Sunday, June 28, 2009

The Synchronicity Classification Scale

The synchronicity classification scale was developed by Professor Arnold Konstieg and professor Margaret O’Connor’s from Harvard University. The scale has proved to be useful in scientific evaluations of synchronistic phenomenons. Synchronicities is given points as follows.

5 points is given to extremely strange life changing synchronicities.

4 points is given to very strange coincidences; for example, if a person for some reason happens to think of someone he or she has not seen for more than 20 years and then he or she suddenly bump into that person 3 minutes later.

3 points is given to strange intuitions where a person is picking up information from the background field.

2 points is given to good, undeniable strange, everyday coincidences.

1 point is given to minor interesting little everyday coincidences.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

“The story of the blind men and an elephant originated from India. In various versions of the tale, a group of blind men touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one touches a different part, but only one part, such as the tusk or the leg or the trunk or the ear. They then compare notes on what they felt, and learn that they are in complete disagreement. The story is used to indicate that reality may be viewed differently depending on one’s perspective, suggesting that what seems an absolute truth may be relative due to the deceptive nature of half-truths.” (Wikipedia.)

In reality we are more like the fleas behind the elephants ears or maybe we are like the bacterias in its intestines, or maybe even something much smaller. Our perspective is extremely limited. No human being knows but a tiny little fraction of the totality.

This doesn’t mean that nothing is important. I’m not advocating ethical relativism. To the fleas, it is important to know what is right and what is wrong. What the elephant think is nothing fleas have to care about.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Words are not just words and thoughts are not just thoughts. It is very important what you say to yourself. Many spiritually bent people seem to believe that words and thinking are obstacles and something to get rid of. (When you stop the inner chatterbox, you can see the reality as it really is.) I think this is a mistake. I think that we must listen carefully to what the inner voice has to say. Very often, it is completely wrong about things. It can come up with the most fantastic excuses, explanations and accusations; it can make you miserable and ruin your life. You cannot silence this voice. There is a better way to deal with it. You can dispute it. You have to show clearly to your inner voice that it is wrong when it is wrong. The inner voice is conditioned habitual thinking, the voice that disputes the conditioning is not conditioned. It tries to see how things really are, here and now.

"Listen! I am not useless. It is true that I made a mistake but that doesn't make me a complete idiot. You are not fair. Some people still like me. And people in general are not assholes. And life is not meaningless. It depends on how you look at things..."

Remember also that it is important to be sincere when you are talking to yourself. Double talk and bullshit may be useful in the outside world but in the inside world it is creates a lot of problems.

I read about this way of looking at things in Martin Seligman's book "Authentic Happiness".

Monday, June 15, 2009

 
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Maps are very useful. However, if they are inaccurate, too old, or if they are bogus-maps, they are of no use at all.

Through the millenniums, religions and philosophies have performed the functions of maps. Priests, preachers, philosophers, psychologists, politicians, scientists, gurus and imams have pointed out the way to us.

It is not different today. But now we have also thousands and thousands of self-appointed spiritual teachers and coaches who show us the way to the Promised Land. They know it all. They know the way. They have been there. The problem is that they all point in different directions.

This doesn't mean that they are all wrong. With all the different directions they point at some got to be right.

I sound too cynical. I can hear it. It is of course also possible that some people know what they talk about.

Well, almost all people seem to know it all. They know what is right and what is wrong, they know what is common sense and what is mumbo jumbo, they know what kind of politics is the best, which religion is the best, witch kind of meditation technique is the best, they know everything. It is rare to meet people who say that they don’t have a clue about anything. I relax when I meet such people.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Some people wake up and realize that they have been fooling themselves. “Everything is wonderful, really. I'm healthy, I have a wonderful family, a wonderful home and a big bank account, why have I been so miserable? What tremendous power there is in self-deceptions.”

Other people wake up and realize that they have been mean and selfish for decades. Maybe drugs and alcohol have possessed them, maybe the idea of making a career or status-striving. Some of those people might say to themselves, “Oh my God. I completely forgot about my children. How can I make up for all this?”

Some people wake up from political delusions. Ingmar Bergman, for example, sympathized with the Nazis in Germany for many years as a young man.

Another kind of awakening is the small awakening that happens when we wake up from a daydream, when the attention shifts away from the thoughts for a moment.

When Eckhart Tolle talks about awakening, he is talking about enlightenment, a huge awakening, a sudden, radical shift in ones perception of the world, a complete loss of ego, an end to all interpretations. I have not experienced this kind of awakening. I don't really understand what he is talking about. I still have an ego after years and years of meditation practice and philosophical studies. However, "my" ego has lost much of its power. When it is going on an on about something and wants to direct my actions I simply tell him to stop all that stupid nonsense. It actually works, sometimes.

To me it doesn’t really matter if the world is 15 billion years old or if it is 150 billions years old, if it has always been there or if there are many more worlds out there. Matter consists of empty space to more than 99,99%, empty space between the electrons and the nucleus of the atom. So what? To me it doesn't really matter if I will reincarnate or if I will end up in heaven or hell when I die. All such thoughts are, as I see it, nothing but speculations. I live here in this world, in this time period, in this world of form, in this moment. This matters to me. In a few minutes I'll have to rush to catch my train to get to work in time. In the great scheme of things, human beings are as insignificant as ants. So what? To us it matters if we will be wiped out in a nuclear war or if we are ruining our planet because of insatiable greed, carelessness and stupidity. This carelessness and greed is not due to cosmic perfection. It is carelessness and greed, which is similar to alcoholism.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

It is possible to wake up from delusions. It is possible to realize that the world is not what we think it is. It is possible to realize that we’re not what we think we are. But then what? Is that it? Somehow we have to make a living. Somehow we have to find a way to live in this mad world. Those with enough money can escape to a house in the country and live of their savings, but we, who don't have enough money, have no other options but to sink or swim.

