Sunday, November 18, 2012

Brain plasticity

A human being is a mixture of high and low,
love and hate, selfishness and generosity,
courage and cowardice, idiocy and wisdom,
just to mention a few constituents.

Those who say that selfishness is our true nature
are only capable of seeing a part of us.
It’s like saying that an elephant’s true nature is a trunk.

And those who say that our true nature is love
have also picked out just a part of the picture.

If we emphasize and reinforce only one aspect of our nature,
for example selfishness, through cultural and ideological indoctrination,
if we insist to reward and admire egotistical social climbers,
we will continue to create a very unpleasant and stressful society,
war and misery.

We ought to cultivate and reinforce our friendliness and warmth instead.

To be selfish or stupid is not your true self.
It is only a part of you.



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

http://psychology.about.com/od/biopsychology/f/brain-plasticity.htm

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Letter to Richard Dawkins

Dear Mr. Dawkins

I have read a number of your books and I love them. It is probably more than 25 years since I read “The Selfish Gene” the first time. I think of myself as someone having a scientific outlook on life. I am not interested in religion, spirituality or New Age superstition. Evidence is of course much more important than belief.

However, I have experienced some very strange synchronicities in my life that I cannot understand.

I am convinced that synchronicities are real, paranormal phenomena but I cannot prove that I am right. Synchronicities cannot be studied with scientific methods because we cannot create them on demand. They are very rare phenomena and cannot be reproduced in laboratories.

Those who have experienced synchronicities or meaningful coincidences know what I am talking about, and those who have never had any such experiences (or never noticed them or rejected them) will think that I am just one of those millions of nutcases who are indulging in paranormal nonsense.

It is possible that I have deceived myself, absolutely. Illusions are common. But what if my synchronicity experiences are not illusions? And what if some of the many other synchronicity stories out there are also true stories? How can we find out? How shall we sift the wheat from the chaff? And how shall we interpret these observations? Shall we simply ignore them? Shall we ignore experiences and evidence that we cannot explain?

It is a pity that there are so many nonsense discussions about these things in the so-called spiritual circles. It is not possible to discuss synchronicity with New Age people, not with religious people and of course not with scientifically minded people. It is difficult to discuss these things with almost all pepople.

This is the reason why sincere people who have experienced synchronicities often avoid talking about them.

I think that you and your followers have never experienced any synchronicities. It can also be that you have had such experiences but that you never paid attention to them or maybe you explained them away because such phenomena are not on your map.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Free will is an illusion

You are acting in accordance with a worldview, which has been transmitted to you from your family and friends, from your church or your spiritual community, from your teachers in school and from the marketing and mass media industry. You are a puppet connected to many strings.

You are a Muslim or a Jew, a Protestant or a Buddhist, a free market liberal or a neo-Nazi…

You try to talk in a way that you believe you should talk and you try to think in a way that you believe you should think. You dress up in a way you think you should dress up and you conduct yourself in a way you think you should conduct yourself.

It is not your will, but your mother’s will, your friend’s will, your husband’s will, your teacher‘s will, your...

Monday, October 15, 2012

Who are you?

Who is talking and who is listening,
when you are talking to yourself?

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Illusions



The sun does not sink down behind the horizon.
It is the earth that is turning.
And rainbows do not exist
if no one is there to behold them.

Things are not what they seem to be.
You are not what you think you are.
We have misunderstood and misinterpreted most things in life.


I don’t write these words.
Scientists have discovered that the brain processes that trigger an action
for example, when I am pressing a key on a key board,
begin more than half a second before I consciously decide to act.

We have no free will according to modern brain science.
We have no Self that is responsible for our actions.
Nevertheless, you can see the rainbow clearly
and it goes without saying that you are accountable for your actions,
the whole of you, not just the imaginary part of you that you call your Self.

Of course we have a free will.
We can easily be deluded, yes,
and other people can stop us from doing what we want,
but the will is there and it is very real.


The Self does not exist in the same way that physical objects exist.
It cannot be weighed or measured.
Activity in certain brain centers can be measured, when we do something, 

think about something or look at something.
However, there are no particular brain cells
that gives rise to the sense of “I am here”.

The self is like a rainbow
and rainbows do exist.
The idea that the Self is an illusion, is a delusion
and the idea that the Self is something real and permanent
is also a delusion.

