Albert Einstein and the Dalai Lama – kindred souls

Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize for his THEORY OF PHOTOELECTRICITY, and of course his THEORY OF RELATIVITY is known throughout the world.

His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, is the head of state and also the spiritual leader of Tibet.

In every other area of life and living, apart from physics, these two men were truly kindred souls with shared views on almost every subject identical.

The Dalai Lama said, “I am NOT a Buddhist. I live by the principles found in many of the great spiritual traditions” and “We can live without religion and meditation. This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophy or theology. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple.”

Albert Einstein said the same thing in these words, “Teachers of religion must have the stature and integrity to give up the archaic and superstitious concept of a ‘personal’ God that has brought fear and monumental harm to individual human beings.” “I believe in a ‘cosmic’ religion that has no creeds, dogmas, doctrines or churches.”

Both men put “compassion” and “love” at the center of their belief system, a guide to the living of their days, a guide that brought happiness into their lives.

“Man’s ethical behavior should be effectively grounded on compassion, nurture and social bonds. What is moral is not divine, but a purely human matter.” Einstein

“Love and compassion are the true religions to me. But to develop this we DO NOT NEED TO BELIEVE IN ANY RELIGION.” The Dali Lama
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Albert Einstein

It is a shame that people think of Albert Einstein only in terms of his genius in physics. He was a prolific and brilliant writer on many subjects.

He was a true mystic who valued intuition and imagination above logic. I quote: “When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy, imagination, has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing knowledge.”

“To experience the Mystery is the cradle of true art and true science. He who can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead.”

“I am truly a ‘lone traveler’ and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends or my family. I have never lost a sense of distance and the need for solitude.”

Einstein was totally a Bohemian free thinker and free spirit who laughed at the moral prejudices, opinions and judgments of the “masses.” He said many times in different ways that he did not look outside of himself to anyone else, or any institution, as an “authority.” He said clearly and confidently, “I am my own authority.”

As the recent subject matter of my Sunday Symposium, it was his penetrating and brilliant views on organized religion that created much interest and confirmation.

Einstein was completely convinced that the vast majority of problems in the world, and especially with individuals, was caused by belief in a “personal” God. An anthropomorphic God who was a “divine window peeker” or a “celestial bellhop” or even a “cosmic hit man.”

He wrote: “Teachers of religion must have the stature and integrity to give up the archaic and superstitious concept of a ‘personal’ God, a concept that has brought fear and done monumental harm to individuals.” The idea of a personal God is so very naive.
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The Ten Commandments psychosis

I have a new mental illness for psychiatry. I call it “The Ten Commandments Psychosis.” We all know that there are a lot of wackos in the world. It is safe to say that the religious wackos are the wackiest of all.

They want the Ten Commandments in all schools, court houses, parks, ice cream parlors, hot dog stands, stadiums, tennis clubs, golf clubs, street corners and on and on into the dark ages of superstition. They never seem to understand that this nation guarantees freedom FROM religion as well as freedom OF religion. They keep violating the Constitution by putting up Ten Commandments monuments or signs on Federal or State property. They keep getting sued and having to go to all the trouble to take the Commandments down. Which would indicate being a little shallow above the neck. The City of Milwaukee had to move the Ten Commandments monument off the lawn of the Municipal building after being ordered to do so by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. You can safely say that the religious wackos are slow learners – very slow.

The Ten Commandments are factually, and simply, a primitive cultic code of taboos written for the Hebrew cult.

No one has put the Commandments in perspective better than the famous actress Ruth Gordon. She said to an audience, “There is one commandment I have never broken. I can assure you, I have never coveted my neighbor’s wife.”

Perhaps few other parts of the bible have been so misused, misinterpreted, misunderstood as have the Ten Commandments. They were a cultic taboo code written BY Hebrew men FOR Hebrew men. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Sir James Frazer in his classic “The Golden Bough” wrote, “These commandments of Israel are taboos of a familiar type in primitive religions disguised as commands of the tribal God.” Dr. Ernest Colwell, former Dean of the Theological Seminary, the University of Chicago, writes, “These were prescriptions written ONLY for the Hebrew cult. They acquired authority due to the rites of the cult.”

All “thou shalt not kill” meant is that thou shall not kill another Hebrew. The giver of the commandment, Moses, quite obviously totally ignored it with everyone but the Hebrews. And all with the jealous tribal God’s blessing. In the book of Numbers, Chapter 31, verse 17, Moses himself gives this order, “Kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known a man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.” Could any command be more revolting to human sensibilities: kill every male and every woman not a virgin, but the virgins keep for yourselves? And in verse 7, it reads, “As God commanded Moses, they killed them all.” Obviously, “thou shalt not kill” was not understood either by Moses, or the Israelites or “God” to be any kind of an ethical prohibition of killing. And so today, we still hand out free bibles to our military people going into battle to kill.
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