Santa Claus - The New Moral Test

[Vajradhara]

Namaste all,

i was having a discussion the other night, seeing as how it is Christmas and all... and the subject of Santa Clause came up.

i suspect that all of the readers of this forum lack a belief in Santa Clause. if you currently hold a belief in Santa, STOP READING!



so...

if you made it here you lack this Santa Clause belief.

but.... i was thinking...

it is said that Santa is making a list of whos naughty and nice and, if we are nice, we will have presents delivered to us.

naturally, none of us have seen Santa do that and have thusly concluded that he doesn't exist. heck, we may even have a parent that dresses up and portrays Santa for holiday parties and what not and have explained that Santa doesn't exist.

however... if, as it is said, it requires a being to be listed on the "nice" list to get presents from Santa, how can we rule out the possibility that we haven't been nice and thus, Santa simply doesn't visit us?

some religons posit that all sentient beings are inherently sinful, which would make them not nice and, as such, these beings would never be visited by Santa.

others, however, teach that niceness is a quality which can be developed and extended, our ability to have loving, compassionate thoughts is only constrained by our own mental limits.

however, even in these traditions, it is generally held that beings are in a process of development.. sometimes nice and sometimes not. so, similarly, these beings wouldn't be visited by Santa.

as the saying goes... absense of evidence is not evidence of absence

for your happy holiday consideration

metta,

~v