Role Models?

[w00t]

Do you look up to any human religious leader?

 

[eudaimonia]

Do you look up to any human religious leader?

Not any current ones, though I have respect for recent ones, such as Gandhi and the Pope John Paul II.

Let me state that respect does not imply agreement with all of their political and ethical views.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[MaddLlama]

Nope.

 

[Ever learning]

I like Gandhi but cant say that I look up to him.

 

[doppelganger]

Clarence Darrow is the closest "role model" I have, but even with Clarence, I don't have any sort of idealized view.

However, I admire the work of many artists.

 

[Smoke]

Do you look up to any human religious leader?

I still have tremendous admiration for my former priest, although I have obviously taken a different path. There are many religious leaders whose writings admire -- mostly Buddhists and Quakers -- but most of them are dead, and I don't consider any of them as authorities.

Bertrand Russell, Helen & Scott Nearing, Joseph Campbell and Molly Ivins have all had more effect on my way of thinking than any religious leader.

 

[Angelfire]

Do you look up to any human religious leader?

Yes. Bishop john S......He lives and works in the north of England. He seems to be the only member of the clergy that has the guts to stand up and say that the government is appeasing a small minority of the population at the expense and,not in the best interests of the indigenous population. This man is from Africa,and he's protesting the governments new laws on freedom of speech. Such a brave man



peace

 

[YmirGF]

The only role mdels I have found worthy are Krsna, Christ, (the real) Babaji and Buddha. Honorable mention also goes to Meher Baba, Paramahansa Yogananda, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhakitvedanta, Don Juan Matus, (the current) Dalai Lama and Carl Jung. The rest are too "low level" to be bothered with, imho.

 

[PureX]

Yes, I admire Bob Dobbs a lot, but that's only because he's so handsome.

"I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person I'm preaching to."​

 

[ChristineES]

Since religious "leaders" are the same as everyone else in Gods eyes (at least Biblically), then I see any religious person as a brother (with everyone else as my "neighbor"). We, according to Jesus, are not supposed to raise one brother over another.
I like to listen to Billy Graham. But I only "look up" to Jesus, my savior. I can listen to any religious person who will know more than I do. I love to learn, it is one of purposes in life-- To learn all I can.

 

[Lindsey-Loo]

Yes, my elders and preacher.

 

[doppelganger]

I might also consider Joseph Campbell, but to honor what Joseph Campbell taught is to make your own hero's journey of your life . . . but then you'd be following Campbell . . .

 

[ChristineES]

I am hoping that any Christian will follow Yeshua's (Jesus') teachings.

 

[Smoke]

I might also consider Joseph Campbell, but to honor what Joseph Campbell taught is to make your own hero's journey of your life . . . but then you'd be following Campbell . . .

I wouldn't say "follow" people like Campbell or the Nearings or Krishnamurti or even Russell. I do follow their advice (and Sakyamuni's) not to follow anybody, including themselves.

 

[Smoke]

I am hoping that any Christian will follow Yeshua's (Jesus') teachings.

I've never seen it done. Jesus' teachings are notoriously inconvenient to follow.

 

[ChristineES]

I've never seen it done. Jesus' teachings are notoriously inconvenient to follow.

I have never found Jesus teachings inconvenient. But they do take a concerted effort.

 

[Pariah]

I wouldn't say "follow" people like Campbell or the Nearings or Krishnamurti or even Russell. I do follow their advice (and Sakyamuni's) not to follow anybody, including themselves.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
Siddhartha Gautama AKA Shakyamuni Buddha

I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.
Jiddu Krishnamurti

• Krishnamurti is one of those forgotten gems, in my mind. Despite being born and raised in India, his command over English was quite amazing. Of course, this might be due to this involvement in that silly Theosophical Society.

It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.
Joseph Campbell

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
Bertrand Russell
__________

In response to the OP:
Most of my role models are not religious in nature, because I see strength, not in success through divinity, but in triumph through mortality.

Krishna - Warrior-king-philosopher-diplomat-reformer and hero of the Indian/Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. Of course, I view him, not as an incarnation of Vishnu, but as a human who strove to reach the heights he achieved.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - An Indian philosopher born and raised in the Theosophical Society and The Order of the Star, hailed as a new messiah and the Maitreya Buddha, on a speech in front of thousands of followers and teachers that he was dissolving the order because, "Truth is a pathless land".

Napoleon - Through my research of him, he proclaimed the removal of religion and the progression of Enlightenment values. Through his quotes and personal notations, I find that he and I thought quite the same on a number of topics.

Shivaji the Great - An Indian warrior king, who, through his brilliant use of guerilla tactics, founded the soverign Hindu kingdom of Maharasthra, in a land ruled by Muslims, from fundamentalist Mughal king Aurangzeb. He is credited with being the main force behind the fall of Muslim power in India, his empire expanding far after his death and losing only to the British in 1818 at the Battle of Panipat.

*Never heard of the "Nearings"

 

[Smoke]

Krishnamurti is one of those forgotten gems, in my mind.

He's not forgotten at all in mine.

*Never heard of the "Nearings"

Helen and Scott Nearing are best known for their book Living the Good Life, and in their old age they became sort of elders and gurus of the back-to-the-land, self-sufficient movement. The initial reason they went back to the land, though, was that Scott was a teacher who became unemployable because of he was a Socialist, peace activist, feminist, and all-around troublemaker. During the Depression, they decided it would be easier to live poor in the country than in the city. Helen was his second wife, twenty years his junior, a free-thinker and a vegetarian. She was a close friend of Krishnamurti in the 1920s and was his lifelong admirer; Krishnamurti is said to have been in love with her. Scott died in 1983 at the age of 100, by his own choice, and Helen in 1995 at the age of 91 when she ran her pickup truck off the road in the rain.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Do you look up to any human religious leader?

In terms of living people, I look up to the Dalai Lama and Bishop Tutu.

Historically, George Fox comes to mind.

 

[Pariah]

She was a close friend of Krishnamurti in the 1920s and was his lifelong admirer; Krishnamurti is said to have been in love with her.

I don't know if its just me, but a lot of academics and intellectuals seem to be interconnected with one another, as in, they all seem to know each other. At least, in that time period, or any period in which many of them lived as opposed to being part of different generations.

Scott died in 1983 at the age of 100, by his own choice, and Helen in 1995 at the age of 91 when she ran her pickup truck off the road in the rain.

We say that our lives are short, but apparently, they lived through too much. What was the reason Scott killed himself?