However, to ponder over these things is a waste of time.
The world is in total chaos and disorder,
war, pollution, exploitation, starvation, religious madness…

And you care only about your Self.
You should ask yourself if you have been fooled
or if you have fooled yourself.
You should ask yourself why you are fighting so hard to defend your delusions.
You should ask yourself why other people are fighting so hard
to defend their delusions.

Your religion is not the only religion here on this planet. 
Your political ideology is not the only one.

What if your religion or your political ideas are just mind stuff
that you have picked up from other people.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Animism

The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy with a diameter of 100 000 light-years.
400 billion stars, planets, boulders and gravel
rotating around a super massive black hole,
like a hurricane of rocks.

This hurricane of rocks
has in some mysterious way
given rise to us.
We are a hurricane of rocks that thinks and feel,
conscious rock that is dreaming strange dreams at night.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

The four ignoble truths

1. Life consists of so much suffering, pain, misery, illness, hardship and injustice. Life can of course also contain many pleasant moments, but eventually we will all have to face suffering, old age, disease and death. Life is a struggle for survival but no one survives. It is not a matter of survival of the fittest. All life forms are a food source for other life forms, predators, parasites and saprophytes.

2. Suffering would not exist unless there was someone who suffered, a conscious being who tried to escape the suffering.

3. There are ways to escape suffering.

4. The different ways to escape suffering can support and reinforce each other, and they can be used in different stages of life. Alcohol, drugs and painkillers; career plans, hard work and life improvement programs; daydreams, stand up comedy and politics; philosophy, science and religion; physical training, meditation and art; shopping, interior decoration and gardening; soap operas, computer games and detective stories… You have to find a way that works for you.

Whatever you do, do not try to see all aspects of reality. To see the world as it is, is not helpful.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Are synchronicities illusions

Some phenomena are so rare that they cannot be studied scientifically. However, this does not mean that they do not occur.

For example, suppose you have experienced something very strange and want to tell about it. Maybe you have experienced an incredibly weird coincidence, a synchronicity. Those who have to listen to your story try to be polite, so they say, “How interesting,” Then they continue the conversation with another topic. They are clearly not interested in your story.

Other people react differently. They love synchronicities and experience them everyday. They explain to you what you have to do in order to experience paranormal phenomena more frequently. You can immediately hear that they don’t know much about synchronicities and that they have never had any such experiences. They have picked up what they know about it on the internet or in New Age books.

The internet and the New Age bookstores are teeming with information about synchronicities and paranormal phenomena. Most of this information is just nonsense. It is obviously very difficult for those who have never experienced any synchronicities to discriminate between true stories and delusions. It is therefore almost impossible to discuss these things with them.

Dean Radin and Russell Tarc have tried to prove scientifically that telepathy and remote viewing are not just fantasies. They used well-accepted scientific methods and advanced statistics to prove their case. They could show that most people have some kind of sixth sense and that some people have this sense more developed. I don’t know anything about scientific statistics and methods so I have to take their word for it. I am not able to judge if their mathematics and methods are flawed. However, those who know about mathematics and scientific methods seem to be in disagreement about their findings.

Synchronicities are even more difficult to study with scientific methods. My experience is that you cannot create them on demand. Such phenomenons cannot be reproduced in laboratories. Synchronicities are spontaneous and rare events and they are therefore impossible to study scientifically.

I know that synchronicities are real phenomena. I have experienced them myself, but I cannot prove that I am right. Of course, it’s possible that I have deceived myself, definitely. Illusions are common. But what if my synchronicity experiences are not illusions? And what if some of the many other synchronicity stories out there are also true stories? How shall we interpret these observations? How shall we sift the wheat from the chaff?

It’s a pity that there are so many nonsense discussions about these things in the so-called spiritual circles. It’s not possible to discuss synchronicity and telepathy with New Age people, not with religious people and of course not with scientifically minded people. It’s difficult to discuss these things with almost everybody.

This is the reason why sincere people who have experienced synchronicities and paranormal phenomena often avoid talking about them.


Sunday, June 24, 2012

Monday, May 28, 2012

Spiritual Atheism

The vast majority here on earth believe in God, or in a number of Gods. Those who believe that there is only one God are not unanimous over who he is, or how he is. They don’t agree on how he wants us to live and where he is hiding. Most people agree, though, that he is a man.

