Sunday, February 27, 2011

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.)

Monday, February 21, 2011

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.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

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?

Saturday, February 19, 2011

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.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

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.”

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

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.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Monday, February 7, 2011

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.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

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?

Saturday, February 5, 2011

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.