Thursday, September 9, 2010

God is a word
with many different meanings.

What do you mean when you say that you believe in God?
Or maybe you don’t believe in God.
What do you mean if you say that you don’t believe in God?
Probably you don't have a clue.
Your mouth is talking by itself in your face.

I’m listening.
Your words arrive at my eardrums as waves in the air
like waves on a seashore
and there they are transformed
into electro-chemical nerve impulses
and travel in to my brain
where they are worked up
and a response is somehow formed
all by itself
automatically
almost instantly
and my mouth begin to talk.

You and I have almost nothing to do with this.
It is rare that we manage to stop ourselves
which is mostly good
I think
Conscious talking is so contrived.
You may believe that you are awakened
or on a journey to awakening
or you may believe that you are saved
and that you will go to heaven when you die
but what if you have fooled yourself?

All people are fooling themselves.
This is normal.
We’re all like pond frogs
living in different ponds
in backwaters
in a bourgeois pond
listening to Beethoven and Mozart
practicing mindfulness meditation from time to time
or maybe in a working class pond
listening to the Rolling Stones or U2
eating sausages.

We don’t care too much about other ponds
in our day to day life.
We pretend sometimes that we care
about other people in other countries
or in other shoes
because we have read somewhere that this is something good to do
but mostly we don’t give a damn.

You may love yourself
and you may love what is
in your beautiful living room
with the wonderful view over your garden
but this is not awakening
this is not salvation
and this is not to be present here and now
with your whole being.
This is only a part of yourself
the tip of an iceberg.

So how do I know about this
you may ask.
Am I not a pond frog
just like you?

Of course I am
but human beings are not just a pond frogs.
Somehow we can also change into birds
and see things from a bird perspective.
This is in our nature.
This is fantastic
and this is why you are able to understand what I am talking about.
We can wake up
from our everyday slumber
at least for short moments.
Isn’t this amazing?

We are not just pond frogs
or wolfs or eagles or chimpanzees or pigs
We are human beings
for Christ’s sake.

Awakening must serve a purpose
in the biological evolution.