Some believe that he cares about all people and some believe that he only cares about their own particular group. Some believe that he resides somewhere far away, indifferent to our suffering and some believe that he is here with us somehow and hear our prayers. Millions of people have died through history in horrific religious wars and conflicts about the different perceptions of him and his demands on us. And these conflicts are still ongoing.

Many people say that they believe in God but they don’t. They simply say what they believe they should say. They follow the conventions in order not to differ from their group. Nevertheless, they eagerly go to war to defend the God they pretend to believe in.

One survey found that less than 3 % of all people here on earth are atheists. However, religious people can also be atheists. Some Buddhists and Taoists for example do not believe in any Gods, and some atheists pray to a God they don’t believe in, secretly.

Those who believe in God or a bunch of Gods have also many other beliefs that can’t be found in their original religious scriptures. Some believe that greed and competition are good. They believe that nothing is more important than to make a lot of money. Some are racists; some are right-wingers. Also atheists and scientists have beliefs. Everyone has beliefs.

Where do all these different beliefs and ideas come from? Do we simply create them in our heads? Are they just fantasies?

                                                         ***

Atheism is not necessarily a belief. Maybe you don’t care about Gods, in the same way as you don’t care about gnomes or fairies. Maybe your mind is busy with something else. This way of looking at things is sometimes called weak atheism. You don’t care about trying to prove that there are no gnomes or ghosts or gods.

I don’t believe in God and I am not religious. How can a good God let children die in gruesome diseases and starvation? It doesn’t make sense. This position is called strong atheism. To me are beliefs in Gods, ghosts and spirits superstition. However, I understand that I don’t understand almost anything about how life and the universe work. Life is a mystery to me, but this doesn’t make me an agnostic.

Those who say, “Maybe there is a God, maybe there isn’t, I don’t know.” are called agnostics. Well, maybe there really are gnomes and trolls in the woods, after all. Maybe there really are ghosts in old castles. What do I know? I can’t prove that ghosts and gnomes don’t exist. Agnosticism is a meaningless concept.

Moreover, I don’t believe in reincarnation. The belief in reincarnation is also a mental construct, as I see it. Those who have this belief have no memories from past lives. They base their beliefs on hearsay, imagination and speculations. The idea that people suffer in this life to atone for crimes in past lifetimes is a weird idea. If you suffer from a severe illness, it is not because a God planned this misery for you or because you have committed crimes in former lives.

However, I have experienced some very strange synchronicities in my life. Many other people that seem reliable can also tell stories about very strange coincidences. These experiences and stories are proof to me that there is also a mystic dimension.

I don’t have a name for the way I look at things. I am an atheist, yes, and I dislike claims and speculations that there are no evidence for. At least some kind of personal experience behind a claim is important to me if I am to listen. Almost all spiritual explanations I come across on the internet, in books or in the real world seem more or less wacky to me. Nonetheless, there is a mystic dimension. I know, because I have experiences of it.

It is possible that I have fooled myself. I know perfectly well how easy it is to fool oneself. I have tons of experiences of self-deception, but still, I would lie if I said that the mystic dimension is just an illusion.



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

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/mathew/intro.html

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The Grand Design

... common sense is based upon everyday experience, not upon the universe as it is revealed through the marvels of technologies such as those that allow us to gaze deep into the atom or back to the early universe. 

In the history of science, we have discovered a sequence of better and better theories and models, from Plato to the classical theory of Newton to modern quantum theories. It is natural to ask: Will this sequence eventually reach an end point, an ultimate theory of the universe… or will we continue forever finding better theories…? We do not yet have a definitive answer to this question, but we now have a candidate for the ultimate theory of everything… called M-theory.

M-theory is not a theory in the usual sense. It is a whole family of different theories, each of which is a good description of observations only in some range of physical observations. 

The different theories in the M-theory family may look very different, but they can all be regarded as aspects the same underlying theory. They are versions of the theory that are applicable only in limited ranges. 

The quantum model of nature encompasses principles that contradict not only our everyday experience but our intuitive concept of reality. Those who find those principles weird or difficult to believe are in good company, the company of great physicists such as Einstein and Feynman… In fact, Feynman once wrote, “I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.”

Regarding the laws that govern the universe, what we can say is this: There seems to be no single model or theory that can describe every aspect of the universe. 

From "The Grand Design" by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow


Physicists can‘t accept the idea that there is also a spiritual dimension, so they leave out this aspect from their theory constructions. They ignore this piece of the puzzle. I think that this is a shortcoming. There is a spiritual dimension and this dimension has nothing to do with religion.

