It's not in our nature

Hitler came to power in a democratic way. The Germans loved him and sacrificed their lives for him. They never woke up from their delusions. They never realized that they were mad until they were defeated.

Nazism is proof enough that a belief system can be incredibly powerful and incredibly idiotic. Almost all people understand today that Nazism was madness and that madness is not necessarily something in our true nature. Beliefs can turn us into idiots. We are not born idiots.

Games people play

A nice and cheerful way is a perfect cover for an asshole in the secret. Some people are genuinely nice and cheerful, but some are only acting nice in order to hide their deep selfishness. They live as if life were a theater stage.

Some people play the nice and cheerful buddy because of fear. They believe that they must not feel what they feel. Others play this game because they have in mind to trick you. However, some people have no ulterior motives. They are simply nice and cheerful.

Many people are hiding in religious disguises. Many people tell untrue stories about paranormal phenomenons they have never experienced. All people tell lies now and then. Even scientists sometimes manipulate their test results in order to make them fit with their assumptions and preconceived ideas.

This is why it is meaningless to discuss paranormal phenomenons, spirituality and religious experiences. So many people are just bullshitting; some are more sincere, yes, but there is no good way to determine if a story or an explanation is trustworthy or not.

Science is the only useful tool we have to help us when we try to discuss what is going on in the world, but science deals only with the things that can be measured and weighed. Stories about exceptional experiences may be fun to hear but they must always be taken with a pinch of salt because of our unreliable nature. Your stories about strange coincidences or mysterious events cannot prove anything to anyone but yourself.

You can never prove that what you’re telling is true. You can tell your stories but you must expect that they may be disputed. You can tell cock-and-bull stories to others, it’s not that big deal, however, if you tell cock-and bull-stories to yourself, then you are in trouble.

To present a false face to others is one thing, but to present a false face to yourself is a serious issue.

It’s possible to hear, if you listen attentively, if you are trying to lie to yourself. It is also possible to hear, if you’re trying to tell the truth.

It's unpleasant to wake up

We perceive only a fraction of what’s going on in the world. Our eyes can only see certain wavelengths. The main part of the electromagnetic spectrum is invisible for us. Our brain has, in a similar way, only limited accesses to the totality.

It’s nevertheless important to do the best we can, I think, with what we have. It’s not a good strategy to turn off too much of the world. It’s more comfortable to turn off the bad news, yes, but comfort comes at a price.

Sometimes the pressure on us is higher than we can handle. Sometimes we have to take a break or a time out. Maybe you have to go to the pub and get drunk. However, if you drink hard everyday, to forget your troubles, then you will eventually find yourself in a hole. You will then have an additional problem to deal with.

There are so many different ways to escape. There are different ways for different tastes. Smoking pot is an excellent method for some people. Five, six joints a day is usually enough. Tranquilizers, opium and glue are also very effective.

You can also fill all your free time with as much nonsense as possible, stupid stuff on TV, silly little games on your iPhone, hypnotic beats in your headphones, applesauce and junk food. You can make a pig of yourself. Binge eating is a very efficient way to escape.

Alternatively, you can get yourself a hobby. Engage yourself in gardening, bodybuilding, biking, miniature railways, whatever. There are so many hobbies to choose from.

You can also put all your energy into a career. You can find yourself a treadmill, and tread and trample till you die.

Religion and spirituality can also be very efficient. You can build yourself a castle in the air. You can find yourself a cult or a secret society. Superstition can easily make you loose touch completely.

However, if you don’t want to bury your head in the sand, then you have to face a lot of unpleasant feelings. It’s unpleasant to give up drinking and smoking. It’s unpleasant to deal with creditors. It’s unpleasant to see that ones religion is a scam or that ones political views are based on greed and evil. It’s unpleasant to wake up.

Is it possible to stop asking questions?

Some people simply can’t stop asking difficult questions: Where do we come from? Why are we here? Where are we heading?

The majority is usually satisfied if someone with authority provides answers and explains how the world functions. Then they don’t have to brood on what life is all about or worry about how they should live.

However, there are also those who simply can’t stop pondering. Mysticism, philosophy and science are the results from such, sometimes desperate, ruminations. Is there a God somewhere? How did life begun here on earth? Will I reincarnate when I die?

The problem is that mystics, philosophers and scientists seldom have definitive, clear-cut and ultimate answers. They have only visions, theories and more questions to offer.

The idea that there is an end to the search when we have awakened is just an idea held by some people. Some of those will later abandon this idea. Others will hold on to it.

Who are you, really?

You are not in your right mind when you are drunk. Some people have been drunk for decades. They have no idea of who they are when they’re not drunk or suffering from hangover. They have no idea of who they are, really.

In a similar way, if you are deeply involved in a weird religious cult, you have probably also forgotten who you are. You have been transformed into someone you‘re supposed to be.

The same thing happens if you’ve been very ambitious and have been working extremely hard for many years to reach the top. Then you have probably also lost your true self along the way.

Nor have people with deep neurotic problems and those exposed to too much pressure and stress access to their true self.

Therefore, if you want to find out who you are, you have to give up drinking and drugs, you have to leave the rat race or your religious cult. This is easier said than done, I know. However, there is no other way. If you can’t take these first steps, then you will never be able to understand anything about life. Meditation will not be of any help as long as you cling to your delusions.

Neurotic problems are harder to deal with. I don’t know if therapists can help to cure neuroses. Maybe they can.

Extreme pressure from our surroundings and stress are seldom something we can do much about. Pressure and stress are a part of all people’s life and something we all have to go through, I believe. All people have to ride out many storms.

What is good to know is that storms die down and neuroses can heal spontaneously after many years. It is possible to give up drugs and alcohol and it is possible to leave religious cults. It is possible to leave the rat race and it is possible to wake up from delusions.

Realism

Maybe it’s better with a nice and warm philosophy of life, than hard, cold and realistic way of looking at things. Warm thoughts make us feel better. Maybe it’s better to be warm and deluded than to feel smart and frozen. Smartness has no benefits at all, what I can see.

Therefore, you can hold on to any faith you like, as long as it keeps you warm, and as long as it doesn’t create too many problems for other people. To insist on rationality and consistency is perhaps like walking through a winter wonderland without warm clothing.

Well, maybe we also have to accept that we do create miseries for others and ourselves with all our crazy ideas. Maybe we’re just some kind of miserable naked apes with crazy thoughts in our heads to keep us warm.

Who am I?

I believe that I am this body, this mind, all my stories, ideas and conditionings.

Some people believe that the true self is to be found somewhere else. They believe that what they really are is formless nothingness.

Some people believe that they are God; others believe that they are Napoleon.

Obsessions

Do you agree with that people can become obsessed with all sorts of weird ideas? Do you agree with that those ideas can create disasters?

The Germans became obsessed with Nazism and Social Darwinism during the thirties and forties. The rulers of today are obsessed with an ideology called Neo liberalism. They believe that greed is good.

Religious fanatics can become obsessed with incredible weird ideas, Muslim suicide bombers, Christian fundamentalists, Orthodox Jews, Hindu fanatics; there are so many crackpots out there.

Do you agree with that superstition is as widespread today as it was five hundred years ago?

Do you agree with that ideas can make any average man or woman crazy? Do you agree with that the horrors in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia were caused by crazy ideas?

Do you agree with that it is quite possible that also you are obsessed with a crazy idea, though you’re not aware of it yet?

Philosophy

Every human being has a philosophy of life but many people are not aware of this fact. Most people have never examined which values, ethical ideas and metaphysical assumptions they live by. We don’t know what we think and how we look at life, really. This is dangerous because unconscious thoughts, ideas and beliefs strongly influence our decisions and actions.

What do you think?

Do you think that you understand what life is about?

Do you think that human beings are selfish by nature? Do you believe that the law of the jungle still applies and that friendliness and helpfulness is just a cloak to make us look good? Do you think we all are like car salesmen or politicians?

Do you believe that all people are wolfs in sheep’s clothing?

Alternatively, do you believe that people are sheep really, but in wolf’s clothing?

Do you believe that human beings are sometimes sheepish and sometimes wolfish, by nature?

Do you believe that human beings are a cross between sheep and wolfs?

Do you think that equal rights and justice are important issues?

Do you believe that poor people suffer because they are lazy?

If you happened to win a thousand dollars on a lottery ticket, would you spend the money on yourself or would you send them to hungry children in India?

Do you believe that objective truths exist, or do you believe that truth is always relative?

Do you believe that an action is good if it feels good?

Do you believe that we have a free will, that we can make decisions?

Do you think that all ideas, including your ideas, should to be questioned?

Do you believe in an objective reality outside your own mind?

Do you believe that science is an important tool, or do you believe that intuition is more secure road to the truth?

Do you think that evidence is quite unimportant?

Do you believe that extraterrestrial beings are sometimes visiting earth? If you believe that extraterrestrials are sometimes visiting earth, what makes you think so? Have you met them? Have you seen convincing film clips on You Tube?

