WTC.religion.spirituality

Religion: a Root of the Conflict

> We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love, one another. -- Jonathan Swift

NEW A Spiritual Perspective on the World Trade Center Tragedy - "All the world's religions encourage us to forgive those who have hurt us, to do good to those who hate us, and to pray for those who abuse us." NEW What would Buddha say? Whither the 'hypocrites' of the Muslim world? "When the U.S. and its allies insist that the fight against terrorism is also about defending democracy, the claim may be true for them but not in the Muslim "hypocrites," where Western-style democracy is a system to be feared, not revered." NEW Collisions of Religion and Violence: Redux - A Cross Currents magazine compilation articles addressing topics including "what are the prospects that these three world religions, which are part of the one Abrahamic tradition, might actually contribute to justice and peace in a world now poised on the brink of war?" NEW Sojourners - Responding to Tragedy - Religious Reflection and Commentary A massive compilation of response from religious communities around the world NEW A Sense of the Transcendent - by Václav Havel "By once more taking nourishment from their life-giving spiritual roots, Eat and West can open an era of mutual inspiration. The precondition is readiness to step beyond dead habits and deadly prejudice." - NEW The Challenge of Fundamentalism or Interreligious Dialogue - by Peter A. Huff A personal and academic exploration of fundamentalism:"Interreligious dialogue will never fulfill its unique mission until it recognizes the fundamentalisms of the world as valued conversation partners. " NEW What Does It Mean To Be Muslim Today? - by Riffat Hassan "To be a Muslim means to be both Allah-conscious and creature-conscious, and to understand the interconnectedness of all aspects of one's life, of the life of all creation and of our life in this transient world to life eternal." NEW Religion, Politics, and the State: Cross-Cultural Observations - by by N.J. Demerath and Karen S Straight "When a religious state is faced with religious politics, there is a religious conflict at issue. Under such circumstances, the state's very legitimacy is called into question, and violence may reflect preemptive actions of state control as well as the clash among contending religious parties. | NEW Deny Them Their Victory - A Religious Response to Terrorism (paraphrased) A document developed in consultation with Jewish, Muslim, and Christian clergy, signed by a broad spectrum of the U.S. religious community, including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist leaders "The breadth of participation has made the document one of the most inclusive religious statements ever released. " (You can endorse the statement if you wish at the site) NEW A New Holy War? A Buddhist Response - by David Loy NEW Peace Culture:The Problem of Managing Human Difference - by Elise Boulding "Peace culture, neither a fantasy nor accident, is as central to human nature as war culture. NEW Ideologies Battling To Shape The World Of 2000 - by Franz Schurmann "Ideology will shape the world of 2000 and beyond. It's fast becoming clear worldwide that those contending are globalist, nationalist and fundamentalist." "Battles over who shall shape the world are occurring because the world has finally become a world." "I believe violence will only increase the cycle of violence." The Dalai Lama's Letter to Bush RESOURCES AND LINKS Many Paths: Comparative Beliefs, Faiths, and Religions Links to religious texts and sites Ten Global Trends in Religion - by Jay Gary "Only as we understand the present, can we speculate on the possibilities of the future."

> <> ... On that account: We ordained for <> <> the Children of Israel that if anyone <> <> slew a person - unless it be for <> <> murder or for spreading mischief <> <> in the land - it would be as if <> <> he slew the whole people: and if <> <> any one saved a life, it would <> <> be as if he saved the life of <> <> the whole people. <> <> Holy Qur'an, Surah al-Maidah 5:32. <> <> URL: http://quran.al-islam.com/ <>
> from the 14th century Persian mystic poet Hafiz:

> A young woman asked Hafiz, "What is the sign of someone knowing God?" Hafiz remained silent for a few moments and looked deeply into the young person's eyes, and then said, "Dear, they have dropped the knife. They have dropped the cruel knife most often use upon their tender self, and others."

This page is in progress - please submit relevant articles and URLs to us at religion@global-dialog.org - thanks!

Participant Comments follow below

Language of Spirituality Conference, Albuquerque, NM, USA. August 1-3, 2003. With the idea in mind that language is a reflection of cultural perception, this Dialogue with Native American scholars, physicists, and linguists will address the question "Is it possible that indigenous language is more suited to convey the ideas of quantum physics than western european based languages?" - i.e., right brain diffused thinking vs. left brain linear thinking. (What is reality?) Global Dialogue Project's Valerie Gremillion; Nobel Laureate, physics, Brian Josephson; Joseph Rael, author, Being & Vibration; William Tiller; Leroy Little Bear, JD, former director Native American Studies Harvard, & many more. http://www.seedopenu.org, 505-792-2900 Glenn Parry seed@seedopenu.org 07/09/03 23:40:15 GMT

The subordinate women of fundamentalism by Ellen Goodman / Syndicated columnist Is "misogyny" too weak a word? Does "patriarchy" — sprinkled so liberally in Western feminism — pale beside the real thing? http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com:80/cgi-bin/texis/web/vortex/display?slug=ellen12&date=20011012 Mariposa 10/15/01 14:43:56 MDT

Taken with permission from the [archaic-revival] list: Rumi: No. 1 in Afghanistan and the USA Oh I love Rumi!!!! Especially Bark's translations... http://www.salon.com:80/people/feature/2001/10/12/barks/index.html I've got this excite.com account and it has something called a "NewsTracker Clipping Service", which lets you input certain key words and then it lets you know what news items and essays and stories and the like it finds on the web. I found that article above with one of those things I set up which tracks keywords relating to "Shambhala". It is interesting that Afganistan is one of the main candidates for the location of Shambhala. I think it certainly is one of the several locations in the Shambhala Network which includes several other places in that area like Tibet, Mongolia, Northern India/Kashmir/Pakistan. I sometimes use the word Shambhalic when referring to traditions like Tantra, Taoism and Sufism becuase they are all so similar in the most important ways... they are ways of direct personal experience for instance... Afghanistan is not only the home of Rumi and his beloved teacher Shams ( even that name may be related to the word Shambhala... some theories suggest the word Shambhala came from the name of a place in Afghanistan called something like 'Shams-i-balkh' ) but that area seems to be were Gurdjieff received his initiation into that esoteric form of sufism also... Rumi was the one who started the Mevlevi form of Sufism which includes the ecstatic spinning dervishes... and so the Gurdjieff stuff may be part of the same tradition... a tradition that is still very much alive thanks to people like Coleman Barks and Kumar Frantzis and EJ Gold... [ mentioned previously on this list ] Anyway I could ramble on about this shambhala stuff quite a bit. It is just fascinating to me that part of the prophecy concerning shambhala ( prophecy that has in part already been confirmed and taken place since it predicted Tibet would be invaded by the Chinese and a few other points that seem to have taken place... ) says that Shambhala will become visible and prominent in world affairs again when Gesar Khan, or some other name which designates the King of Shambhala, rises up to drive the barbarians out of Shambhala... ( which isn't supposed to take place for another 500 years or so according to some interpretations... but time is acting weird lately as some seem to feel and so who knows... it may take only a couple years nowadays to live thru 500 years of experience... lol ) hmmm.... I could see people on both sides in this recent conflict saying the others are the barbarians... the Taliban saying it is the US and western interests that are the barabarians... and of course many consider the Taliban and/or muslims in general are the barbarians. I look at it in more of a metaphorical light. They are all barabarians who act in the ways of the 'literalists' Rumi talks about. The age of Shambhala will rise again in our life when we turn from external superficial authority and drive the barbarians of ignornace from our minds and release the bonds of hatred and fear from our heart. Mariposa 10/15/01 12:23:18 MDT