Dear Charles,
You helped your father to sell watermelons, even though you are a dignified teacher. You never tried to interfere with his interest in the I Ching because he didn't do divination, and he didn't charge any money to those who asked his assistance with it. I think you are a loving, caring and watchful son of your father. He is a fortunate man. This would be called honouring your father in the Law of Moses, and in the Law of Jesus it would be called loving him as you would wish to be loved yourself. I am sure that though words may be different, it has been taught in all the great religions of the world.
We can distinguish what is real and true (the baby) from and what is unnecessary or bad, (the used bathwater), by checking them against the highest teachings ever given for how humans should live together in families, tribes, and groups. Baha'u'llah added how nations should live together. Among the laws of personal behaviour are what are called The Ten Commandments of Moses, and the two new ones from Jesus. Jesus endorsed all of Moses' laws, and added two more found in the list of the ten and the two below.
With these twelve commandments no one can go personally wrong, and fall into evil behaviour and you can assess groups and cults. I think you would find that every great religious teacher who has ever come to humankind has always taught these kinds of excellent teachings. They are the universal bedrock for how to live. If you check them against the teachings of any of the great religious teachers you know you will find there is no real disagreement.
As a Baha'i I weigh everything in the scale of my faith, which accepts the bedrock moral teachings of all the great religions which came before it and adds to that now, how countries and a world should get along together. Buddha's Eightfold Path doesn't disagree with the teachings of Moses and Jesus. The Buddha didn't talk about God, though, it is said. I think that was because the people of his time enjoyed talking and philosophizing about such things, yet what the Buddha wanted them to do was to take action, not just talk. Once someone asked him about God, and it is reported that he did not speak, he just pointed to a lotus blossom. To me that means the blossom was so perfect and so beautiful that it had to have a creator. Anyway, what I am saying is that you, Charles, and anyone here can use the Ten Commandments and the two given by Jesus here, or any other moral teachings which check well against them just quietly for yourselves, without joining any groups. YOu can use them to weigh the actions and teachings of cults and so on, and to decide whether they agree, in principle, with these commandments.
Below are the Ten Commandments of Moses and the added two of Jesus in case you would like to check them against the original teachings of your Party, for instance. I think you will see that most are in agreement with the highest, best and purest teachings of your Party. I suspect the Communist originators taught atheism because they were sick and tired of what was being taught as being God, and how it was used to manipulate. (Maybe not unlike Buddha?) So they decided to do away with all that bathwater and the baby also got thrown out. I don't blame them for reaching that conclusion. For a long time I called myself an agnostic because I didn't want to believe in such a creature as had been manufactured through the ages by the ignorant or those who would profit and manipulate, either. What I believe God is now, makes sense to me, and the other stuff is like slandering the great Being.
I enjoy our discussions here because I learn things from them, too. Just now I learned that the popular name is The Ten Commandments, but that is not their real name. In Hebrew the name is the "Ten Words." They are also called the Covenant of love, or the "Testimony", as the solemn attestation of the divine Will.
In the Mosaic teachings, on the one hand God agrees to be their God, giving his fatherly care and love and forgiveness and protection, while they, on their part, agree to keep his commandments and serve him alone. If they disobey, they forfeit all these blessings. In the Bible there are two forms of the "Ten Words." That is because Moses gave them to them early on, and written down, and forty years later when he was old he spoke about them again to the people to underline their great importance.
The ten are also called "The Three-fold Expression of the Law," because "God has spoken these laws in three ways: 1, by his voice; 2, by writing them on the tablets of stone; and 3, he has written them on the very nature of man from the beginning. It was necessary that they should be definitely expressed because it would have taken ages for man to discover them by himself, and also, they needed the divine authority behind them to make them effective.
It was said that they are a Law for all mankind. The Jews said that this was the reason why the commandments were not delivered in Palestine, which belonged to Israel, but in the wilderness, which belongs to all the world. They are seeds from which the tree of the virtues grows and blossoms and bears fruit, unfolding their details through the ages according to their circumstances and needs.
The sum of the twelve together is Love to God and Love to Man. In them, religion is just a part of virtue. Virtue and religion are inseparably united. The reason for the laws was to make men good. They are divided into two tables or two leaves. The first precepts (tables or leaves) contained Duties to God and the second, Duties to our Neighbour.
I have tried to make them easily understandable to you by removing archaic words like thou and shalt. Also I have put a bit of explanation where I thought it might be needed.
*********1. I am the Lord your God...you shall have no other gods before me. 2. You shall not make...any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them....(This means not to make any idols.)
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.... (swearing or using it disrespectfully.)
4. Keep the sabbath day (the seventh day of each week), holy and sanctified....a day of rest for all within your house, including your animals. Do all your work in six days, the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it you shall not do any work....nor anyone in your house. It is a holy day of rest for all. (This means that nobody can be worked to illness or death with no rest. It also gives time to contemplate and remember the past help of God and to resolve to become better; and to be happy together.)
5. Honour your father and your mother: that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you.... (In your turn you will be treated well, too, after all your caring work of raising your family.) 6. You shall not kill (other humans).
7. Neither shall you commit adultery. (Sex with a person to whom your are not married.)
8. Neither shall you steal.
9. Neither shall you bear false witness (lie, slander, gossip) against your neighbour.
10. Neither shall you desire your neighbour's wife, neither shall you covet your neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, (or his car, or his clothes), or any thing that is your neighbour's. (no greed and jealousy between you.) 11, Love God. (added by Jesus.)
12. Love your neighbour as yourself. (added by Jesus.)
Check it out. Would the laughing doctor who killed all of those people have done so if he had followed these Laws? Should people commit suicide. See the6th commandment. Should you be made to abandon your family by a cult? (See the5th commandment. Should you worship the founder of FG? See the 1st and 2nd commandments. *********
The Eightfold Path of Buddha is how to put many of these into action according to the stages of your development and your progress through life.
You can check the basic teachings of righ behaviour of any of the other great religious teachers against these, and determine which were their real teachings and which were added afterwards by priests. You can also test anything, such as the FG cult against these, and see where it is wrong so you can avoid it.
If you live this way you will escape a lot of grief and sorrow in life and your life will be happier.
Warm greetings to you Charles, and all, as always, Mary
