Re: Joy of this, Joy of that

On Sun, 8 Dec 2024, rbowman wrote:

On Sat, 7 Dec 2024 23:07:50 +0100, D wrote:
>

Now imagine a planet of such people. It does sound as if the human
species would just slowly fade away.

>
The dating of the Bhagavad Gita us controversial. One theory is it is not
as old as claimed and was written after Buddhism became established.
Gautama was a Kshatria, the warrior and administrator varna. As such, he
attracted men from the same varna to lead lives as monks.
>
The Gita gets more philosophical but in the beginning Arjuna is on a
battlefield and is getting cold feet. His mentor, Krishna, tells him he is
a warrior and that's what warriors do. Get with the program.
>
The thought is the Gita was addressed to young Kshatriya to remind them of
their role in society and not to abandon it to follow some monk.
>
It will never happen but I'd really like to see Gabbard taking the
Presidential oath of office with her hand on the Gita.

Fascinating theory! Would also be quite interesting if it were true, and if they did see a risk that the best and brightest, due to buddha, would just hang around meditating all day instead of protecting society. ;)
But there is this wonderful inflection point, where christianity went from a personal mystic method to find enlightenment, to become a tool to control and build society.
I wonder if the mystics lost because of 1. being more interested in the "within" and personal experience than power and 2. the other guys being more interested in power and cared nothing for god, but saw the opportunity. I guess the 3. is St Paul fearing that christianity would split into a 1000 pieces if the mystics with their own individual experiences were allowed to continue.