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November 06, 2017

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Do you see the enormous consequences
that 'insight' of these procedures
would have :

-personal
-social-
-ethical
-global and more
-free will

and the colossal power that would be freed

and this for a humanity that commits a million / 30 billion ( humans/ animals )
killings already

Brian you might not have 10 days to enjoy this earthly life

777

-

The nearer the church, the farther from God. Law of karma / action reaction is brutal law . No-one is above it . Only way to escape it is Samadhi .

Living outside of the US, it's difficult to understand the idiocy of the gun culture and laws that prevail. Even accepting the argument of the right to defend oneself with a handgun or rifle, there is no need for an assault rifle anywhere in civilian life.
When selling an assault rifle to someone, the shop owner should know that it is likely to be used for its designed purpose. Something needs to change.........

In my opinion, being involved in ANY segment of guns, i.e Ownership, Sales, Manfacturing, etc. , considerng that the ONLY end purpose of guns is too to KILL, is the same as being involved in any part of the meat business Industry..

I don’t own any guns. The only reason I would ever buy one, if planning self defense, would be with intent to kill.

The only way I would be willing to do that, is if War broke out, and we would have to defend our selves against ANY invader.

Than, Karma is actve and accptable.

I’d prefer to be a live killer than a dead Pacifist..

This comment by 777 is very puzzling:

"Brian you might not have 10 days to enjoy this earthly life"

777 are you judging Brian? You think you are so pure and spiritual and yet you still haven't given up lust and think its okay for the Master to talk about butts and 69s. Remember lust, anger, attachment, greed and ego? The five deadly sins according to Sant Mat. Seems like the Master has not risen above these and yet you still worship him?

Difficult to say what the effect of prayer really is on an individual. It's an internal thang, you wouldn't understand.

But we do know that trying to judge the personal benefit others derive doing something as innocuous as prayer (or alternate sexual practices, or loving a color you hate, or believing in magic) has actually caused a bit of gun violence and most of the warfare and massacre in human history.

"The reason we have more gun deaths than other advanced countries is because we have more guns and we fail to regulate them properly. "

--Only an infinitesimal percentage of guns are used to commit mass murder. Guns already are regulated. It is only because there were good guys with guns at the Texas murder scene that more people weren't shot.

"When selling an assault rifle to someone, the shop owner should know that it is likely to be used for its designed purpose."

--The term "assault" is used mostly by alarmists and gun opponents to describe a semi-auto rifle that has a military design. Actually, there are many semi-auto rifles and hand guns out there that do not have the military design and look but have similar capability as those dubbed "assault". It is a statistical absurdity to imply that these guns are "likely" to be used for mass killing. If that were the case there would be many millions of people killed in mass shootings by these guns each year.

I would pray to be understood but it probably won't help.

Kind of a contradiction here: "First, it is absolutely true that prayers are useless.There's no evidence that praying changes anything in the absence of some physical action. The most scientifically rigorous study of prayer showed no effect on the recovery of people who had heart surgery (prayed-for people actually had more complications, not less)."

How can it be true that prayers are useless if prayed for people had more complications?

Larry Dossey wrote two book on this very subject - that there is evidence for prayer having both positive and negative consequences.

Of course praying instead of acting when action is clearly needed is what Catholics would call "a sin of omission." and I tend to agree with them on this score.

Joe, I neglected to mention in the post that the heart patients knew they were being prayed for. Here's an excerpt from the New York Times story I linked to:

"Prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found.

And patients who knew they were being prayed for had a higher rate of post-operative complications like abnormal heart rhythms, perhaps because of the expectations the prayers created, the researchers suggested."

Brian, telling the patients they were being prayed for pretty much eliminates any chance of that being any kind of legitimate test of prayer. I think the subject of prayer is much more complicated than any common, religious understanding. I don't think there is any doubt whatsoever that we effect each other with our thoughts. The question is to what extent generally, and to what extent can we intentionally do that?

Claiming prayer has no effect is simply invalid. The study of prayer Brian cites, from 2006, was a test of the effect of people praying for other people they don't know. And the people who were prayed for were not known for their religious affiliation or beliefs.

And these validity flaws were pointed out after this 12 year old study.

It might be interesting to note that the Principle author, Dr. Herbert Benson at Harvard, pioneered meditation research proving the positive effects of meditation on health. That evidence has only grown.

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