Looking for Moral Compass concepts...

[Guest guest]

Hello all,

I may be well out of line with the questions I'm posting here, but

please be civil with me if I am. The recent rhetoric of a " Moral

Compass " in political speeches has caused me to ponder. I want to

research other schools of thought or faith before writing what I

thought of. I don't plan on staying a member of the group for long,

because I don't really belong in this group, but I don't know a

better way to get good information.

 

Briefly, I am a Catholic, not very pious, and of late rarely

practicing, but I found many things in the doctrine worthy of

committing to memory and practicing in daily life. One such example

is to keep a watchful eye on avoiding the " Seven Deadly Sins " (see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins#The_sins for a

reference)

 

Heres a metaphor of why I personally think they are worthy; Suppose a

tree begins to grow in the wrong place, it is easy to uproot it when

small, but hard and destructive to uproot it when grown large. The

deadly sins in the Christian faith are little saplings that are easy

to manage, but allowing them to grow in the wrong place leads a

person to bigger and worse things. e.g. greed becomes theft, lust

becomes adultery.

 

What I want to know is if your doctrine has a similar set of guiding

concepts to keep society orderly?

 

In my youth a person once told me that he wouldn't give up

specific " deadly sins " because they benefited him. He has since

passed away. Shortly after his death I created a list of motivating

emotions that would get a person to the satisfactory result they

really needed but on a slightly different and less destructive route

than the " deadly sins " take. I'm trying to determine if my set of

concepts are universal to people and society as a whole, or if they

could clash with specific schools of thought or faith.

 

I would appreciate it greatly if answers would reference specific

written doctrine.

 

Thanks in advance for any help I get.

Mike

[Guest guest]

Hi Mike,

I have seen in all the years I have lived in US that the word religion

has a very distinct meaning here and Hinduism just does not fit that

definition. The best example of that is what you wrote in your mail.

" What I want to know is if your doctrine has a similar set of guiding

concepts to keep society orderly? " . I don't think there is any

doctrine in our religion in the sense you have written. In other

words, there is no set of rules written somewhere following which

makes you a Hindu. So the word doctrine just does not fit here. The

second thing is the belief that religion is invention of man to keep

society orderly. That again doesn't quite apply to Hinduism because

Hinduism teaches you how to attain the highest state of existence

without a care for keeping the society in order, though the latter

comes as its natural outcome. Having said that I am sure there are

equivalent of the seven sins in Hindu texts which obstruct us in our

spiritual progress and some of the members might be able to help you

with that. However, I highly recommend that you go the following link:

http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_4/vol_4_frame.htm

Click on the " Writing:Prose " link and then " What we believe in " . I

think it is very important to read something like this before you can

make any logical comparisons between Hinduism and any other religion.

Good luck!

Siddharth

[Guest guest]

Ramakrishna , " Michael E. Rupp "

<wnymathguy wrote:

>

 

>

> I would appreciate it greatly if answers would reference specific

> written doctrine.

 

Greetings,

 

The Bhagavad-Gita is the cornerstone of all ethical/moral

principles, theology, cosmology, etc. of the Hindu Faith.

 

The sins are listed as the three gateways to Hell (Naraka) -

Selfish desires, Anger, and Greed.

 

The virtues are listed in each of the eighteen chapters.

Living a life of action as a sacrifice dedicated to the Universal

Spirit is the ideal, realizing It as the Creator, Sustainer and

Dissolver of all manifestations.

 

Regards,

 

Sunder