on fundamentalism

[Guest guest]

Fundamentalism is basically the belief, " my religion is right, your

religion is wrong. "

 

The fundamentalism's argument is basically to focus on " only " some

good/best aspects of one's own religion while seeing " only " the

bad/worse aspects of all other religions. The obvious mistakes are:

1) Not seeing that, in all religions, there are good aspects and bad

or misinterpreted aspects.

2) Seeing bad in anything is a reflection of the impurity in one's own

mind. But, until we awaken fully, we do have to discriminate as best

we can between good and bad, light and darkness; and this is where the

difficulties of disagreements come in.

 

Like my parents told me, " there is good and bad in all groups. "

 

When we look out into the world and all its religions, there is

certainly a lot of chaos, confusion and hypocrisy everywhere we look.

And, not only histories but even today's news are only narrow pieces

if information presented from one POV or another. This is the

information explosion era; just look at all the variety and extremes

on the world-wide-web.

 

That's why, the essential basic teachings of all scriptures advise us

to look within ourselves and observe the nature of our own mind,

first. We will find that within the nature of our own mind there is

good and bad and the source of all the problems, individual as well as

in the world.

 

Amma advises, " do not listen to your mind " and Byron Katie says, " do

not believe your thoughts. " This advice is for serious seekers who

want to go beyond the " mis-beliefs " of all religions and remove the

cloud of ignorance of mind which covers up out true nature as Love.

Many spiritual teachers advise us to question all our fixed beliefs

and see which ones are worthwhile keeping.

 

When Amma was asked what her religion was, Amma did not say

" Hinduism, " Amma said " Love! "

 

One of Amma's earliest disciples was " very-Hindu-minded. " Amma told

him that it's OK to be very-Hindu-minded[ in the right way, of

course]; but, if it's God-Realization he wants, then he must quit

being a " Hindu " [ very-Hindu-minded only] because God does not belong

only to Hindus. God belongs to everyone ~ to Buddhists, Jews, Jains,

Christians, Hindus, Taoist, American Indians, etc. This is from one of

Amma's videos if anyone wants to check.

 

Another argument that fundamentalism uses is that " only their

scriptures are infallible; while all others are fallible. "

 

Amma has said the neither Krishna, Buddha, nor Christ created the

religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity; the religions were

created by the " fallible " followers.

 

Now, it is a fact that most of Amma's millions of devotees are Indian

Hindus and that Amma advises Hindus to be " good " Hindus, Christians to

be " good " Christians, Buddhists to be " good " Buddhists, Muslims to be

" good " Muslims, etc ~ " good " in the sense of seeing the Universality

of Basic Spiritual Values like Love, Compassion, selfless-service,

humility, forgiveness, non-violence, peace, etc.

 

Even if Amma never uttered a word, it would be obvious that Amma's

main message is Love, Compassion, and selfless-service simply via Her

examples of hugging millions and innumerable charitable

selfless-services.

 

In the movie " Gandhi " the Hindus were protesting that Gandhi was too

conciliatory with the Muslims. Gandhi replied, " I am a Hindu, and a

Muslim, and a Jew, and a Christian; and so are all of you. Obviously

he was referring to the " essence " of all religions ~ the universal

spiritual values within all of us, deeply hidden they may be.

 

Amma's message in " Awaken Children " is to remove the dark clouds of

ignorance of the mind, to rest in the heart and Awaken to our true

nature as Love and Awareness and only then to see fully things as they

truly are.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Amma Bless,

amaranth

Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu ! Be Awareness ! Be still and know !

There is only God and nothing else !