Saturday, November 20, 2010

Destructive cults

You are probably also a member of a destructive cult but you are not aware of it yet. Cult members are seldom aware of the fact that they belong to a destructive cult. We are all indoctrinated. We need deprogramming, all of us.

You are born into a family of Pashtuns in southern Afghanistan or into a family of evangelical right-wingers in the American mid west. Maybe you happened to be born in a liberal upper middle-class family in Connecticut or in a conservative Brahmin family in Tamil Nadu. Wherever you are born, you are born into the idea that your belief system is sensible and other people with other beliefs are deluded.

You might say to yourself, “Some people are caught up in destructive cults, yes, but I’m not. I’m not a fanatic. I‘ve been working hard all my life. I’ve set up goals for my self. It’s not my problem if thousands of children starve to death every day Life is about to eat or be eaten. It‘s a jungle out there. It’s not my problem if people are exploited in Asia or if carbon dioxide emissions ruin the atmosphere. The kids in the Asian sweat shops are, after all, better off than the street kids, you can’t deny that, and I drive an environmentally friendly car”

Wherever you are born, you are born into a world of ideas and beliefs. The question is, is it possible to leave your belief system behind? Is it possible to live a life without a belief system, no religion, no atheism, no agnosticism, no political ideology? I believe it is possible, but it takes time to realize that one is misled by ideas. It takes time before it sinks in. Sudden, spontaneous awakenings are rare. Nevertheless, more and more people begin to understand now that the earth is not flat and that there are no gnomes or ghosts in the real world.

You are a Muslim or a Jew, a Catholic or a devout Neo Liberal. If you can’t leave your beliefs behind how can you expect other people to do it?

It is of course very difficult to leave the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a group of neo Nazis or a mafia family, but it is possible. It is also possible to leave the mainstream western “shop till you drop philosophy“.

It’s painful to take this step, it’s sometimes extremely dangerous, you will feel lonely, but it is necessary if you feel that awakening is important to you or if you feel that you need a deeper understanding of life. It is like an initiation to a mystery order but there is no order, no rules, no rituals and no doctrine.

If you, on the other hand, feel that awakening is not your top priority, or that a deeper understanding of life is unimportant nonsense, then you don’t have to consider these things at all.