Many people have met angels, many have met ghosts and many have seen UFOs. Can they be nuts, all of them? What do you think? Can they be right?

If you don’t believe that extraterrestrial beings are sometimes visiting earth, what makes you embrace this idea?

Do you believe in reincarnation? Do you believe in heaven and hell? Why? Why not?

If you believe that a human being has only one life and if there is no heaven, how would you justify that so many people have to suffer so much because you and other rich people don‘t want to share enough of their riches?

Do you think that religion and spirituality simply are fantasies we need in order to stay sane in this world of grotesque injustice, inequality and madness?

Do you think that it is possible to live a life of selfishness, delusion, greed and evil without any repercussions whatsoever?

Do you think that the karma theory or the ideas of a judgment day are fantasies?

Do you agree with that your explanations may be total misunderstandings because you are aware of the fact that all people make mistakes and misunderstand things?

Do you believe that there are no mistakes? Do you believe that everything is in perfect order?

Are you aware of the fact that your answers to the questions here are not necessarily yours? Where did you find them, in books or on the internet? Did you learn them from someone you admire?

Are you aware of the fact that your ideas are not your ideas?

The thinking mind can’t make you happy.

Both spiritual and scientific explanations are created in the thinking mind. The thinking mind is just a small fraction of the whole mind but it is nevertheless very important. This part of us makes us human. Without the thinking mind, we would be apes. No-mind is a meaningless concept. What is important is how we make use of the thinking mind and to which end.

Our history and our plans for the future are also important. Human beings live not only in the now, like the animals. We have memories and stories to tell; we make plans and look forward to when things will improve. To focus all attention on the now will not bring about awakening.

Warmth is much more important than the now and all clever explanations. Imagine someone without the ability to feel sadness, love, kindness and friendship, but with a head filled with answers. Can you think of a more miserable person?

Death

Some people believe in reincarnation, others that they will end up in heaven or hell when they die. I believe that my life is like a fire in a cold and indifferent winter’s night. Eventually it will go out, but others will bring the fire on..

We will not wake up from the hypnosis

You can’t expect that a devout Muslim would abandon his religion simply because you have strong arguments against religious delusions and superstition.

You can’t expect that a Jew or a Catholic would question their beliefs. You can’t expect that a right-winger would understand that his worldview is nothing but a mental construct, like a fantasy or a daydream.

All people build castles in the air, new-age people, religious people, people with political opinions and agendas. All people confuse their fantasies with the reality.

Very few are able to realize that they’ve been indoctrinated and deluded. Very few are able to realize that their religion, worldview and political opinions are nothing but weird ideas. Very few are able to drop their delusions.

This is the reason why I don’t believe in a future for humankind here on earth. We simply can‘t give up our desperate fight to defend our follies.

Faith can move mountains

Some believe that they are saved, others that they are spiritually awakened.
Some believe that they are stupid, others that they are smart.
Some believe that they are cursed, others that they are chosen.

Some believe that life is about struggle and competition; others believe that without love and friendship life is not worth living.

Some believe that we reap in this life, what we have sown in a previous life; others believe that we will end up in heaven when we die.

Maybe those groups in our social evolution whose faith was strong competed out groups without deeper convictions. Maybe they fought harder. Maybe they where more united. Maybe their frenzy and zealousness made them invincible.

Beliefs, faiths and myths are two-edged swords. They create disasters, war and madness in the world, but they can also create meaning and inner strength for individuals, or depression, delusions, low self-esteem and misery.

Minestrone soup

You’re not good or bad, you’re both. You have good and bad sides. You’re not stupid or smart, not lazy or diligent; you’re not a dreamer or a realist; you’re a mixture of many ingredients, like a minestrone soup - in a skin bag.

However, two minestrone soups will never taste the same. The ingredients vary with the season.

You can be a mixture of, for example, greed, sadness, anger, joy, silliness, curiosity and tenderness in different proportions. Sometimes there is too much jealousy in the soup; sometimes there is too much contentment.

You’re sometimes like a sleepwalker, sometimes wide-awake, sometimes sloppy and sometimes disciplined, sometimes selfish and sometimes unselfish.

There is no true self. There is no genuine minestrone.

Double-talk

Religious people are seldom particularly religious. They usually don’t even follow their own doctrines. Most Christians, for example, store up for themselves treasures on earth and refuse to forgive their enemies. They don’t turn the other cheek and they blow trumpets when they give alms so everyone will know how good they are.

In a similar way, scientists are seldom particularly scientific. They speculate, assume and hypothesize. If they would only speak about what they had clear evidence for, they wouldn’t have much to say. They would have to stop trying to explain how life begun, the Big Bang, humankind’s early prehistory, superstrings, parallel universes, what consciousness is made of and thousands of other things.

What about you, do you walk your talk? Are you not like all the rest? Are you not human?

Unity in diversity

If you feel sad, if things just don’t go your way, if you don’t have enough money to pay your bills, your wife has left you for a nicer man, your mother is ill, the world is going under in madness and you think to yourself, “I should be more positive. Positive thinking is important because negative people have bad luck.” Then you have created a conflict within yourself.

You have now a divided mind. (Maybe it’s really two separate minds and maybe they have been there all along, I don’t know. Anyway, it doesn’t rally matter.) My point is that one part of your mind is bummed out and another part tries to fix the problem.

One part of your mind is trying to be positive but the other part is still doleful. When people you meet say: “Hi! How are you?” you’re answering, “Great, how are you?” However, half of you don’t feel great.

Sometimes you may be very angry with someone. Then you often also have another part of your mind telling your angry self to calm down. It’s ugly with anger. You have to hide it. When you meet other people, you may have to pretend that everything is fine. (Probably they do the same.)

However, you have also a third part of your mind. This third part is listening to the inner debates. If you didn’t have this third part of your mind, you wouldn’t be able to notice how the other two were struggling.

Some people have no problems to deal with. They have lots of money, nice homes and wonderful families. When they’re lecturing about the importance of positive thinking and the power of happiness, you have to be forgiving. When they explain that money will come to you in abundance when you begin to believe in yourself and stuff like that, then you have to be patient. You may have to pray for strength. You have to remind yourself that they have a very limited worldview. They are single minded. They’ve not yet discovered that human beings are compound creatures.

Reconciliation

If you believe that an electron is a tiny, tiny particle and I explain to you that it is an electromagnetic wave, really, not a tiny little particle, we may have it right, both of us.

Perhaps down to earth materialism and spirituality are just two different perspectives that are equally valid.

We should stop fussing and fighting about who’s right. Maybe we’re wrong both of us. Maybe we’ve both missed the point. Maybe neither quantum physics nor spirituality is possible to comprehend.

When you say you’re absolutely sure that something is true, where did you get that knowledge from? Did you find it on the internet or in a book somewhere? Do you know it in your heart? However, how do you explain that different people can be deeply convinced about something and arrive at different conclusions?

Non-dualism

Are you a dualist or a non-dualist? What incredibly silly question? Are you a Muslim or a Jew? Are you a left-winger or a right-winger? Are you a materialist or an idealist? Are you a banana? You are a human being, for heaven’s sake.

What difference does it make to you, if consciousness is created in your brain or if it is created somewhere else? Seriously, what difference does it make? What difference does it make for you, right now, if some part of you lives on after death, or if no part of you survives death?

What makes you think that the material world is of less importance? What makes you think that the material world isn’t magical? Where did you get those ideas from? Did you get them from your religious conditioning?

You don’t know what matter is. You have absolutely no idea of what consciousness is. You don’t know how nightmares are created. You don’t even know where daydreams come from. How can you expect to understand what is happening to us when we die when you don’t even know what thoughts consist of?

Or, maybe you are a materialist, although materialism is an outdated worldview. Any high school kid can explain to you that an atom consists of practically nothing. If the nucleus of the atom would be as big as a pinhead, the atom would be as big as an ordinary classroom. Moreover, what is an electron, really, a particle or a wave? How can anyone call himself a materialist today, without being ignorant?

Can you explain to me how a telephone works, or a computer? Eternity. Holy Moses!
I tell you, you don’t know nothing about anything. You have been deceived or you have deceived yourself. Either way. Wake up! For heaves sake!

Change

Beliefs, views and opinions are hardwired. To discuss politics with a right-winger is a waste of time. It’s also a waste of time to discuss ethics with a devout Muslim or a born again Christian. They know already what’s right or wrong. Many of them would rather die than admit that they may have misunderstood something.

We find this stubbornness everywhere. We find it in all other people but we don’t find it in ourselves. Isn’t this peculiar?

Maybe there is a biological reason for this pertinacity. Maybe only those who never gave in survived.

It’s good to be stubborn if we fight for something good. If we fight for something bad, however, then we will create nothing but troubles and misery. The problem is that we can never know for sure if what we are fighting for is good or bad. Everybody knows, deep in their hearts, that they are right. The Nazis in Germany didn’t fight for what they believed was wrong. Economists, politicians and CEOs of today don’t fight for what they believe will ruin the earth.

