901 Declining of Religions – Buddhist

G: I have a very ornate sort of building. I went through an arch, and above the arch is a writing. It’s like Indian, Pakistani writing. Or it might be Sanskrit. Anyway, it’s sort of… I think it’s really just… anyway.. I walk through the arch of the courtyard. It’s the smallish courtyard and on the left there’s a building. It looks like an old school. And there are… No, that’s strange, there are . Buddhists in there, monks. But the writing doesn’t really tie up with the monks. It just doesn’t look right for some reason.

 

S: The intermingling of religions?

 

G: Yeah, I should think so. It’s a school. Okay, so let’s go in. We’ve got the monks, now in reddish robes. The school is in the 19 sort of 50s. The classroom is darkish. Stairs going up. And these monks in the reddish robes are in the first two rooms on the left.

So I can go and talk to them in there. It’s not special. I don’t need to talk to them, they’ve sort of turned their back on me. So I go up the stairs. As I get to the top of the stairs, there’s four rooms. And I go looking, one, two, the first two are empty.  Third and fourth. Oh, I know.

 

This is what I read about today, how religions are declining. Okay, yeah. This sort of follows on with what we were discussing about the change and how religions will change, etc..

 

The Presbyterian church have lost 40% of their own nation in the last 50 years. The fastest growing religion in Africa is African Islam. Christianity is still the biggest religion in the world at 31%. Islam is second at 26% and these are all that matter.

 

When we get to 2050, Islam is going to recreate Christianity. Now, that is going to be in 28 years’ time. So, when this change that’s happening, what we could be doing is altering that particular figure.

 

S: Mmm.

 

G: So, let’s go back to the school, very quickly and see if there’s anything important there. And they say, no, no, we just wanted to get you on the right path. That’s good.

Now, religions from the Far East, the Buddhists, the Hindu. Hindu is the third biggest in the world. And the biggest Hindu population is in India.

 

Now, let’s just start with the Buddhist group. The Buddhist group are very into peace, harmony, tranquility, love and so on. They don’t look at collecting a lot of money. They are looking at what is termed as truly spiritual, which is devoid of wealth and ego and jealousy. Looking after one another, caring for one another, enjoying the beauty of your surroundings and so on. And that is a very nice way to live. If that was all there was on this earth. But unfortunately there is a lot more than that.

 

In the area where they live, it’s very hard. The climate is very hard. It’s what they used to, so the majority don’t really know any better. Because they haven’t traveled outside of that area. They spend a lot of their time simply believing and having faith in their religion. And what this does, is it creates an energy which they can respond to and which attracts others, of the same faith. So it’s like having a god, if you like, which is much, much bigger than the Christian god. But they will see it that way.

 

What they see, it is not so much as a god, because they don’t believe in a single god. They believe in the uniformity of the way they live, of everybody believing the same thing. People are taught the same way and there’s very little change that goes on.

 

S: Form and structure, yeah.

 

G: What’s most important to them is that they love one another, look after one another. And that is so important. Because if that happens, the majority of people by far are very comfortable with the life that they have. They will have feelings of changing certain things, trying different things, which is quite acceptable. And experiencing different things, but they always have this very close, friendly gathering to go back to, to fall back on, etc. And they were saying, if you were a Buddhist with a situation, if you had to today, financially with home, etc., you’d simply be helped by the community who would, first of all, help you get back on your feet, but mainly they wouldn’t let you get that far off your feet. Because the elder ones, with their wisdom, would guide you in the right direction. And because there is no jealousy, ego etc. they’re quite happy to do that. And so they have a very comfortable lifestyle in general, although they don’t have the luxuries they have all the rest, they have the enjoyable lifestyle and they can appreciate the nature and the harmony that surrounds them.

 

S: So the Buddhist retreats that are created here are emitting that same energy which vibrates.

 

Spirit: Correct.

 

S: So they are helping to create that energy.

 

Spirit: Yes. So when you go to a retreat, what you go for is to get away from the Western method of living, Western civilization, and enjoy the peace, harmony, solitude, in a lot of cases, are a retreat.

 

S: Yep.