Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Vinoba and Gandhi were very much about
taking the Gita as a, um,
a primary source for teaching. And in there, there's a huge emphasis
on your actions without attachment.
And if you're going to act ... Vinoba would say,
people said, oh the Gita tells you that you should do this or this, but
but, it doesn't tell you what you should or shouldn't do.
It gives this advice but doesn't tell you. And he says, actually it does.
If you're doing actions without attachment, you're not going to lie,
you're not going to steal, and you're not going to kill, because all of those actions
are related to an attachment to the results of your actions.
And that idea of doing your duty, and not being attached to the end product,
is a really important principle, that, I think, all of the sisters would talk about. So that,
they would critique any violence that was grounded in religion.
Or, actually, any violence at all, to say that's a problem.
Because, right there, if you're stealing from me, if I'm stealing from you,
that means I'm attached to what you have, and I don't have it and I want it.
And they would critique that as not being a good action.
Personally, I would say, I see religion as human attempts to understand
the world. Human attempts to connect with that transcendant realm.
And, it's an incredibly powerful force that can be used for good or bad.
And, so, I would critique it when it's being used, um, negatively.
I think at the heart of Christianity, at the heart of Judaism, at the heart of Hinduism, at the heart of Islam,
there isn't this idea of violence is okay.
However, having said that, we also can't say these traditions
don't participate in these things. Because the Crusades, they were Christian.
You know, I mean, these elements are there. But, again, it's a force that can be used either way.
And we have that choice, of how are we going to use that power that comes wrapped up in this stuff we call religion.