Religion and the World

I have an email from a friend regarding a famous Buddhist Master who is visiting the UK to speak about the importants of harmony and peace in society. This seems to be a common subject for spiritual leaders, but I have questioned to myself whether this is a good outlet for spiritual wisdom.

Looking at society as it stands the majority of people work to help one another. There are teachers who are skilled at bring reading and writing to pupils, there are nurses and doctors who are skilled at bringing health to patients, there are politicians and diplomats who are skilled in the complex world of negotiations to bring the best outcome for those they represent, there are engineers who make devices for handicapped people to help them live more open lives, their are councillors and psychologists to aid people in their relationships and problems... in short every need that people have is met by ordinary people.

Many spiritual masters seem to duplicate these services. They build hospitals, and schools, they get involved in politics like the Dalai Lama and they offer councelling services and advice on life. Why the need to duplicate what is already there? Have spiritual masters not their own niche?

Jesus was most known in his own time for his miraculous ability to heal. But is a physical doctor all he was? Why is he more famous than any doctor? Buddha said that he was a doctor who offered the medicine to cure suffering, but he was not talking about worldly afflictions. Many spiritual groups believe that healing worldly afflictions is the point. Few seem to accept that worldly afflictions are not the real problem, and curing them is like offering a cold remedy; it simply treats the symptoms. If we want to heal worldly afflictions then become doctors or psychologists don't turn to religion!

Spiritual leaders should lead us to God and teach us to pay little attention to our physical circumstances. After all our physical suffering is at worst only for 70 or 90 years, why waste so much of that time on itself? The solution to worldly things is not itself worldly, and strictly it is not other-worldly (many people believe after death we go to a new world called Heaven which is absurd), rather as recently explored here it is learning not to take sides with the world.