The best evidence I know of, that a spiritual dimension actually exist, that it is not just a fantasy, is the strange phenomenon called synchronicity.

I think I can safely say that nobody understands life.

See “On meaningful coincidences” August 3 2008 in this blogg.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

New wine into old wineskins

Most Christians are not Christians really.
They don’t forgive their enemies,
they store up for themselves treasures on earth
and they blow trumpets when they give alms.

Likewise, most spiritually awakened people are not awakened.
They’re still sleeping,
They’ve simply created new dream worlds,
with recycled Hindu beliefs,
obsolete metaphysical speculations and ancient superstitions.

                                   ***

Does this kind of thinking make you feel good?
Isn’t it better to construct positive thoughts?
Smart thoughts are useless, as I see it,
if they make me feel that people are mad and that life sucks.
It’s not important if thoughts are true or not
as long as they are not harmful to other people.
Self-deceptions can be much more helpful than truths.
They can make us encouraged instead of miserable.

                                   ***

Well, maybe self-deceptions can be helpful in certain situations
and in certain periods of life,
however, they are not always helpful.
They are like potent drugs with dangerous side effects, as I see it.
Sometimes we have to resort to convenient explanations,
sometimes we have to question our explanations.

(You can fool yourself completely, at times,
and parts of yourself till you die,
but you can’t fool all parts of yourself, all of the time.)


http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_said_'You_can_fool_all_the_people_some_of_the_time_and_some_of_the_people_all_the_time_but_you_cannot_fool_all_the_people_all_the_time'

Monday, April 16, 2012

Identity

You’re a Catholic or an atheist,
a leftist or a rightist
black or white,
upper class or outcast…

You have an identity.
You are someone.
You belong to a group,
a gang, a community.

You’re a Zulu, a gypsy or a Croatian,
a Sunni or a Shia Muslim, a Brahmin,
an intellectual snob or a spiritualist.

It’s obviously very important to have an identity.
However, you forget your identity during large parts of the day.
You forget who you are because you’re engrossed in work,
a sunset, playing with kids or whatever.
Identity and no-identity are two aspects of life.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

The great unknown

The world you know of,
the everyday world,
the world you can grasp,
is just a tiny, tiny part of the universe.

Outside your little world is the great unknown.
What is it like out there?
You have no idea.
You can only speculate and fantasize,
parallel realities, other dimensions, ancient kingdoms…
or just darkness.

The conscious self is just a tiny, tiny part of your mind.
The world you know of, the world here and now, under your nose,
is like a small, small boat out on the Atlantic ocean, at night.
A hurricane lamp dispels demons and bad spirits.
Beneath the surface, tons of mysterious sea creatures,
whales, octopuses, eel…
above, the sky filled with stars.
The world self is enormous.

When I die, I believe, I will disappear.
I will not end up anywhere and I will not come back.
However, the world self will always be there.

Spiritual compartmentalization

Spiritual teachers rarely work.
They are monks or earn their living by talking about spirituality.
This is why working people often find it difficult to understand them.
We simply can’t relate to their life experiences.

Spiritual teachers and monks live in a world of their own,
secluded and cared for.
This is OK.
However, you will get confused
if you try to apply their wisdom in your daily life.
Their wisdom is not meant for you.
It is meant for other monks or for those who don’t have to work
to earn a living.

For example,
they often overemphasize the importance of the now.
For a working person is the now not all there is.
Of course it’s important to be able to be present.
It’s important to not get lost completely in dream worlds.
It goes without saying.
However, the present now is not all there is.
Working people have to accomplish something and they have to be finished in time.
They have to get past many obstacles.
The idea that “Only the now is real.” is a typical monk idea.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Rich folks eyes

If you’re a rich man, you will see the world through a rich man’s eyes.
Your religion is adapted to a rich man’s needs,
your political opinions, your values and your preferences
are of course also adapted to your life situation.

If you read spiritual, self help books
you will prefer books that confirm your preconceived notions.
This is natural.
We all want to have our preconceived notions confirmed.

If you read the Bible, you probably like the line
“To those who have, more shall be given“.

The line, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
will probably not make much sense to you.
You will have to find an interpretation that works for you.

You play the rich folks games; say what rich folks say,
do what rich folks do.
You probably donate money for charity.

