitating art would be when we witness the exact same things happening in real life while turning on the 6 o’clock news. We customarily disassociate ourselves from this aspect of human nature. We can never imagine that this state of mind resides within all of us. We always point fingers at someone else. In our eyes, we are saints. We’re like the Pharisee in Luke 18.11:
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with
himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as
other men are, extortioners, unjust,
adulterers, or even as this publican.
But, according to Jesus, we are all a bunch of hypocrites. In Matthew 15.18-19, Jesus implies that the dark side is hidden in the unconscious. It’s not simply a conscious thought, a spoken word, or an action that is the cause of one’s sinful behavior but rather a deep state of being (aka “the heart”) out of which proceeds all manner of evil:
But those things which proceed out of the
mouth come forth from the heart; and they
defile the man. For out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies.
That’s why Jeremiah 17.9 declares:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and
desperately wicked: who can know it?
No wonder Paul says that the unregenerate are still carnal (Rom. 8.8):
they that are in the flesh cannot
please God.
As theologian Timothy Keller asserts:
The church is not a museum for pristine
saints, but a hospital ward for broken
sinners.
If one fails to understand Jung’s concept of the “collective unconscious,” or the dark side of human nature, one will ultimately misunderstand the Biblical doctrine of original sin.
——-
Why Does Jesus Have to Die for Humanity?
Jesus doesn’t have to suffer greatly and die on a tree simply on account of sins that were committed in the past, or to justify repentant sinners because of their current or future sins. No! Jesus dies to redeem *human nature* from original sin. He dies for humanity’s collective sin (past, present, and future). And he also redeems humanity, in himself, by dying to sin. In other words, Jesus dies to the sinful state of being, if you will, in order to free human nature from the bondage of death and decay. Not only does Jesus justify sinners by dying to sin, but because he is God, he also transforms human nature itself. In the resurrection, Christ’s human nature that rises from the grave is no longer sin-tainted, but glorious!
Otherwise, if everyone sinned voluntarily, and human beings were not tainted by original sin, then there wouldn’t be any reason for God’s Son to die for mankind. In that case, sin would be an individual or personal responsibility, not a collective one. And humanity would not need a savior because there would be neither a collective cause nor a cure for crime, violence, and murder. These people would simply be classified as criminal offenders who, unlike others, consciously “chose” to behave that way.
However, that’s not what Paul says in Romans 5.18–19:
Therefore as by the offence of one [Adam]
judgment came upon all men to
condemnation; even so by the
righteousness of one [Christ] the free gift
came upon all men unto justification of life.
For as by one man's disobedience many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of
one shall many be made righteous.
In fact, Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 15.21-22:
For since by man came death, by man
came also the resurrection of the dead. For
as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all
be made alive.
Conclusion
Because the concept of the unconscious had not yet been discovered in Antiquity or the Dark Ages, the existence of the collective unconscious was not known, let alone addressed by either Judaism or Islam. Their criticism of original sin is quite unsophisticated and is presented exclusively from the point of view of the conscious mind. They neither comprehend the totality of the personality nor do they consider unconscious motivation. Therefore, to deny or ignore the overwhelming influence of the dark side of man (aka sin nature) is equivalent to a naïveté: a lack of experience, sophistication, and wisdom! This lack of skillful treatment is either due to innocence or deep repression.
That’s precisely why many people don’t know what sin is. And, consequently, they keep sinning. They can’t even understand why Jesus has to die for them. They often ask, what’s the big fuss about “original sin”? Read Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, “The heart of man is exceedingly deceitful.”
What do you think is the meaning behind Robert Louis Stevenson’s book, “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”? It presents the duality within man. This work is emphasizing the dark side of human nature that is hidden underneath our socially-acceptable “Dr. Jekyll” persona. But in the unconscious lurks another personality, Mr. Hyde, who represents evil that’s waiting in the wings. The depth of human cruelty is also represented in “Heart of darkness,” by Joseph Conrad. It’s the same idea in Bram Stoker's “Dracula.” All these classic works of art act like mirrors in trying to show us blind spots that we don’t usually see in ourselves and end up projecting onto others. And this darkness that proceeds from man’s collective unconscious is what Christian theologians have coined “original sin.” Louis Berkhof, in his “Systematic Theology,” pt. 2, ch. 4, writes:
actual sin in the life of man is generally
admitted. This does not mean, however,
that people have always had an equally
profound consciousness of sin. We hear a
great deal nowadays about the ‘loss of the
sense of sin.’
Therefore, the psychological and spiritual goal is to give up one's naivete and to expand one's consciousness so as to embrace and integrate all aspects of one’s personality and human nature. That’s what psychoanalysts mean when they say, “making the unconscious conscious.” It is here that rebirth in Christ becomes possible. That’s why wisdom teachers typically say that we need to see existence as it really is. What you need to do, in the words of the Dalai Lama (which represent the title of his book), is to figure out “How to see yourself as you really are.” It is then, and only then, when you will finally realize that sin is not simply an isolated behavior, but rather a state of being——deeply rooted in the “carnal mind” (cf. Rom. 6.6)——that needs to be transformed by the Holy Spirit. And that *existential experience* in and of itself constitutes not only a prelude to “rebirth,” but also the hope of salvation in Jesus Christ!
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For more info on this topic, see my essay, “BIBLICAL SIN: NOT AS BEHAVIOR BUT AS ULTIMATE TRANSGRESSION”: https://eli-kittim.tumblr.com/post/184880965717/i-think-the-greek-phrase-%CF%87%CF%89%CF%81%E1%BD%B6%CF%82-%E1%BC%81%CE%BC%CE%B1%CF%81%CF%84%CE%AF%CE%B1%CF%82-ie
“The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds.”
— Dalai Lama
“The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds.”
— Dalai Lama
“The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds.”
— Dalai Lama
“The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds.”
— Dalai Lama
Komm her, bleib hier,
Wir sind gut zu dir.
Komm her, bleib hier,
Wir sind Brüder dir.
When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.
Dalai Lama XIV (via macrolit)