We are not able to solve the problems with global warming and environmental pollution. We are like drunkards who refuse to see that we drink too much. This is the reason why I don’t believe in a positive future for our global civilization. It will crumble and fall. All previous civilizations have perished. Nothing is strange about this view.

Nevertheless, it’s all very sad, because it’s indeed possible to realize that all thoughts and ideas are nothing but thoughts and ideas. It’s possible to see that thoughts and ideas are like ghosts and spirits - fantasies. We don’t have to fight so hard to defend them, if we don’t want to.

It’s possible to realize that one can be wrong about things. In fact, it’s possible to leave the thought dimension altogether, at least for short moments. Thoughts and ideas are not all there is in life. It’s possible to wake up from reveries and ruminations. It’s not even particularly difficult. In fact, it happens spontaneously many times every day. When you wake up from such a daydream you have a chance to say to yourself, “Oh, here was an idea again, a fantasy.”

It’s possible to discover that the sun, the wind and the trees are still here. The world is still beautiful. To be alive is such an amazing mystery.  

Why do we forget this so easily? What power pulls us back into the fog again? This is the big question.

What's this all about?

Imagine a crime scene. A police inspector and his team are trying to find out whom the culprit is. They’re interrogating a number of witnesses. One witness saw a man in a grey overcoat leaving the house in haste. Another witness saw a man in a cap who drew off in a blue Toyota. One neighbor heard strange noises the day before and another neighbor had a feeling that something wasn’t right in that house.

In trying to understand what life is about, you are like the police inspector and his team. Many people have important things to tell in this mysterious case.

Some people look at life from a spiritual perspective, some are more down to earth, and some see things from a scientific point of view. You must listen attentively to what everyone has to say. If you only listen to one Guru, one kind of scientists, or one witness, you will get a very limited view.

I know very well that I will never be able solve this case, no matter how many clues I will follow up, but I will still never be able to drop it. To give up is simply not an option for me.

Many people give up because they’re convinced that they already know what life is about, others give up because they’re lazy and don’t care, but many people are very persistent. They can’t give up. I belong to that crowd.

Too much emphasis on the now

Hippocampus is a part of the brain that is important for the formation of memories. If this part of your brain is damaged or destroyed, you may find yourself living in the eternal now. You will not even remember what happened thirty seconds ago. The future will also disappear. You will not remember that you have to go to the laundry to pick up your clothes or that you have an appointment with the dentist in the afternoon.

Eckhart Tolle and many other spiritual teachers put too much emphasis on the now, I think. To focus all attention on the now will not lead to spiritual transformation or awakening. Why bother about climate change, environmental pollution and injustice if only the present now is real? Why bother about anything if only what you have here in front of you, at this moment, is real?

However, to completely loose touch with the now is very harmful. Many people suffer from this disease in our modern societies. They’re always somewhere else. They’ve lost contact with themselves and the reality. Trying desperately to reach a goal or playing one’s old cassettes over and over, is to be gone. It’s very important to be able to be present.

It’s good for both mental and physical health to be present in the now. For example, Jon Kabat-Zinn has showed that psoriasis patients will respond better to UV-light treatment if they are mindful of the present moment during the treatment. Isn’t this an interesting discovery? Why would mindfulness of the now improve psoriasis treatment? In addition, you will more often be in a better mood if you spend more moments in the now.

The mind is planning for the future and looking back at what happened, but returns to the present, again and again. A normal healthy mind works this way. The now is very important but memories of the past and making plans for the future is also important. Without memory and plans for the future, we would need people at a nursing home or a monastery to take care of us.

Fantasies, daydreams, theories and ideas are also very important but we must not forget that all such mental bubbles will eventually burst. Our minds are often fooling us. The world is not as we think it is.

However, nothing is more important than warmth. A cold, intellectual analysis of life is the most serious delusion of all. This approach is to give up our humanness and settle in a theoretical reality.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocampus

The reality

The reality is not only what you have here in front of you. The reality is very much larger. The cosmic horizon is 46 billion light-years away. This is as far as the light has traveled since the Big Bang. No one knows what’s beyond that edge. Maybe there are tons of universes out there.

If you look at the stars at night, you’ll look back in time. The stars you see can have gone out thousands of years ago, but you’re not aware of it. The twinkling lights you see have traveled for thousands and thousands of years before it reaches your eyes. If our sun would explode, it would take eight minutes before we would notice it.

Moreover, if someone in another galaxy were looking at our planet through a powerful telescope, he would see what was happening here thousands of years ago. What’s happening here right now can only be seen in that galaxy after thousands of years.

The now is irrelevant from the cosmic point of view. Everything is irrelevant from the cosmic point of view. We’re stuck here, in this time. If there are other civilizations out there, we will never be able to get in contact with them because of the distance and the time difference.

Some people believe that there is no reality outside their own mind. Philosophers call this idea solipsism. What’s this idea good for? Is it useful? I don’t think so.

Others believe that there are highly advanced civilizations out there which can travel faster than the speed of light or that angels and other strange beings can sneak in to our dimension through mysterious loopholes. It may well be so. I don’t know. However, is it meaningful to speculate about such beings if you have never met them? In what sense do such speculations improve your life situation?

To ponder space and time is maybe fun but it’s not particularly important. We need food and shelter. We need love and friendship. Such things are important. We don’t need war, greed, environmental disasters and injustice. We spend too much time and energy on unimportant or idiotic things and too little time on what really matters. This has to be changed. We need to wake up.

The world is unimaginable huge and life is unimaginable complex. The mistake most religious and spiritual people make is that they believe that they know what everything is all about. They know it all, but they arrive at different conclusions.

Many scientists have similar problems. They believe that they on the whole understand what‘s going on, but they don’t. What they know is just a small fraction of the totality. They look at life as if they were on the outside looking in, but they’re not. No one knows what life is all about. Life’s an incomprehensible mystery.

What is time?

What are we measuring when we’re measuring time? What is it made of? What is time really? Such questions are important for philosophers and physicists. To us everyday people it’s enough to know what time it is. It’s half past two here. I have to be at the wine shop before three o’clock because it’s Saturday, so I’m in a hurry. Time can be very important also from this point of view.

Physicists say that time was created at the Big Bang along with everything else. This means that time didn’t exist fifteen billion years ago. Nothing existed fifteen billion years ago.

Nothingness and timelessness are meaningless words for me. I don’t understand anything of what Buddhist monks and physicists mean when they talk about such matters. It’s like Greek to me. So, to me it doesn’t matter at all, if time is relative or if time is simply a social agreement. I live my life here at the surface of the reality ocean. The depths and the space are not for me.

Now I have to rush.

Free will

I can’t prove that we have a free will but I believe that this is the case. This is a useful belief, I think. It makes us responsible for at least some of our actions. (I didn’t pay the bills but don‘t blame me. I have no free will.)

There would be no point with doing anything if we don’t have a free will. There would be no point with paying the bills. There would be no point with booking the laundry for tomorrow. Equal rights and justice would be meaningless concepts.

However, what if our decisions are not really our own? Maybe we simply do what our parents have told us to do. Maybe we do what society has told us to do. Maybe our will is not our own.

It’s possible that we don’t have a free will, absolutely. Maybe the free will is an illusion similar to the illusion that the sun is moving and descends under the horizon. Cognitive neuroscientists have in fact been able to show that a decision, such as moving an arm for example, is preceded by specific brain activity up to a second before we become aware of the decision.

I don’t know how to interpret these findings. I may be wrong but I still find it more practical to believe that we have, at least to some extent, a free will. I’m still not totally convinced that free will is an illusion. Moreover, neuroscientists are also admitting that we always have the option to say no. We don’t have to act on all impulses.

Our free will may be very weak and it is often that things get in the way, but still, it’s there to be used if we want to, I believe. We don’t have to live all of our time on autopilot mode.

Some people assume that we don’t have a free will and that only the Gods, or chance and natural laws, are governing the course of events, but most people assume that we have a free will. I’m with the majority in this matter.

None of us knows for sure who is right. It’s a matter of how we look at things, our worldview, our attitude, not how things actually are, I believe. The scientists must also interpret their results and the theologians must interpret their scriptures.

Anyway, I don’t care if my intention to move my arm needs some processing time. I need to do my bills today.

This way of looking at things is similar to the question if an alcoholic a selfish idiot who is afraid of himself or if alcoholism is a disease, a kind of allergy? It depends on how you look at it. You can’t prove that alcoholism is an actual disease but this idea has proved to make it easier for alcoholics to recover. It’s therefore a useful belief.

I think that the question if we have a free will or not is actually a rather silly question which we can leave for the scientists and philosophers to debate. It’s simply not a relevant issue here in the everyday dimension.

Of course I get irritated if I don’t get done what I want to get done, and it’s unpleasant to feel irritation. This is the downside with the belief in a free will. However, irritation is not dangerous if you don‘t get to much of it. The belief that we don’t have a free will has also its downsides. Perhaps your bills don’t get paid. This causes also a lot of trouble.

