Question: On God's Role in Conflicts

 

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Dr Hagelin: ‘Maharishi, this is an interesting question on many people’s minds. “During conflicts people pray to God for victory. Both sides are convinced God is on our side. God is universal, God is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscience, as you said. So whose side is God really on when soldiers go to war?”’

Maharishi: ‘God is well aware of the hypocrisy of man. You can’t hide behind the name “God” and do wrong things—you know? He has set the laws: As you sow, so shall you reap. Period! As you sow, so shall you reap. This is the kindness of God, who has given man that freedom. You like—what you like, you can do. You like, you can do. But what you do, you cannot undo the result of your own doing. You have to bear the fruits of your doing. As you sow, so shall you reap. As you sow—it’s a law. It’s a universal law. It’s a universal law.

‘God is not after each man: You do this, you do this, you don’t do this, you don’t do this. No, no. God is God, Administrator of the galactic universe! He rules by one law. The law is: Freedom to you, do what you want to do, and you will get the results of what you do, that’s all. You can fool yourself, but you cannot fool the Almighty Intelligence, the Administrator of the universe, the Light of God.

‘Time is now, the world has suffered a lot. The world has suffered a lot. Thousands of years of suffering will not continue. Now the Light of God is more awake than ever before. Religion or no religion, politics or no politics, economy or no economy, the whole life has to be a living reality! That’s all.’

 

from www.press-conference.globalgoodnews.com/archive/april/03.04.02.html

Lt. Gen. Clarence E. McKnight Jr.

Author and former head of the Signal Corps

Transcendental Meditation for PTSD

Posted: 08/16/2013 12:01 pm

One of the most significant disabilities incurred by U.S. service personnel returning from the battle zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, whether or not they suffered physical injuries, is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychiatric condition that includes anxiety, hyper-vigilance, insomnia, exaggerated startle response, nightmares and flashbacks, outbursts of anger and social withdrawal. Not surprisingly, victims of PTSD demonstrate elevated levels of alcoholism, substance abuse, marital problems and suicide.

Speaking as one who has been to war and seen its horrors, I see PTSD as a natural reaction to the inhuman conditions of the battlefield. Not everyone has the basic psychological strength to endure such stress without at least some mental stress. But the medical establishment has struggled to cope with victims of PTSD. The basic approaches are counseling, cognitive therapy, exposure therapy, virtual reality therapy and medication. But some of these therapies involve many months of residence and are not available to everyone. Also, many veterans with PTSD do not avail themselves of the therapy for fear of being stigmatized. Since October 2001, 30-35 percent of the 1.64 million troops deployed meet criteria for PTSD or major depression, but only half have sought treatment of any kind.

But many victims of PTSD are today finding relief from an unexpected and to some a suspect source -- transcendental meditation (TM). It is not clear to me why the medical community would resist this trend, if only because traditional medical therapies are proving so inadequate. In any event, TM is a proven technique for enabling people to deal with mental and emotional stress that has survived extensive scientific review over the years.

I have first-hand knowledge of the power of TM stemming from my time at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, way back in 1971. I was in fact one of only two students at the War College to sign up for TM. At no point did I see it as a substitute for my Christian faith, but I wanted to learn from it and derive whatever benefit I might find in it during a turbulent year in my life. I gained a lot from the experience, and continue to practice TM to this day, more than 40 years later. TM is most assuredly NOT a religion; rather it is a technique for taking you down mentally to ground zero, clearing your mind of stress and frustration as you find peace within yourself and equanimity of spirit.

It does not surprise me that TM has proven to be quite effective in helping victims of PTSD. From 40-50 percent of veterans trying TM have seen reduced PTSD symptoms; greater resiliency; reduced cardiovascular disease; decreased substance abuse - including smoking, alcohol and drugs; and decreased medical expenditures.

More information about it is available at www.operationwarriorwellness.org.

Lt. Gen. Clarence E. "Mac" McKnight, Jr., (USA-Ret) is the author of From Pigeons to Tweets: A General Who Led Dramatic Change in Military Communications, published by The History Publishing Company.

Catholic Church Opens Up To Yoga And Meditation

ADNKRONOS, LA STAMPA (Italy), THE TELEGRAPH (UK)

Worldcrunch

ROME- With a surprising twist of flexibility, a key Italian bishop and doctrinal expert has given his green light to integrating yoga and meditation into Roman Catholic spiritual practices.

Monsignor Raffaello Martinelli, the bishop of the city of Frascati, near Rome, said that he is "open" to forms of eastern meditation previously rejected by the Vatican, as long as they are used in conjunction with the framework of Christian spirituality, writes La Stampa.

(source: Juni)

So, could we envision a Sunday mass with a "prayer mat" in the near future? Probably not, nor should anyway expect to see the faithful reciting Our Father in a lotus position, pranyana during a decade of the rosary, nor the happy baby pose after communion...Still, this could be a subtle revolution inside a Church, as it prepares to usher in a new papacy after decades of doctrinal traditionalism.

Mons. Martinelli had launched an official catechism study in 2010 with the translated English title of “50 + 3 Topical Arguments- Fragments of Catholic truth- Catechesis Dialogica.” One of the arguments deals with how Christians should meditate, which La Stampa reports for the first time: “Christians, for their meditations, can learn from other religions," the document states. "Meditation practices (such as zen, yoga, controlled breathing, mantra...) from the Eastern Christian and other non Christian religions, can be suitable means to help the faithful to stand before an inwardly lying God."

(source: Pixabay)

In 1999, six years before he succeeded John Paul II as Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s watchdog of doctrinal orthodoxy. He issued a document, according to The Telegraph, which warned Roman Catholics of the dangers of yoga, Zen, transcendental meditation and other 'eastern’ practices. They could “degenerate into a cult of the body” that debases Christian prayer, the document said.

Monsignor Martinelli was a collaborater of then Cardinal Ratzinger, which shows that a potential change in the Church could be brewing.

“It’s an accusation that has nothing to do with reality,” Vanda Vanni, the founder of the Mediterranean Yoga Association, told Adnkronos, an Italian news agency, in reference to the Church's standing antagonism toward the practice. “It’s a theory — if one can call it a theory — that is totally without foundation. Yoga is not a religion or a spiritual practice.”

Crunched by: Julie Farrar