According to Reverend Jing Kung, as I was listening to him expounding the Lotus Sutra, he claims that the causes of natural calamities were detailed in the Lotus Sutra. The cause of natural calamities is us. Our environment is a reflection of our inner-self, just as our appearance is also a reflection of our inner-self. Therefore, beauty is not necessarily only skin deep; but it is necessarily only temporary.
We drool at the sight of delicious food, regardless of whether we need nourishment or not. Thus, greed brings flood, or water related calamities.
In-equanimity, inequality, prejudice, bias, bigotry, proud, etc, brings with it earthquakes. When we have equanimity and equality with all, things are smooth and flat. Just like flat smooth ground, it is easy to walk on. Everyone's life also becomes easier because everyone treats everyone else with the same respect. But when the opposite happens, thing become difficult for everyone, the flat ground becomes uneven - earthquake.
Foolishness (for example, those who refuse to see past their nose), stupidity, selfishness, brings with it calamities of the wind. Such calamities would include things like Hurricanes, Tornadoes, sand storm, etc.
Hate, anger, and vengefulness, brings with it calamities of the fire type, such as volcanic eruptions.
He also goes on to say that, inorder to save the world from all the above calamities, all it takes is for a group of 20 to 30 lay followers to attain Bodhisattvahood, through the practice of perseverance and calmness of the inner self. In so doing, because the people who have been inspired to save the world through such practice would have accrued enough merits to stop the calamities.
Showing posts with label hate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hate. Show all posts
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Authoritarian Personality
I read something about Authoritarian Personality while I was studying for my exams, that I thought it was pretty informative and I'd share it with everyone. It was a section talking about Prejudice. The excerpt below is taken from Buskist, William., Carlson, Neil R. & Martin G Neil. (2007) Psychology (3rd ed) Massachusetts, USA : Peason Education Limited.
"Because prejudice is repugnant and can have such appalling effects, such as genocide, prejudice is often traced to individual differences and personality attributes. One of the most widely promulgated theories of prejudice is the authoritarian personality (Adorno et al., 1950). Children who are brought up in families where their parents use harsh disciplinarian methods to secure love and dependence develop a love-hate relationship with their parents, which is endurably stressful. The stress is resolved by idealizing their parents and all authority figures and redirecting their hatred onto weaker others. This resolution becomes a deep-seated and immutable personality syndrome, authoritarianism, which frames relations for the rest of the person’s life. It predisposes people to be prejudiced. Another personality explanation has been proposed by Rokeach(1948), who argues that some people, for whatever reason, have a general cognitive style that is prejudiced because they strive for a rigidly stratified social world, are resistant to belief change in the light of contradictory evidence, and are inclined to ground their beliefs in authority and orthodox belief systems."
Future parents to be take heed of the above when parenting. For some others, I hope this would shine a little light onto your present disposition. As for the rest, may this serve as a little piece of illumination.
"Because prejudice is repugnant and can have such appalling effects, such as genocide, prejudice is often traced to individual differences and personality attributes. One of the most widely promulgated theories of prejudice is the authoritarian personality (Adorno et al., 1950). Children who are brought up in families where their parents use harsh disciplinarian methods to secure love and dependence develop a love-hate relationship with their parents, which is endurably stressful. The stress is resolved by idealizing their parents and all authority figures and redirecting their hatred onto weaker others. This resolution becomes a deep-seated and immutable personality syndrome, authoritarianism, which frames relations for the rest of the person’s life. It predisposes people to be prejudiced. Another personality explanation has been proposed by Rokeach(1948), who argues that some people, for whatever reason, have a general cognitive style that is prejudiced because they strive for a rigidly stratified social world, are resistant to belief change in the light of contradictory evidence, and are inclined to ground their beliefs in authority and orthodox belief systems."
Future parents to be take heed of the above when parenting. For some others, I hope this would shine a little light onto your present disposition. As for the rest, may this serve as a little piece of illumination.
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