Sunday, December 18, 2011

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.