Self inquiry

It is better to observe your actions than your thoughts if you whish to gain some knowledge about yourself. However, knowledge about oneself is seldom pleasant and it will not always be helpful. To see things clearly can make you downhearted or depressed.

Most people think they are more generous than they actually are. Most people overestimate their intelligence and their knowledge. Psychologists call this phenomenon illusory superiority.

Observe yourself when you don’t give money to a beggar Observe yourself when you give money to a beggar. Observe yourself when you try to get in first to get a better seat. Listen to yourself when you tell a lie or talk bullshit. You will be surprised.

The thinking mind is not reliable. You have to observe your actions if you want learn about yourself.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_superiority

 

Communism and Christianity

Of course it’s impossible to call oneself communist today after all the atrocities and crimes that have been committed in the past by people who called themselves communists. But how is it that so many people today can call themselves Christians without being ashamed, after centuries of cruelties and devilry that have been committed by people who called themselves Christians? The slave traders, witch hunts and inquisition trials seem to be forgotten.

Karma

You will not reap what you sow, this is just superstition. Many enormously selfish and greedy people live wonderful lives in mansions or penthouses and many good and honest people experience terrible misfortunes.

The idea that you will carry your good or bad deeds with you to the next life is of course also superstition, a belief which is not based on evidence or personal experience. To believe in the Karma theory is like believing that the earth is flat. It is the Hindu version of “You’ll get pie in the sky when you die.” or you’ll end up in hell.

Most spiritual seekers of today are still stuck in belief systems that are thousands of years old. Many people still believe in astrology and fairy tales about gods and angels. Many people are still prisoners in ancient delusions.

The age of enlightenment did not begin in the eighteenth century. The age of enlightenment begins now, in the twenty first century.

Change

You’ve been dead for 13,7 billion years and at night you’re asleep. Now, however, you're here. Life is a flickering flame that soon will go out. Soon you’ll be dead again. What does it matter if you think too much or worry too much? What does it matter if you’re angry or sad? What does it matter if you’re happy in a fool’s paradise?

You don’t have to realize anything. You don’t have to wake up. You don’t have to change your outlook on life. You don’t have to give up smoking or drinking. You don’t have to give up lying, cheating or stealing. You don’t have to improve yourself.

However, at some point in your life you might feel that you’ve had enough of everything. This is a point where change can begin.

Both political change and personal change is possible. Muslims can convert to Christianity and Hindus can become Muslims. Communists can become neo-Liberals and atheists can get saved, but there is also another option, you can give up politics, religion, career plans and self improvement altogether.

The crux of the matter is that there are two ways of giving up. You can become disillusioned and depressed. You can get stuck, thinking that there is no point with anything, or you can wake up from your dream worlds. It is possible to realize that all the ideas about yourself and the world are just ideas, not who you are or what the world is like.

It is possible to wake up from delusions. It is possible to give up religious, political and self improvement nonsense. You don’t have to replace one delusion with another one. This is a special and new kind of change in the history of humankind.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEIfMqM5wnM&feature=related

Hypnosis

A well known experiment, which many physicians have taken part in, if they studied medical hypnosis, is carried out this way: A person is hypnotized and told that when he wakes up he will close the window that stands ajar. He is also told that he will not remember this suggestion at all.

Then, when he has awoken, he will after some time rise from his seat and go to the open window and close it. The other participants in the class then ask him why he closed the window and he will come up with a sensible answer, for example that it is too cold in here. Then they ask him again if he is sure that this is the reason he closed the window and he will answer yes. They can keep on asking him till they are blue in their faces, but they will still get the same answer. He closed the window because it was too cold.

This is proof that unconscious ideas can influence our conscious actions. This is also proof that the conscious mind can come up with sensible explanations which are completely wrong.

The conscious part of our mind is just the tip of an iceberg, said Freud. He was, what I understand, wrong about what is going on down there. Jung had other theories and so had Viktor Frankel. Maybe only God knows what is going on in the underworld.

Anyway, how do you know that your actions are initiated by you, and not by someone else? What if your actions are determined by unconscious childhood conditioning without you being aware of it? What if your actions are initiated by some weird religious programming?

Yoga, Mindfulness and Awakening

The ancient Buddhist scriptures were translated into English when Buddhism was transferred to the Western world. The Pali word sati, for example, was translated into mindfulness. However, not only the sound of the word changed in the translation, even the meaning changed.

Yoga is another example of an Indian word which got a new meaning when it was transplanted in the West. Bodhi (awakening) is a third example.

Things change, words change, new interpretations arise. This is not necessarily something bad. Sometimes new viable cross-fertilizations are created in new environments.

Christianity has changed dramatically through history and so have Buddhism, Advaita-Vedanta, Islam and Judaism. Everything is constantly changing. Sometimes crazy interpretation arises, sometimes interesting new approaches are found. The thinking mind is never at rest.

Yoga was originally not a method to loose weight or getting a tighter butt. Mindfulness was originally not a method for stress reduction or a way to improve work performance. And it was certainly not a way to get better sex. Awakening and glimpses of other ways to perceive reality were not synonymous in the ancient Buddhist scriptures.

The original Christianity had no right-wing political agenda. Advaita-Vedanta was originally only for men from the Brahmin cast. To hire a certified awakening coach in order to wake up is a modern concept.

Awakening for sale

You can’t buy love. You can get yourself a sexy trophy wife, if you have enough money, but you can’t buy love.

In the same way, you can’t buy awakening and you can’t buy self respect, meaning or salvation. You can buy a road map but you can’t buy a map that shows you where you can find awakening or meaning. Well, you can buy such a map but if you buy another map in another store you will get other instructions. People are selling guide books on how to find the Dao, the road to success, mindfulness, happiness, creativity, awakening, transformation, you name it. And they all point in different directions.

People are selling their awakening stories or success stories and their half-baked philosophies and theories made from their misunderstandings, delusions and dreams.

The market for self help books is worth more than 700 million dollars in the US alone and the total US self-help market is worth more ten billion dollars.

There are career coaches, life coaches, spiritual guides and teachers, authors on endless promotion tours and huge international companies selling self improvement methods in hotels and conference centers. There are tons of people living by selling all these things that can’t be sold. They are like hustlers who are selling land on the moon.

Delusions

Some believe that they are saved, when they in reality have been deceived by a mad preacher; others believe that they are spiritually awake, when they in reality are lost in some wacky New Age world.

Some find the truth in the Koran; others find it in the Tea-party movement.

Everyone seems to be lost in dream worlds.

Some people spend years in monasteries practicing Buddhist meditation, only to find out later that their meditation was actually an escape from life; others spend years in research laboratories only to find that their hypotheses were wrong and all their work was in fact an attempt to please a demanding mother.

How do you know if you’re awake at this moment or if this is also a dream? What if you’re in the middle of something, but you are not aware of it.

Are you the driver or are you driven by subconscious delusions, like all the rest? Maybe you’re sitting there at the wheel but someone else is deciding where you are going. What if you’re lost? What if your road map is too old? Is this really your destination? Is this really the famous Shangri-La? How do you know that this is the place you have been looking for?

Walking meditation.

I have a thirty minutes walk in the morning from the commuter train station to my job. In the afternoons, when I’m on my way home, I always walk through the park to the tube station. This is also a thirty minutes walk. I walk in rain and snow storms, hot summer afternoons and crisp September mornings. There are no buss connections so I have to walk. These walks are my meditation.

I have practiced sitting meditation in different forms, off and on, for more that twenty years. My walking meditation has been going on for nine years now, five days a week.

So, what is the difference between walking to get to work and my walking meditation? There is almost no difference, I think. Just walking and my form of walking meditation is almost the same thing.

I have read about Buddhist walking meditation but my meditation does not have much in common with their much more serious and disciplined exercises. I am mostly lost in thoughts, daydreams, some kind of planning or what I shall say to somebody when we meet. In this sense is my meditation like ordinary walking.

However, after walking two or three hundred yards or so, I usually wake up and realize that I have been lost in thoughts. For a short moment I take in the whole picture, the sky, the clouds, the huge poplars, the woodpeckers, the meadow...This kind of awareness lasts only for a very short time, maybe only a few seconds, and then I am lost in a thought again. I suppose this is not really to wake up, it just feels this way. Probably it’s just a switch from thinking mode to looking mode.

Anyway, I have experimented and tried to maintain or extend these moments of looking but I have not been very successful. Soon I am gone again, lost in thoughts. And then, suddenly, I wake up again, only to be gone again a few moments later. My walking meditation is thus very similar to my sitting meditation.

So, what is the point with my walking meditation? Well, there is not much point with it, I think. It will not lead to enlightenment. It is not an attempt to improve myself or become more relaxed. It is simply something I do because I am interested in who I am, how the mind works and what awareness is.

Despite the fact that my meditation practice is undisciplined and amateurish it has nevertheless given me some important insights. My most important discovery, I think was when I finally understood how little I know and that I mistake my thoughts for truths.