People around us, in our neighborhoods and in our workplaces, will vote for the extreme right because they are racists or perhaps they are fanatically into shopping or soap operas or dieting. Some people are caught up in alcohol, soccer or weird religion. Some people are interested in horoscopes and others are interested in sadist sex. However, most people on this planet live without no other interests than survival. Most people are malnourished or starving.

We live in a mad world. We’re living in a madhouse. This is a fact, not a belief. What can we do? It is rare to meet someone who is not crazy. Isn’t it wonderful to meet someone or even hear about people who don’t seem to be completely crazy?

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Saturday, June 6, 2009

 
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Do you agree with that the Germans did wrong when they fanatically supported Hitler?

Do you agree with that all those who hunted witches in the seventeenth century were deluded?

Do you agree with that those who followed Jim Jones to Guyana to build Jonestown must have been out of their minds?

Do you agree with that millions and millions of people all over the world belong to all kinds of fanatic religious or political sects or groups led by insane leaders, preachers, mullahs or gurus?

Do you agree with that human beings easily can be fooled to do terrible things?

Do you agree with that human beings are easily led and gullible and that it seems to be in our nature?

Have you ever experienced in your life that you have been fooled or that you somehow have managed to fool yourself?

Have you ever lied or told a cock-and-bull story?

Have you ever had a crazy idea which you later realized was completely crazy?

Have you ever played the fool?

Do you agree with, that you right now, very well could be completely fooled or governed by an idea that later will turn out to be a completely crazy?

Friday, June 5, 2009

 
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I will not vote in the election to the European Parliament. I didn’t vote for my favorite song in the Eurovision Song Contest either. Well, the majority is not voting in the election to the parliament. And if they vote they will vote for the right-wingers or the extreme right. If they vote for the social democrats they mostly don’t know that it wont make any difference to their life. The right wingers and the social democrats endorse the same bills.

So, drop the politics. Don't vote. They are all crazy, all those jerks dressed up in limousines, but so are you. Wake up to a new world without politics, religions and ideologies. Drop all the crazy ideas you have about the world and yourself. Don‘t trust anybody, not even yourself. It is enough to be alive. It is a miracle to be alive. All the rest is misinterpretations.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009



I have seen the world through the eyes of a newborn baby. I have seen the world through the eyes of a three-year-old kid. I have seen the world through the eyes of a teenager. Now I see the world through the eyes of a fifty-four year old man. We look at the world through different eyes, no wonder that we see different things. You may see the world through the eyes of a 65 years old professor or through the eyes of a drunkard in the gutter, it doesn’t matter, no one can see the world as it actually is, not even the great gurus.

We are completely dependent on our mothers when we are new born. Gradually, as we grow older, we must learn how to give, not just to want things. “I waaana have an ice cream, nooow!” “Take it easy. I'll buy you an ice cream in a minute. I just have to finish this.”

I work in a garden center selling plants, big trees, shrubs, roses, tiny little seeds. Mostly the customers are nice and friendly, but yesterday I had a woman who was demanding like a little brat. Something had gone seriously wrong with her. Well, I am used to this kind of people. Their problem is, I think, that they are too rich. Many rich people seem to never grow up. They are deeply convinced that they are entitled to all their money and to their selfishness, simply because they are so fantastic. They don’t know nothing about how to give if they don’t get something back or get a lot of praise for it. This is a very serious delusion and there is no cure for it. In fact, in our western societies we believe that this is how things should be. “Communism didn’t work. Isn’t that clear by now? Why don’t you go to North Korea? You idiot!”

In the mornings, I walk across the golf course on my way to work. In the evenings, I take another route and walk through the park. The park was created for some royal jerk in the seventeenth century so he could enjoy nature. Well, the nature itself wasn't good for royalties in those days; in fact, they were terrified by it. They wanted nature to be neatly trimmed, everything had to be arranged, everything had to be shaped. They were obsessed by "man over nature" ideas.

Anyway, often as I walk across the big lawn I feel like I wake up from a dream. I wake up from my thoughts. At work, I am totally focused on all the things that need to be done. I am totally lost in doing. However, when I cross the big lawn I often experience awareness to everything around me. My awareness is not focused on anything particular. I wonder if this is the space consciousness Eckhart talks about, or the awareness without a center, which Krishnamurti and Toni Packer talks about.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Monday, June 1, 2009

 
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Fear is nothing to be afraid of. It is not a big deal. The fear reaction is deeply rooted in us. All mammals know what fear is, and for millions of years we have had millions of reasons to be afraid. The hare on the photo is hiding from me because he is afraid. He is probably thinking, “I better be careful. He might don’t see me if I fold down my ears and keep absolutely still.” Fear is a completely normal and natural response to imagined or real threats. It is as normal as as is to be happy.

Nor is delusions and social conditionings something we can get rid of. If I am raised in a western middle class family, I will have a lot of ideas, values and ways of looking at things that I have just because of my upbringing. I may violently rebel in my youth but a lot of conditioning will persist, no matter what, and I will probably not even be aware of it. We are all living in different dream worlds. Alcoholics, workaholics, security junkies, religious junkies, political junkies, racists, escapists, there are so many different varieties. All people have a part in this amazing play.

To wake up, I think, is not about dropping the fear or the conditionings. It is about waking up, to be afraid when one is afraid, to be happy when one is happy, to be sad when one is sad, to be clear when one is clear, to be deluded when one is deluded, and to wake up from the delusion when one is waking up from the delusion, and to fall asleep again and to wake up again. Everyday is a new reincarnation.
 
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