If you, on the other hand,
is a social climber, on your way up,
you are probably also playing the rich folks games.
Well, your climbing wouldn’t be very successful if you didn’t.

Therefore, if you write spiritual self help books,
you have to leave out all the horrendous economic injustices,
exploitation of poor people in Asian sweatshops
and how we are ruining this planet because of limitless greed.
You will have to go on and on about how to find the innermost self,
mindfulness, the power of positive thinking and stuff like that,
non-combustible material.

Spiritual teachers are playing the rich folks games
and cherish Status Quo,
like priests and religious leaders always have,
in order to make a living.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

What if I'm living in a spiritual bubble.

Spiritual bubbles are made of thoughts.
Political opinions, ideas, fantasies and values
are also made of thoughts.
All people live in bubbles made of thoughts.
Some people live in filthy bubbles
others live in sweet little dollhouse bubbles.
Some live in teenage bubbles all their lives.
Their spirituality, religion and political views
are formed in these neurotic bubbles.
All the idiotic wars, all bullshit, all bigotry, have its sources here,
not in the DNA.
Your bubble is perhaps somewhat different from mine, yes,
but is this an important fact?
What do you say,
can these dream bubbles suddenly burst?
Is this an unpleasant experience?
What do you think?
Or, maybe we will have to live in our silly dream bubbles till the day we die.
Maybe it's impossible to see clearly?

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Neti, neti

I’m not a Christian, not a Muslim, not a Jew,
not a Hindu, not a Buddhist,
not an atheist, not an agnostic, not a Darwinist,
not a free market liberal, not a Marxist, not a royalist.
not a materialist, not a non-dualist…
I’m a human being
among billions of other human beings.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Correct meditation

What is meditation
and what part of your life is not meditation?
What is art
and what is not art?
Is a pile of Brillo boxes art?

Monday, February 27, 2012

Bamboozled

We live in a global culture based on lies. Not only politicians, businessmen and religious leaders tell lies. We have all been thrown into a cesspool of bullshit, to sink or swim. We have to play games and pretend in order to survive.

-Oh, you’re so negative. You have been deceived by your gloomy mind. The world will smile at you, if you smile at the world. You must let love change your heart. Inner joy leads to outer success and abundance.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Who am I, really?

I can observe myself.
I can sometimes clearly see when I am pigheaded.
Sometimes I am proud of myself because I am so good,
sometimes I feel ashamed when I notice my self-righteousness or selfishness.

You have also an observing self who keeps an eye on your dealings.
Are your observing self and my observing self
in reality one and the same observing self?
What do you think?

Is this the atman or is this the world soul?
Is this the super-ego or is this the true self?
Is collective consciousness a suitable name for this?
Ask a bunch of gurus and you’ll get bunch of different answers.

What is right in my world may be wrong in your, yes I agree.
However, I’m not talking about what is right or wrong here
I’m talking about the actual seeing,
the ability to see with an inner eye.

You have thoughts and values
you have gender and social conditioning,
you have ideas, opinions and beliefs.
I’m talking about the “you” who have all this,
consciousness itself.

What do you think?
Is this the true self?

I believe that consciousness is created in the brain
and you believe that it is eternal.
These beliefs have built a wall between us.




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

Tourists have crowded into the half-dark of the enormous Romanesque church.
Vault opening behind vault and no perspective.
A few candle flames flickered.
An angel whose face I couldn’t see embraced me
and his whisper went all through my body:
“Don’t be ashamed to be a human being, be proud!
Inside you one vault after another opens endlessly.
You’ll never be complete, and that’s as it should be.”
Tears blinded me
as we were herded out into the fiercely sunlit piazza,
together with Mr. and Mrs. Jones, Herr Tanaka and Signora Sabatini;
within each of them vault after vault opened endlessly.
Tomas Tranströmmer
Translated by Robert Bly

Friday, February 24, 2012

Hypnosis

I have a big nose.
I have a sore toe.
I have an idea.
I am hungry.
I feel offended.
I don’t like Nazis.
I love you.

What is this I made of?
Is it made out of electrochemical brain activity?
Is it a chimera?
Is it a ghost in the machine?
Is it a horseman?
Is it a coachman?
Is this the soul?

What makes you think that this I live on after death?

I had some mean thoughts this morning.
I have a complaining and vengeful ego.
Do I have an ego as if I had a dog?
Something is wrong with this kind of thinking.