I don’t know what will happen to us when we die. I don’t know why I’m here. I don’t know where I’m heading. I don’t know how the world is working. All my knowledge, spiritual as well as material, is made of thoughts and thoughts come and go, moods come and go, everything comes and goes, like the weather. What is knowledge one day turns out to be a misunderstanding the next.

Life is an incredible mystery. Everything is so unimaginable complex. To hold on tightly to ones opinions and beliefs seems absurd. To be able see this, with my own brain, not just reading about it or hearing about it, is something I have learned from my walking meditation.

However, even if the insight, that thoughts are just thoughts, is an important discovery, it is only the beginning of the awakening process. The habits remain, nicotine addiction, overeating, laziness, ways of reacting…They have to be dealt with in other ways.

What is awakening?

The Germans were possessed by the idea in the nineteen thirties that they were a superior race and that life was about competition between races. This crazy idea caused the horrors of the Second World War.

Eighteenth-century Englishmen considered slave trade a decent way to make money. Also highly regarded men could buy and sell even young children. They accumulated huge fortunes and sang psalms in church on Sundays.

Ideas, beliefs and delusions can cause so much misery and pain.

Some people believe that life is meaningless; others believe that nothing but money is important. Some people believe that something is wrong with them; others believe that there is a God somewhere who demands that women must be covered with burqas. Some people believe that they are completely worthless; others believe that they are absolutely wonderful.

How would you see yourself and the world, do you think, if you wouldn't have your colored glasses on? Why is it so difficult to free oneself from delusions, misunderstandings and nonsense? Is there really nothing we can do about it?

To wake up, as I see it, is to suddenly realize that a crazy belief is a crazy belief, a misunderstanding, a delusion. This sudden awakening does not come about because someone is lecturing you about awakening or because you tell yourself that now you have to stop this bloody nonsense. We are like nicotine addicts who know very well that smoking is causing cancer and all sorts of diseases but we keep on smoking anyway.

A young man can be deeply in love and totally blind to the fact that the love of his life is in love with someone else. When it finally sinks in he will feel like he is waking up from a dream.

Also deeply religious men realize sometimes that God is just a word which means different things to different people.

Spiritual awakening and salvation can also be delusions.

True awakening takes place, I think, when we realize fully that we will never know who we are and how the world is working.

Gurus and spiritual awakening

Awakening is a concept, an idea, a word. However, if you ask ten different spiritual teachers you will get ten different explanations of what it is.

If I point to an apple and say, “Have a taste of that apple; it’s a delicious variety“ you will have no problem to understand what I say. But if you ask a spiritual teacher about what awakening is you will get confused. Why is it so difficult to understand what he is talking about? What does he mean? How come other teachers have other explanations and give other instructions on how to find it?

There are so many gurus, religious leaders, coaches, therapists and spiritual experts on the market today and they all point in different directions. And they all say: “Don’t look at my finger. Look at what I’m pointing at.”

There are gurus for the rich and gurus for the poor, gurus for the middleclass and gurus for the celebrities, gurus for the smart and gurus for the blockheads…

Everybody can find a Guru. Everybody can get spiritual guidance.

Meditation and the voice in the head

You need at least one person who understands where you are from, how you look at things and what you feel about things. Everybody needs someone to talk to, someone who hear what you are saying.

In a similar way, if you don't listen to your ego, it will get frustrated. If you are very strict with your meditation practice and dismisses your ego completely, saying to yourself: “This is just mental chattering. Let the thoughts come and go like the clouds in the sky”, then the ego will be upset. The ego is right sometimes. If you always reject your ego, keep on mocking it or disparage it, you will create a conflict within yourself.

Therefore, listen to your ego as if you were listening to a child. Sometimes you have to say to a child, “Don’t you see that I’m busy right now.” Sometimes you have to say, “Stop this nagging, for heavens sake. I will not get you a dog.” However, sometimes you have to listen to your child.

Awakening

After rain comes sunshine. After sunshine comes rain. After a long hard winter comes spring and summer and after months of rain and strong winds comes a wonderful weekend by the lake, then three more weeks of rain and cold winds.

Some people experience years and years of incredible hardships in terrible places. This is how life works. Hardship, misery and pain are a part of most people’s lives. Peace and harmony are usually quite rare experiences. Sometimes we are up and sometimes we are down. Sometimes we are stressed out and sometimes we are relaxed.

Spiritual awakening, I believe, is not like moving to a luxury bungalow in Hawaii with pleasant summer nights all year around surrounded by good looking and smiling celebrities, discussing the Dao, walking barefoot and swimming with dolphins. To wake up and to feel good is not the same thing.

Jesus suffered on the cross, Krishnamurti suffered from severe headaches and Osho suffered from asthma.

To wake up, I believe, is to be wherever we are, to feel whatever we feel and think whatever we think, doing what we have to do and being aware of what’s going on in the world.

Spiritual sleep is like living in Beverly Hills, selfish, haughty and drugged, attending charity parties and spiritual workshops or like living in a slum, spending all free time drinking, quarreling, complaining and watching crap on TV.

Spirituality and materialism

Both spiritual and materialistic ways of looking at life are created in the thinking mind. Advaita-Vedanta, Marxism, Catholicism, Mahayana Buddhism and Empirical Positivism, delusions, explanations, great theories, political opinions, idiotic ideas, clever ideas, silly jokes, they are all creations of the thinking mind.

If the speech center of the brain is damaged by a hemorrhage, you’re no longer able to create explanations, theories and opinions. Hallucinations, dreams, daydreams, reveries and visions emanate from other parts of the brain. Anger and fear are created in the reptilian brain and love is created in the limbic system. So what? Why bother?

Where is the observing self or the sense of I located? It’s apparently not created in the speech center. Someone with a damaged speech center because of a brain hemorrhage will still wake up in the morning and feel that they are. To me it doesn’t matter. To me it’s not even particularly important if my sense of I is located in my brain or somewhere outside my body. I think that there are many much more important issues to be considered, for example: Where did I put my bike key? What shall I cook for supper? Should I drop my resentment towards Ms X though she is still full of shit? How shall I live my life?

Right now

What you are experiencing as the present now, is actually something that happened a quarter of a second ago. The now has to be processed in the brain before you can experience it. This means that the now, the past and the future are made of the same stuff, neural activity.

If there had been no brain substance in the world there would have been be no present now. There would have been almost nothing at all, just dark, endless empty space, with a few electrons and quarks or strings here and there.

Such discoveries are useless, I think. What difference does it make to you if the world in reality consists of almost nothing? What difference does it make if it takes a quarter of a second to process sensory input or if the processing is instant?

What difference does it make if consciousness is created in the brain or somewhere else?

What difference does it make if the sense of I am is just a hallucination, some kind of weird mirage, or if it‘s the eternal soul?

Why do we fill our heads with so much irrelevant information? We are ruining this planet with our greed for more money. This is a fact. Our fantasies about what will happen to us when we die are of secondary importance. We strain gnats and swallow camels?

What is the ego?

When we use the word ego in modern everyday language, we often mean the greedy, competing and selfish part of our mind. “He’s very egotistical. It’s his ego who controls him. It’s your ego who fabricates those explanations.”

The original Latin meaning of the word ego, however, was I. The word I was originally neutral. There was no valuation in it. “I am hungry. I am at home. I will meet you later.”

Freud used the word ego to denote the conscious executive part of our mind.

“To hell with wife and whining kids. I need to have some fun, not just endless harping and complaining. I shall go to the cabin over the weekend, with Monica. It’ll work out somehow with the money.” This is the ego’s voice.

“No, I’m not going to the cabin with Monica, even though she’s wonderful. I shall not cheat on my wife now when she’s going through all these things. I shall stay at home and play with the kids.” This is also the ego’s voice, as Freud used the word. Ego and selfishness was not the same thing to him.

Some people believe that ego is something bad which we have to get rid of, or that it will fall away, somehow, when we’re waking up. Others believe that a big strong ego is something good and that it’s important to strengthen it. They believe that a competitive ego is good in the struggle for a position in the hierarchy. In our modern societies many people are totally possessed by ego. In the old days, in the agricultural societies kids learned early that they could not have things their way.

Eckhart Tolle defines ego as the mistaken belief of who you are. You are not a miserable looser. You are not supposed to be pushing. These are ideas you have.

So, what is ego? What is it made of? What would happen if the ego disappeared? Which ego? What do you mean with the word ego? Are the ego and the observing self the same thing?

What is a memory? What does a memory consist of? Electric and chemical activities in the synapses? Isn’t it amazing that you remember who you are in the morning when you wake up?

Without an observer there would be no awareness of anything. Without an observing self nothing and nobody would exist. Nobody would be there to be aware of anything. From this point of view is the ego crucial.

Confusion arises when we use the same word in so many different ways.

Agnosticism

Life is so hard. There is so much suffering and pain here on earth. Is this fact not proof enough that there is no God, or at least not a good God? What kind of God would let small children die from torturous cancer? Is this fact not proof enough that there are no angels or other spiritual beings out there with the power to help us?

