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.