Spiritual awakening, as I see it, has nothing to do with the I.
You can ask yourself, who am I really, till you‘re blue in the face,
but you will never get a clear-cut answer.

Spiritual awakening, as I see it, is like waking up from a hypnosis
and to be free from posthypnotic suggestions.

All hypnotists know that they can only hypnotize those
who are willing to be hypnotized.
All hypnotists know that their suggestions will only work
as long as their human guinea pigs believe what they hear.

It is possible to wake up from hypnosis.
You don’t have to act on your posthypnotic suggestions.
It is possible to break a smoking habit.
It is possible to leave a religious cult.
It is possible to drop all political and religious belief systems.

You don’t have to assume anyone’s role.

You’re free now.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zms_JklT4I0

Which side are you on?

If life had been a movie about Robin Hood,
which side would you have been on,
Robin Hood‘s side, or the Sheriff of Nottingham‘s?

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

I'm right, you're wrong

You’re angry with me because I tell you that you’re wrong.
You think that I’m full of shit.
Nevertheless, you are wrong.
Rio de Janeiro is not the capital of Brazil.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

The small self in a small world

What if you’ve been locked up.
What if you’re under house arrest.
The food is OK.
You have access to TV and internet,
good dope and a Jacuzzi.
What more could you want?

Monday, February 13, 2012

Christian ethics

What do you mean with Christian ethics?

Do you mean that Christian ethics was the basis for the inquisition courts, the torture chambers and the witch hunts?

The Christian churches have always sided with the rich and powerful, tyrants, slave traders, exploiters and warmongers. Do you think that the Churches are good exponents of Christian ethics?

A priest blessed the atom bomb before it was dropped over Hiroshima. Do you think that Christian ethical considerations lay behind this blessing?

There were many competing views in early Christianity. Many views were brutally suppressed and disappeared. Also today, there are many competing interpretations of what it means to be Christian. When you talk about Christian ethics and morality, which Christianity do you have in mind?

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Identity

You have an identity. In fact, you have probably several identities. You may be a mother, a capable secretary and a grouch.

Maybe you are a monk, with a robe and a set of beliefs. Maybe you are a Buddhist monk, a Catholic monk or a sanyassin.

Maybe you are an intellectual snob or a drunkard. Maybe you are a drug addict.

Maybe you decide to change your identity. Maybe you decide to change your name to a Hindu name to make you appear more spiritual or maybe you return to your parent’s conservative ways after a juvenile revolutionary excursion.

Maybe you are a spiritual searcher or an environmental activist. Maybe you are artistic. Maybe you prefer to hang out with the neo-Nazis. Maybe you feel at home there with them.

Is it possible to live without any particular identity? What do you think? I think it is possible. Others may give me an identity but I don’t feel that I need one, at least not when I’m here, all alone by myself. In my age is identity not that important anymore.

I don’t mind if you play the cool Rastaman or the stiff investment banker. It’s not a big deal for me. I don’t mind if you play a monk or a bohemian artist. To me it is much more important if I can trust you, if we can talk and understand each other.

To some people it is extremely painful to abandon their identity. The Nazis had to drop their Nazi identity after the war. People who have spent years in religious cults or those who want to give up their drug habit know what I’m talking about.

It is very difficult to give up an identity, before you try, but it is possible-and it is very liberating.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Misunderstandings

Do you believe in God?

It depends on what you mean with God. Do you mean a person? Do you mean an old bearded man somewhere high in the sky? Do you mean a spirit, like a genie in a bottle, but bigger and more powerful?

                                                               ***

At the entrance to the Apollo temple in Delphi, was a famous inscription, “Know thyself’”. This inscription meant, in those days, “Know that you’re not a God. Know your place.” With time, new meanings and interpretations arose on how to understand this aphorism. Today many people believe that we should have knowledge about ourselves. Some people even believe that we ought to know that we are Gods and that this is our true identity. “Know thyself” can mean anything today.

“The kingdom of heaven is within you.” This sentence is, what I understand, a mistranslation. A correct translation would be, “The kingdom of heaven is among you.” The early Christians believed that the new kingdom was to be found within their group, among those who believed that Jesus was their promised king.

Different spiritual teachers seem to mean different things with the word awakening. They point in different directions when they point out the way to the truth.

You will eventually wake up if you practice meditation diligently and correctly.

Awakening is spontaneous. There is nothing you can do in order to get there.

Get down on your knees and pray. Jesus hears our prayers.