Life can’t be a school. Which school would torment their students in this way? Life can’t be a prison. Life is certainly not a party. However, how could the earth’s rocky crust turn into living matter? Isn‘t this strange?

Is it correct to say that the earth is nowadays thinking, dreaming, and wondering? Is it correct to say that the earth has created consciousness, or does this just sound contrived? How do you explain this? Which explanation is the best? What do you think?

Do you believe that God created the plants on the third day and all the animals on the fifth day? Do you believe that extraterrestrial beings came here and sowed life seeds some three billion years ago? Do you believe that cosmic consciousness existed long before the earth was formed and that this cosmic consciousness has somehow created the world? Do you believe that the world is but an illusion, a mirage created in our overheated minds?

Do you believe that life began with a very improbable coincidence? Do you believe that a cell was accidentally formed in the primordial soup, that this happened once, and that this magic has never happened again? Do you believe that all life forms stems from this cell?

Which is the correct explanation? What do you think? Which proof are you able to produce to support your theories? Aren't all explanations unproven theories created in the thinking mind? Aren’t all explanations fantasies or mental speculations? What can we do but inventing explanations to help us through the day?

Isn’t it better to say to a child with terminal cancer: “See you in heaven soon. Have fun with all the angels?” What can we do but create optimistic explanations?

No one would say: “Goodbye my child. We will never meet again. Your life here on earth was nothing but suffering and pain. And soon you’ll be gone forever. Soon they’ll burn you in an incinerator. There are no angels and there is no other side. These are just fantasies. These are just explanations, things we say to make life bearable” No one would say this even if it was true.

However, things change when you are able to understand that you don’t know anything at all about life and death. The world doesn’t work the way you think it works. The truth is that you have absolutely no idea what life is all about. All your explanations are nothing but explanations, words, misunderstandings, misapprehensions or ungrounded theories.

We simply can’t stop speculating. To speculate and come up with explanations is obviously in our nature. This urge to find explanations came when the evolution gave us a language.

It is so liberating to realize that our explanations and speculations have absolutely nothing to do with the true nature of things. Those who claim to know what life is all about are either lying or seriously deceived.

You can’t prove that God exist and you can’t prove that he doesn’t. You don’t know if life is a school or if it is a prison. You don’t know how life begun here on earth and you don’t know what will happen to you when you die.

The now

Chimpanzees have no thinking mind. They don’t create religions or ideologies and they don’t worry about tomorrow. They live in the now.

Human beings have a thinking mind. We have a language. We talk and we think. We create theories. We invent religions and ideologies and we worry about the future. We are rarely in the here and now. We are almost always somewhere else.

Buddhist mindfullness meditation practice is about practicing being in the now. When the mind drifts off into the future or in to other dream worlds it is gently pulled back.

Eckhart Tolle claims that no meditation practice is necessary. The thinking mind simply calms down and falls silent after the awakening and there is nothing we can do in order to wake up. Awakening is spontaneous when the time is right. It’s like when we are waking up in the morning from a nightmare.

So the question is, is spiritual awakening about to silence the gibbering mind or is it that the mind becomes silent by itself? Is spiritual awakening to return to an animal way of looking at things, to be conscious without thoughts?

“If God does not exist everything is permitted.”

Inquisition trials and torture cambers.
Witch hunts.
Dreadful religious war.
Slave trade and colonialism.
Repression of women and children.
Child abuse.
Child spanking.
Oppression.
Support of oppressors, dictators and greedy capitalists.
Hypocrisy.
Lies.

God

Who or what is God, do you think? Is he like a father or is she like a mother? And what kind of father is he like, if he’s like a father? Is he like a drunkard or is he like a psychopathic CEO?

What kind of person is he? Is he like a mad and hard-to-please dictator? Is he made out of imagination? Is he made out of flesh and blood or is he made out of spirit?

What is spirit? What does spirit consist of? What do you think? Is spirit made out of the same substance as imagination or fantasy?

When you look at all the suffering in the world, do you think of it as created by a good God for some kind of weird reason?

And what kind of mother is she like, if she's like a mother, is she like the goddess Kali or is she more like Margaret Thatcher? What do you think?

And if you don’t believe in God, what kind of God is it that you don’t believe in, a God made out of spirit or a God made out of flesh and blood?

There are so many different ideas about who or what God is. What do you think? Remember that only your thoughts are real.

You are not the one you think you are.

You are not crazy, but your ideas are crazy.
You, and your ideas about yourself and the world,
are not the same thing.

Abusive and controlling relationships

It happens sometimes that a woman finds herself trapped in an abusive and controlling relationship and for various reasons, she is not able to leave her tormentor.

Some people are, in a similar way, captured by a mean ego, which they're not able to drop. They're holding on to an outdated and dysfunctional philosophy of life. They're trapped in an abusive and controlling relationship with their own thinking mind.

For example, to some people it's very important to be good looking, smart and successful and to have good looking and successful children. They disdain losers. If  they stubbornly hold on to such ideas when they no longer are good looking and successful, they will of course have problems with themselves, especially if also their children fail.

Bullshit

I don’t believe in God. I don’t believe that any part of me will live on after my death. I don’t believe in heaven or hell. I don’t believe in reincarnation.

I believe that the soul and the spiritual realm are fantasies. I believe that all priests, gurus, mullahs, preachers and spiritual teachers are deluded. Some of them are also liars who don’t even believe in their own teachings.

I don’t believe that we will ever wake up from our dream worlds and begin to take care of each other and this planet. I believe that we’re mad and that there is no cure for this madness.

In fact, I believe that madness, bullshit, lies and delusions are what characterizes us, all of us, not just priests and politicians.

I believe that if we got rid of all the bullshit, all the fantasies, lies and delusions, we would simply be an animal species among all the other animal species.

I believe that there is no meaning with life, if we don’t invent one.

I don’t mind if you believe in God. I don’t mind if you believe in Santa Claus or fairies. I don’t mind if you believe in a free market capitalism and the invisible hand. I don’t mind if you believe that we can change. We are all swimming in one delusion or another, one mud pool or another. I have my beliefs and you have yours. I accept your religion, beliefs and opinions, as long as you don’t create too much problems for other people, as long as you don’t start fussing and fighting.

We all have to find something that makes life worth living. It doesn’t matter if what we find is a delusion. Without delusions and bullshit, many people can't find any reason at all to live.

Dollar junkies

The Germans were bewitched by Nazism in the nineteen thirties and forties. They were never able to brake the spell. Others had to brake it for them.

Today people in the western world are bewitched by an ideology called neo-liberalism. And exactly like the Germans in the nineteen thirties, people of today are totally unaware of the fact that they are hypnotized. They are not able to see that this desperate craving for more and more money is ruining this planet. They are mad for more money. They are desperate for more even if they have billions of dollars. They are like drug addicts. They are dollar junkies.

Ok, many people are not totally mad after more money, they’re quite satisfied with life because daddy takes care of them and many accept the idea that those who are mad after more money should be honored because they are so successful, create jobs and have such wonderful houses and such pretty wives.

The working class is as crazy as the upper class for more money, but the difference is that they don’t get hold of any. What they can get is perhaps a loan or a flat screen TV on installment.

Religious fanatics are of course also bewitched and so are the neurotics. The religious people are possessed by their various dogmas and beliefs and the neurotics are possessed by unconscious ideas that something is wrong with them.

Are you also under a spell? What do you think? Are all people bewitched, brainwashed, indoctrinated or hypnotized in one way or another? What do you say? What have they made you think that you are? Do you have any idea? What have they made you think that life is all about? Do you think it is possible to wake up from this magic spell?

(Neo-conservativeism is neo-liberalism with nationalism and religion added.)

Love

Aggressive and violent bullies with reactive egos have almost always experienced severe hardships when they were little. They were abused, neglected or abandoned.

Tiresome, nagging and selfish jerks probably didn’t get enough love and attention when they were small.

Those who experienced an abundance of love and attention when they were small children have seldom ego problems as adults.

Ego is, from this point of view, a marker for how much love and attention you experienced as a child.

However, some people have experienced incredible hardships when they were small but grow up and become very warm and friendly as adults. And many of those who experienced an abundance of love and attention when they were small grow up and become like spoiled brats for the rest of their lives.

The climate change

Is global warming a myth? How many minutes have you used to look into this question? More than three minutes? Have you watched a Youtube video where someone explains that there is no global warming due to human activities. Did you understand at once that this must be the truth and that there is nothing more to discuss?

IPCC (The Intergovernmental panel on climate change.) has made serious mistakes. Does this not prove that they are nothing but charlatans all of them? Could it be that all these thousands of scientists have a hidden agenda?

Or, maybe you have spent hours at the computer, collecting evidence for the view that there is no global warming. If so, how many minutes have you spent looking into the opposing view? What if the climate change we experience is something we have created through our negligence, carelessness and greed. What if all those thousands of IPCC scientists are right to some extent.

