From: aJDz@W7pA2Du4AY.com   
      
   FROM FAITH TO FREEDOM   
   by Avery Newman   
      
   1                       The Third Piece of Advice   
   Yuktiyuktamupa'deyam' vacanam' ba'laka'dapi anyam'trn'amiva tyajyamapyuktam'   
   padmajanmana'.   
      
   [Even if a young boy says something logical it should be accepted; and even if   
   the lotus-born Brahma' (the mythological creator of this universe) says   
   something illogical, it should be rejected like a straw.]   
      
   Advice of ancient Indian sages   
      
      
      
   Once there was a hunter – well, in some ways, aren't we all? One day this   
   hunter captured a very strange bird in his net. Just as the hunter was about   
   to grab the bird, she spoke to him, saying “Hunter, don't you know that if you   
   kill me and eat me I can    
   provide only a few mouthfuls to one so big and strong as you. In no time you   
   will have forgotten me altogether. But if you should spare me, then I shall   
   give you three pieces of advice which will benefit you for all the rest of   
   your life.”   
      
   The hunter was very impressed with this offer. He asked how the transaction   
   could be arranged so that he would be sure to have his three pieces of advice   
   and she could feel secure in obtaining her freedom. The bird suggested, “I   
   will tell you the first    
   piece of advice while still in your net. If you are satisfied, I will offer   
   the second piece of advice from a branch of that nearby tree. And again, if   
   you are satisfied, the last piece of advice I will call out to you from atop   
   of yonder hill.” In this    
   way a deal was struck between a tiny but clever bird and the giant but simple   
   hunter.   
      
   “My first piece of advice,” said the bird, “is never to regret losing anything   
   once it is gone.” The hunter thought a moment and appreciated the wisdom in   
   this maxim. He asked for the second piece of advice. From the nearby branch   
   the bird spoke, “Never    
   believe anything you're told if it is illogical.” Again the hunter found it   
   easy to appreciate the wisdom of the tiny bird's advice, and he consented to   
   her flying out of reach before hearing the third piece of advice.   
      
   From the hilltop the bird laughed and cried out, “You foolish man, in my belly   
   there is a large diamond of immense value. Had you but kept me you would have   
   been rich today beyond imagination.” Immediately the hunter became confused –   
   could he recapture    
   the bird? No, that was not possible, so he sat down and started to lament his   
   mistake. After some time he remembered that the bird had not given him the   
   third piece of advice. He felt that, even if he could not have the diamond, at   
   least he was entitled    
   to one more pearl of knowledge. So at last the hunter looked up and,   
   addressing the bird, requested the third and final piece of advice.   
      
   But now that tiny bird only chirped and flew away.   
      
   Dharma   
   Everyone wants happiness. From the moment we awake until the moment we sleep,   
   our minds quest after the sympathetic vibrations that satisfy our various   
   psychic longings. Whether it be ice cream, a game of tennis, a movie or a   
   telephone call from a friend    
   – whatever the source may be, if the psychic assimilation of that object or   
   action be complementary to one's desire, the experience one enjoys is called   
   happiness. Conversely, if the object or action be contrary to one's desire,   
   the psychic experience    
   may be called unhappiness.   
      
   Naturally everyone prefers to get those things that s/he would like rather   
   than those that s/he considers to be unpleasant. Quite naturally also, human   
   beings – in fact, all living beings – want to remain alive. Too much   
   unhappiness leads to a state of    
   despair in which one contemplates suicide. Happy people never think to kill   
   themselves. So this basic instinct for self-preservation expresses itself   
   always in the drive to find the sweet shelter of permanent and all-pervasive   
   happiness.   
      
   Against the threat of unhappiness and self-destruction, human beings will not   
   settle for just a small amount of happiness. Rather, everyone wants endless   
   happiness – a state of being that transcends the precincts of pleasure and   
   pain, weal and woe.    
   Religions often declare such a state of being to be possible only in a   
   fairy-tale land called Heaven – a place one cannot visit while alive. Some   
   social philosophies envision such a heaven on earth, calling it Utopia or New   
   Jerusalem. But that heaven for    
   which human beings really long is, ultimately, not so much an external   
   condition as it is personal, internal condition. In spiritual jargon, this   
   goal is known as bliss, the inner state of being that outsteps the limitations   
   of sensory perception. Can    
   one say that, in the final analysis, human beings knowingly or unknowingly   
   seek only for bliss and nothing else? This is reasonable; but, unfortunately,   
   to say so would invite all kinds of calumny from those of different religious   
   persuasion.   
      
   Let us here examine briefly the concept of limitlessness or infinity. If we   
   think in mathematical terms – set theory – there can be more than one infinite   
   entity. For example there are the set of all even integers and the set of all   
   odd integers – both    
   sets are infinite and both are mutually exclusive, that is, the members of   
   each set are completely different from the members of the other set. That is   
   mathematics. In the field of philosophy, infinity is one all-inclusive entity   
   or state of being.    
   Whether we call it Bliss, Brahma [1] , Peace, God, Allah, Consciousness, Truth   
   or whatever – still that Supreme Entity or Supreme State remains only one. [2]   
   In India, the sages say: Ekam' sad viprah bahuddha vadanti [Truth is one, but   
   the wise call It    
   by many names].   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)