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.