Only the now is real.

The reality you have here in front of you, what you can see, hear and touch, is just an illusion. It is constantly changing. This illusion is called the veil of Maya. Behind this illusory reality, you can find the true reality. The true reality is not changing.

You may talk about apples. Maybe I misunderstand you and think that you mean pears.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

2012 Superstition

Some people believe that the world will go under this year because the Mayan calendar ends 2012.

More than 40 % of the Americans believe that God created the world about six thousand years ago. They believe that this job took him six days.

Two thousand five hundred years ago, some desert tribes in the Middle East believed that that they had to suffer because a snake had duped them. I suppose Christian literal believers today are still clinging also to this idea.

Thousands of years ago, people in India believed that good and bad deeds in this life influenced the next reincarnation. They believed that oppressed and suffering people suffered the consequences of their bad deeds in a previous lifetime. Well, Indians are still stuck in this kind of thinking, what I understand.

The Bible, the Bhagavad-Gita and the Koran are out of date and so is the calendar they used in Central America two thousand years ago.

The ethics and morals that seemed sensible in the Middle East and India two thousand five hundred years ago are madness today, slavery, widow burning, stoning and eye for an eye justice. We live in another era.

To hang on to outdated beliefs is not to be spiritual. It is to be deluded. Astrology, alchemy, religion and esoteric claptrap should belong to the past.

It’s time to wake up now.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

No self

I am not religious. Religions and religious sects create artificial divisions between us, I believe - war, suicide bombers, oppression of women and children, sharia laws, cast system. All religions create and disseminate superstition, bigotry, hypocrisy and lies.

I am not political. I am not a member of any political party or political organization. I vote, but I don’t vote for someone or something. I vote to do what I can to prevent the right-wingers and the fascists, to gain too much power. Because I vote against the right- wingers others label me leftist, but I’m not a leftist. I don’t label myself.

I am not a supporter of any sports team and I have no particular style of clothing.

I don’t belong to any particular sub group. I am not a hippie relic, not a non-dualist, not a careerist. I am not a wino, not a pot smoker not a body builder…

However, I am not nothing. I am not indifferent. I have opinions, values and preferences. I don’t like cruelty, inequality and hypocrisy, for example.

The idea that awakening implies a loss of the sense of being someone with plans, values and beliefs is wrong, I believe.

If I, who has an ego, am a permanent and eternal entity or a constantly changing stream, is not an important question, as I see it. To brood over this leads nowhere. It is much more important, I think, that we raise awareness about our values.

Which are your true values that guide your actions, which values ought to guide your actions, and which values is just wishful thinking?

Do you buy cheap meat from factory farms because you don’t care how animals are treated? Is there nothing but selfishness in our true nature? Is it wrong to exploit other people in order to get rich and successful? Is it good to know as much as possible about what is going on in the world or is it better to turn off the news reports?

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

We see different aspects of the reality.

Some people have to carry heavy loads. Others need not carry anything. To them is the trek simply wonderful and relaxing. The snowy mountain peaks, the crisp air and the lush valley make them ponder the beauty of creation.

The porters and the donkeys long for home.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

The kingdom of heaven is not inside of you

You’ve probably heard that the kingdom of heaven is inside of you. This is a mistranslation from ancient Greek, or a misunderstanding. There is no kingdom inside of you, and no king and no subjects.

You have a serious problem if you are looking for a kingdom inside of yourself, even if you use the word kingdom in a metaphorical sense.

The deeper you dig into yourself, the more self centered and fucked up you will become. I’m not kidding. You will not find anything down there or in there. I don’t understand why also spiritual teachers are going on and on about this. They have probably heard this claptrap from some prominent guru, and then they pass it on, like priests and preachers do, in good faith.

If all your attention is focused on the outside world, on career and politics or whatever, then you also have a problem. The kingdom of heaven cannot be found on the outside either.

So, where is this kingdom, you may ask, if it’s not on the inside, and not on the outside? Yes, where is it?

The kingdom of heaven, Shambala, Shangri La, Lemuria, Atlantis, Avalon, where are those places?

Friday, January 13, 2012

The end

I don’t believe in a future for Homo sapiens. We will never create an environment friendly civilization here on earth. Those who believe that we will wake up one day and begin to reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases and toxic waste are living in a dream world.