Whatever view you fiercely defend, know that this is not the truth. This is an opinion, an idea, which is probably not based on any facts, experiences or discoveries at all. This is the voice of ego.

You are a neo-liberal, a neo-Nazi, a socialist, a Catholic, an anti-environmentalist or whatever, because of your ego. Without your ego you are a only human.

You may be right and you may be wrong. My point is that you don’t know and that you don’t bother to try to find out. Maybe you are afraid of yourself. Maybe it is painful to discover that all your ideas and opinions are nothing but delusions. Maybe you are simply lazy.

Some people believe that the best strategy is give a damn about all viewpoints. They think that it is better to go to the pub to have a beer or two. Others become workaholics or shopaholics or fitness freaks. Maybe they are right. Maybe the best strategy is to get drunk or drugged or finding some kind of fantasy world to live in. “I don’t know. I don’t care. I need a hamburger and a Coca Cola.”

However, to refuse to escape is also a strategy, to stand up.” I don’t run away. I don’t try to escape or hide or get stoned. I’m here even if it’s not pleasant.” Is this also the egos voice? What do you think?

Hold on

What do you refuse to give up? Do you refuse to give up alcohol or cigarettes? Do you refuse to understand why she left you for someone else? Do you refuse to realize that you will never become a rock star?

What’s your issue?

What outdated political belief system do you still hold on to, nazism, communism or neo-liberalism? Are you still on a hippie trip or do you keep on playing your old cassettes from 1983?

What outdated religious belief system are you unable to drop? Do you still hold on to the idea that the earth is flat? Do you still believe in astrology? Do you still believe that you will go to heaven when you die?

Hypocrites

Some people think that they are good Christians, but they are not. They deceive their own hearts. They store up treasures for themselves on earth, where moth and rust destroy. They worry about tomorrow. They don’t turn the other cheek. They are eager to throw the first stone. They don’t do to others as they want others to treat them. They sound trumpets when they give alms to the poor. They love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. They don’t practice any of the teachings in the New Testament.

Positive thinking

Some people don’t know that they have a negative outlook on life. They think that they are positive and cheerful. They have played the ‘car salesman with a big smile’ roll for so many years that they have forgotten that they don’t believe in love and friendship. They don’t believe in equality. They don’t believe that it is important to try to make this world a better place. They don’t want to share. They don’t want to stop exploitation of nature, animals and other people. They believe that life is about to eat or be eaten, nothing else. They have no other desires in life, but more money. They say, “You have to be positive. You have to believe in yourself. You can also become rich and successful, like me, if you put your back to it.”

Learned blindness

Many people in Germany said, after the second world war, that they never knew what was going on in the concentration camps. They never knew what was going on in eastern Europe. They never knew of any horrors.

Today many people don’t know that we are ruining our planet. (How is this possible?) They don’t know about the man made climate change and what deforestation leads to. They don’t know where the nuclear waste, toxic waste and insecticides end up. They say. “There are so many negative losers out there. Don't worry. Try to be more positive. Science and private enterprise will solve the problems.”

Well, many people know that our way of living is unsustainable but they don’t want to live in an environmentally friendly way. They prefer to use a private car instead of public transportation, and they prefer to travel by air instead of trains. They prefer to eat cheap pork from factory farms. They are like nicotine addicts who know very well that smoking is harmful and causes cancer but they keep on smoking anyway.

 

Ego

Ego is like a dog that refuses to let go of his bone.

Ego is like a bored upper class bitch. "I want this. I want that.
I’m desperate for some fun." Nothing is good enough.

Ego is like an inner taskmaster, or perhaps, an inner dance teacher.
She is so hard to please.

Ego is like a very, very prominent scholar, a pompous piece of shit.

Ego has so many different guises.

Ego wants to have the best seat. Ego wants to win and to be right.
Ego wants to have the last laugh. Ego wants to be a moral roll model.

Many people don’t know that they can observe their own ego in action.
In fact, they don’t even know that they have an ego.
They believe that their ego is their true self.

Anyway, you can observe your ego. You can, at least sometimes, see clearly how stupid and selfish you are. This part of you, which is observing your selfishness, is this part, also a part of ego, or is this a separate entity? If so, should this part also have a name? Is this observing self the true self? What do you think?

Ego is pulling the strings. Ego makes you say and do things you’ll later regret. What do you do when your ego is just too much, when he is about to ruin your life?

You can’t lock him up in the basement. You can’t send him to a mental hospital and forget about him. You can’t speak to him, with a soft voice, like a social worker
to make him change his ways. It doesn’t work. He won’t listen.

Here is a piece of good advice. Let him be. Don’t try to change him. Accept him for what he is. He will calm down and go back to bed soon, sulking. If he is very stupid, you can use another strategy: try to make him even a more stupid. I’m not kidding. Make him into the most selfish jerk you can imagine, like Donald Duck, Oliver Hardy.

I have this idea from Russ Harris book the Happiness Trap. And it works, sometimes.

Ego will, of course, continue to be as stupid as always, but he will loose some of his power when you are able to laugh at yourself, goodheartedly, or if you are able to observe your self, when you are able to see for yourself that you are not your ego.

Sometimes, though, it is very important to listen to your ego. The ego cannot always be dismissed. Sometimes he is right. If you don’t listen to your ego when he is right, you will also create problems for yourself. The important point is that your ego is your servant, not your master.

The sky is blue

The Youtube gurus have a lot to say. However, I think it’s more interesting what they don't say.

They never talk about exploitation of nature, people and animals. They never talk about injustice, hypocrisy and greed. They never talk about how the capitalist system is ruining our planet. They never mention that the super rich ought to share their obscene wealth with all those who are starving. They never mention that also rich people can end up in hell because of their selfishness and greed.

They talk about the now. They can talk about the now for hours.

Imagine that I had discovered that the sky is blue and begun to give talks about it. Imagine that I arranged workshops to teach people how to discover the blueness of the sky. Imagine that I had even written a book about it. Wouldn’t that be somewhat silly?

Selfishness

Most biologists today believe that all life forms here on earth are descendants from one original cell that was formed about three and a half billion years ago.

Multicellular organisms were formed a billion years ago.

Animals and plants were formed five, six hundred million years ago.

The first flowering plants were formed one hundred fifty million years ago.

The dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years ago.

The first human beings appeared about two hundred thousand years ago.

Single-cell organisms are in a sense immortal because they propagate themselves with cell division. If you kill a single-cell organism, billions of identical individuals live on as if nothing had happened. Death came with the multicellular organisms and their sexual propagation.

A human being consists of about ten thousand billion cells.

Your memories, your ideas and opinions, your fantasies and dreams, your delusions and your sense of I, are created in these ten thousand billion cells.

When you ask yourself, “Who am I, really.” the answer is, the ten thousand billion cells that you consist of.

However, every day fifty billion cells in your body die and are replaced. This means 500 000 cells every second. Every two weeks all the molecules you are made of are replaced. If all the parts of your car were replaced, would you call it the same car?
Moreover, without your parents and your ancestors you wouldn’t have been the one you are. Without other animals and plants, you wouldn’t have had any ancestors. Thousands and thousands of chicken, pigs, lambs and cows have been slaughtered in order to create you.

In addition, without the sun there wouldn't have been any life at all here on earth. In fact, without the sun, there wouldn't have been any planet earth and without the Big Bang, there wouldn't have been any sun. All of us are connected to everybody and everything else.

Some people are extremely selfish. They have to have everything their way. They are ambitious and hungry for power and self-realization. Nothing can stop them. This extreme selfishness looks ugly so they are hiding it. They live under a cover, like spies. They are often outstanding actors, smiling and wonderful.

Some people are extremely unselfish. They always wait until all the others have had their share. They are usually not very successful.

Most people are something in between, sometimes selfish, sometimes unselfish, and sometimes extremely selfish. No one is completely without selfishness, I think. Some people believe that spiritually awakened people have no ego. I believe that this is an illusion.

I believe that egotism, or selfishness, is simply a biologically evolved mechanism, which strives to make sure that the individual survive and are able to reproduce. Ego is nothing you can drop or something that will drop away. It is like a nose or a toe. What is important to understand, though, is that your ego is only a part of you. The fact that you can observe your own ego and your own egotism proves that you are not only your ego.

Life is not only about finding a costume, a role and a few lines to say. There is so much more in life than the ego.

Satsang

Satsang is Sanskrit and means to sit in company with the highest truth or to sit in company with a Guru. The Guru lectures and his devotees are listening in awe, then he answerers questions.

Human beings are pack animals. We are like chimpanzees. We are lost without a leader. We have lived in groups with leaders for maybe two hundred thousand years. This way of living has proved to be an efficient evolutionary strategy. Together with leaders, we were strong. Loners didn’t make it and they didn’t get any offspring.

However, the coin has also a backside. Because the majority is following the leader blindly, a mad and power-hungry leader can lead them to hell if he wants to. Hitler is of course the best example, but also many religious leaders, cult leaders, CEOs and politicians have created tons and tons of miseries because of their mad craving for more power and our inborn tendency to follow anyone who takes the lead.