An exponentially increasing number of people consume more and more oil and we are emitting more and more toxic waste and greenhouse gases. We are like nicotine addicts who know that smoking is dangerous and causes cancer, but keep on smoking anyway.

I’m not alone in my belief that there is no future for our species. I think most well-informed people would agree with me. Some people still pretend though, that they have not given up yet, and some still believe that science and technology will find a solution.

Small groups of people still believe that all problems can be solved if we simply became vegetarians and began using bicycles instead of cars. Yes, it would be wonderful if everybody suddenly became nice and kind environmentalists. Then we would not exploit the earth’s resources as hard.

Environmentalists have almost always grown up in protected areas. They have never seen the ugly sides of life. How are they to know that the world is pretty rough outside their lovely little town or outside their campus?

People can think whatever they like about these things, but I have given up hope on humanity. Humanity will not stop driving cars and we will not limit our emissions. They don’t care at all in China, India and USA if we in Europe would succeed in limiting our toxic emissions to some extent.

One consequence of my disbelief in a future for humanity is that I no longer care about trying to live in an environmentally friendly manner. I no longer sort my garbage. I don’t mind driving an old gas-guzzling car. I don’t waste money on organic food.

Another consequence is a background pessimism and cynicism. My beliefs color my worldview. When I look at the world, I see it filtered through my beliefs.

Many people try to hide their pessimism and cynicism behind a cheerful facade. I don’t blame them. I also hide my real beliefs behind a facade. If you meet me, you will see me smiling.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

It's all in the mind

The past and the future are created in the brain. The present moment is also created in the brain. Thoughts, ideas, beliefs, values, views, emotions, hunches, dreams, the observing self, practically everything is created in the brain, I believe.

The outside world is also a creation in the brain. You see something. Light waves are detected in the back of the eyes where they are transformed into nerve signals. The nerve signals then travels into your brain where they are processed and an image is formed. This image is not the real world. It’s an image of the real world, a representation of the real world. What you see is not the whole picture.

The idea that consciousness, or the observer of all this, is not created in the brain is of course also a belief. If you claim that your consciousness is not created in your brain, then you have to produce at least some form of evidence for this idea; otherwise it’s just an idea, a belief, a hypothesis- created in your brain.

Maybe the brain is like a radio receiver that receives consciousness waves from outer space. You may be right. But, how did you come to this conclusion? Do you have any proof for this statement? Do you have personal experience? Have you read about it or heard about it. Is it a guru, a priest or a scientist that have provided the information?

I can’t prove that the observing self is created in the brain and you can’t prove that the observing self is not created in the brain; none of us knows anything about these things. It’s important, I think, to realize that we don’t know anything about the metaphysical reality. It’s also important to realize that we don’t know much about the physical reality either.

Many people with a spiritual outlook on life cannot accept the idea that the thinking mind, the observing self, love and hate, heart and soul, are created in the brain. To me is the brain an amazingly mysterious thing. Life is an amazing mystery. Everything is an amazing mystery - even if I don’t live on after death.

It’s not that important, as I see it, where consciousness stems from. The division between a material and a spiritual world is a construct in the thinking mind. What is important is how we live our lives.

The problem I have with my belief that the true self is created in the brain and that it will not live on after death is that it makes suffering meaningless. Many people have to suffer so much. To many people is life nothing but suffering, physical pain, loss, injustice, anger, resentment…

It just can’t be that creation is evil. It just can’t be that people and animals have to suffer so much for no reason.

Suffering is the reason why people become religious. The problem is that all religions are corrupt and dishonest. People with hidden agendas use religion as a way to control the minds of other people. Most people are gullible. This is a huge problem.

It’s time now for a new religion, without right-wing views attached, without doctrines and clergy, without gurus, mullahs and leaders.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Multiverse

Many prominent physicists believe nowadays that there may be numerous universes, not just one. Their mathematical calculations points in this direction. Maybe there are an infinite number of universes out there; maybe they have simply made a calculation error, who knows? However, without evidence are the Multiverse ideas nothing but fantasies.

Some people believe that there are plenty of universes, but they do not base their beliefs on mathematical calculations, physics or experience. They simply like the idea. “Cool. There are tons of copies of me out there.”

Speculations and fantasies such as these can serve two purposes. For the first, they allow an escape from what is happening here and now, in this dimension, on this planet, in this world of madness.

Secondly, they can create a sense of wonder. Everything is a mystery. We have no idea of what the reality is like, really.