Nothing is more important today, as I see things, in this stage of the evolution, than to stop following leaders. When we lived in small groups of hunters and gatherers, a mad leader wasn’t able to create too much damage. Today, with all kind of weapons of mass destruction the leaders are our greatest danger. Today we have to learn how to think our own thoughts. It’s not easy and it’s not always pleasant but it’s important.

Therefore, today, if we meet together to discuss the highest truth, the Guru should be dethroned. We urgently need to learn how to be together without following a leader. This is very important. To build a bridge or an airplane we need leaders who know how to do it but in spiritual matters, we are all equal. Priests, mullahs and preachers belong to the past. We are all on the same level now, at the beginners’ level.

There are also many female Gurus on the market but this makes no difference. No one should follow what any spiritual teacher say, male or female. And no one should sit on a throne and lecture others from above. If you can’t accept that we are all equal, if you insist to sit at the feet of a Guru, you are still living in the old world. You are then not yet awakened.

The truth will not set you free

If you are sincere in your search for the truth,
you will eventually come to a place
where you are able to see the cruelty of life clearly.

To put up with this unintended discovery
you will now have to find a drug,
a tranquilizer, a religion, a belief system, a hobby
or some other form of delusion that can carry you through
or you will have to kill yourself.
It is too hard to see things clearly.
You don’t need the truth.

Not even the fittest survive

The law of the jungle still applies.
Everybody knows this.
However, life is not about to eat or be eaten.
This is a serious misunderstanding.
In the jungle are all eaten,
everybody end up as food for someone else,
rich or poor, strong or weak, good or bad.
We will all end up as food for worms and plants and insects.
This is an impartial system.

Philosophy

Your philosophy of life is extremely important.
It has the power to make your life miserable.
You can end up as a wreck.
It can also create endless miseries for other people.

Therefore, take a close look at your beliefs,
your worldview and your ideas
and try to figure out if they are useful in some way, or not
if they make your life easier
or if they create serious problems for you and others.

Maybe you are a complete idiot, maybe not.
Maybe you are the only one who has found the truth.
Maybe it is a good idea to get involved in drug or sex trafficking.
Maybe nothing is more important than dollars.
Maybe you have to reach the top.
Maybe life is about success.
Maybe life is about to eat or be eaten.
Maybe skin color is a relevant issue.
Maybe you’re right.
Maybe life is totally meaningless.
Maybe you have not been fooled.
Maybe you have not been hypnotized by your ideas.
Maybe it is important to work hard to become someone.
Maybe it is better to relax and do as little as possible.
Maybe the thinking mind is there to invent excuses and lies.
How knows?

There are so many useless ideas to be obsessed with.
What if they are not really your ideas?
Maybe you have picked them up somewhere,
at home, at school, from TV, from friends.
Maybe you are hypnotized.
Maybe you live your life in some kind of trance.
Maybe you are playing your old Bee Gees cassettes
over and over,
or Elvis Presley, or Frank Sinatra.
Why don’t you throw them away?
Has this thought ever crossed your mind?

Persona

Our Personalities are like clothes, covers.
Also awakened people wear clothes in public.
So what?

Duality

I can observe my own thoughts.
This means that I am not the one I think I am.
I am something separate from my thoughts.

Similarly, if you insult me I feel hurt
and if you flatter me, I feel proud.
I can observe my own ego reactions.
This means that I am something separate from my ego.

I can also observe my bad habits, my poor self-esteem,
my stupidity, my irritation
and the stories I create about the world and myself.
This means that I am something separate from my bad habits
my poor self-esteem, my irritation and my stupidity.

A part of me is stupid; a part of me gets irritated
and I have many of bad habits
but this is not me, the one I am
my real self.

Are you following?
You are not the one you think you are.
You are someone or something else.
Isn’t this a strange thought?

Buddhists and Hindus believe that
this part of us is reincarnating, I don’t.
Christians and Muslims believe that
this part goes to heaven, or hell.
I believe that this part of me will disappear when I die.

Evolution and the thinking mind.

Plants don’t think
and they don’t trot around as the animals do.

Animals and plants have no language.
Animals can communicate with sounds and gestures
but they don’t know how to philosophize,
make plans and crack jokes.

Without your thinking mind
you would have been some kind of thin-haired ape.

Language and the thinking mind is a precious gift
or an evolutionary invention
depending on how you look at it.
The thinking mind makes us human
but it is also driving us crazy.
There is so much suffering and despair in the world
because of mean thoughts and idiotic ideas.

The Buddhists say that the mind can calm down
only after many years of intense meditation practice.
(more than eight hours a day).
It is possible to end the suffering, yes,
but you have to put your back to it.

Eckhart Tolle believes that more and more people
will experience a spontaneous spiritual awakening
and that this awakening is another natural step in the evolution.
All the stupid and terrible thoughts that drag you down
will miraculously disappear overnight when you wake up
and you don’t have to do anything about it.

I believe that we can’t get rid of our stupid thoughts
no matter how much we try
and I am skeptic about the spontaneous spiritual awakening.
This happens obviously to some people
but to me it is just a concept.

What we can do, I have found,
is that we can learn how to deal with thoughts and ideas.
My experience is that things improve
when we discover that thoughts are just thoughts
and ideas are just ideas -not truths.
This is just a thought.
This is just an idea.
This is not the truth.

It is like when you wake up in the morning
and realize that the dream was just a dream.

You have to keep this in mind all day long.
When a thought pops up
and when you notice that you hold on to an idea
remember that they are just thoughts
fantasies, dreams.

This discovery makes life so much easier.

Do all spiritual teachers teach the same thing?

There are so many spiritual teachers out there,
pointing in different directions, saying:
-Don’t look at my finger.
Look at what I‘m pointing at.
There is the truth.
Can you see it?

If you ask four different Gurus
about which way to choose
you will get four different answers
and they will all sound as if they knew exactly
what they were talking about.
How is this possible?

One answer is that if you look deep enough
you will find that all spiritual teachings are very similar.
Yes, it looks as if the gurus are pointing in different directions
but in reality, they don’t.
They are all saying the same thing.

I don’t think this is true.
There are, for example, big differences in the way they look at
the everyday surface level.
Is justice an important matter?
Is it wrong to exploit poor people in order to get rich?
Is competition more important than cooperation?
Is capitalism and spirituality compatible?
Is it important how we live our daily life?
Are such questions something a spiritual teacher
should be concerned about?
The world is a cosmic play, is it not?
The real truth is to be found somewhere inside of you,
or up there, or out there, or in 3000-year-old scriptures
don‘t you think?

Reality is what comes and goes

Some people believe that there is a real reality
behind this everyday reality of constant change.
They believe that all this, which is constantly changing,
is an illusion, a mirage.
This is originally a Hindu idea.

I believe that the reality is always changing
and I believe that this changing reality is real.
Brahman is just a word to me
a mental concept.

However,
I have discovered that there are other dimensions
than this one.
I am not just the one I think I am
and the world does not work the way I think it works.
There are deeper levels in all of us.
To see this
was an awakening experience to me
a breakthrough.

I had, of course, read about the subconscious mind,
but I had not been able to put two and two together.
I couldn’t see that my conscious self, my ego, and all my ideas
were just a small part of me.

Today I am not shure of who I am
and I have no idea how this world is functioning.
Ten years ago I knew it all.
This is an important first step in the awakening process
as I see it.

Advaita Vedanta

The first person to explicitly consolidate the principles of Advaita Vedanta was Adi Shankara. (788 CE - 820 CE)

Shankara taught that access to Vedic texts, a prerequisite for liberation, should be restricted, in accordance with caste rules, to upper-caste Hindu males. He seems to have generally held that liberation can only be attained by a male renunciant of the Brahmin caste.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta

Things are not always what they seem to be.

Negative thoughts are not necessarily bad.
The idea that negative thoughts are bad
makes them only more terrible than they actually are.

And positive thoughts are not always something desirable.
Positive thinking can be a defense mechanism
a way to gloss over and escape the depths of human existence.

However, sometimes silly fart jokes and stupid stuff
are absolutely necessary,
and sometimes they are simply too much.

It is good to be critical, to some extent,
about oneself and the situation in the world.
It can motivate you to change
and realize that you have to do something.
The problem is when you drown in criticism.

Not even the now is real.

The past is a memory and the future is a fantasy.
Don’t forget that also the present now is a mental concoction.
What you perceive is first cooked in your subconscious mind.
Perceptions, preconceived ideas and beliefs,
some prejudices and a pinch of complete misunderstanding
is cooked up to a soup in almost no time.
This soup is what you are served as reality.

Thinking

Why bother about endangered species, carbon dioxide emissions, climate change and toxic waste? No species survive forever. Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.

Why bother about child labor, exploitation of poor people and injustice? Man is disturbed not by things but the views he takes of them.

Look for clever explanations. Be a wisecrack. Be like a surfer, wonderful, suntanned and witty.