Did you choose the path you are on, or were you persuaded to choose it?
Are you fully convinced that this is the right path, or do you have doubts?
Are you on your way to nowhere, or to the promised land?
Maybe you´ve been misguided; if so, you are not alone.
What difference does it make to you if the universe is cyclic or if it was spontaneously created out of nothing 14 billion years ago?
What difference does it make to you, in your life, if life started on Earth because aliens planted life spores here or if it was formed spontaneously in the sea somewhere?
What difference does it make to you if consciousness is created in the brain or if the brain is a kind of receiver that picks up cosmic consciousness waves?
Neuroscientists and Buddhists say that the self is an illusion. So what? Who cares? I mean, isn't everything an illusion? The material world isn't really material; it consists of mysterious electromagnetic fields, electron clouds, energy, and God knows what.
We are here, and we have to figure out how to survive, how to treat our friends and family, our neighbors, the animals around us, nature, and our planet. This is what is important.
Suppose you are a rich man, a billionaire. And the only thing you can think of to do with your money is to invest it in the stock market to get more money. Maybe you buy a mansion and fill it with art. At the same time, 150 million children globally suffer from chronic malnutrition. You are then a complete idiot.
There is someone who sees in the secret.
One part of you notices when you have done something wrong. This part could be called The Judge. He or she also notices when you occasionally do a good deed, give a coin to a beggar, for example, and you feel proud of yourself.
Other parts of you are silencing the inner judge by spinning endless bullshit stories, excuses, and rationalizations. These parts are so loud and domineering that The Judge cannot be heard and is eventually forgotten.
Your true self is a mixture. One part is the culprit, one part is the defense attorney, and one part is the judge. One part is a fool, one part is a smart ass, one part is a lazy slouch, one part is kind and gentle, one part is a nervous wreck, one part is upright, one part is realistic, and so forth. All these different parts make up your true self, as I see it. None of them is false.
Your true self may be hypocritical, jealous, or selfish at the moment, but you hide it from both other people and from yourself. The mask you may have to put on is your false self, but this part also belongs to you. It is also real.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_self_and_false_self
Matthew 6:2 "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
There is no sharp line between humans and animals. You can get a blood transfusion from a chimp, but not from a gorilla.
A top chimpanzee male can keep his position for four or five years, sometimes up to ten years.
His close friends are scheming to overthrow him. One of them will eventually succeed and can take over the leadership of the flock. The old king is beaten up and exiled.
The flock is happy to have a new leader who can guide them.
Chimpanzees live in hierarchical societies. There are upper-class, middle-class, and underclass chimpanzees.
War against neighboring flocks is commonplace.
Humans have inherited war and aggression from our ancestors, as well as love and compassion.
We can teach our children about things that don't exist, or might exist, and talk about the past and the future. Chimps don't understand anything about this.
Evolution has brought us here to the bitter end. Endless wars, the nuclear arms race, climate change, and pollution will soon make us go extinct. We are living in the end times.
- God did not create the universe. The universe is not created; it has always existed. God and his angels were created by the universe, like us, human beings.
- Where have you got this information from?
- I read it somewhere. Maybe I heard someone on YouTube talking about it.
I have always worked too much; my career in finance was everything to me. When I was in my forties, I had a mental breakdown and ended up in a psychiatric ward. There, I realized that I had to change my lifestyle. I decided to become a spiritual teacher instead.
I created a YouTube channel and wrote a book about my death experience, reincarnation, spirituality, and stuff like that. There is a huge market for such things. A lot of people have died and come back to tell their stories about what is going on there on the other side. The competition is tough, but I think this is good. I like freedom of choice and competition. Visit my website for more information. There you can order my book and find dates and tickets to my courses and lectures.
There are so many gods to choose from. There are gods for the rich and gods for the poor, gods for the slow-witted and gods for the smartypants.
When you have found God, and you know what he wants from us, or, if you have found out that there is no God, when you finally understand what life is all about: money, social status and sex, to eat or be eaten, or, when you have found your true self, or that the self is an illusion, or, when you know what will happen to us after death, then you are deluded.
When you have it all figured out, this is a clear sign that you have been misled. Later, you will realize that you had it all wrong. You had fooled yourself. And now you have found the truth, at last.
When you know, deep in your heart, what religion, political, or philosophical explanation is superior, then you must ask yourself: could it be that I don't see the full picture? If the answer is no, I am right, you can be convinced that you have been fooled.
I have lost friends to religious and spiritual cults, crazy ideas, and political convictions. And I have had friends who have lost me because of my opinions, views, and beliefs.
Ingrained convictions are like magic spells.
I'm not a right-winger, not a left-winger, and not something in between.
I'm not an atheist, not religious, and I don't care about spiritual teachers. To me, they are as wacky as priests, pastors, mullahs, gurus, and their passionate followers.
I'm a human being. I was born somewhere, and I will die somewhere. And I have no expectations of what will happen to me after death.
I'm not indifferent, though. Too much selfishness, greed, hypocrisy, and self-deception is not good, I believe.
If you ignore your beliefs, your worldview, your political opinions, and your general preferences, and notice your consciousness, the naked experience of being alive, do you think that this, your basic awareness, is the same as mine, as well as in all the rest of us sentient beings?
Of course, the main part of life we are living in the realm of opinions, beliefs, and worldviews, the realm of thought, fighting each other, but isn't it good to know that also the realm of pure consciousness is there, at the base of it all?
Moreover, if there are sentient beings on other planets, mustn't they also have the same experience of being alive?
We have to live as if we have free will and that life has some meaning. Many scientists do not believe in free will or in the possibility that life and suffering may have meaning.
Of course, they may be right. You are born somewhere, and you will die somewhere, and that's it. And you can not change anything. This idea can make you cynical and coldhearted.
However, if you are deeply convinced that life is important and meaningful, this conviction can make you feel stronger and more focused.
If it turns out that when you die, nothing happens, that there is no afterlife, that you will not be rewarded or punished for your good or bad deeds, you will not be disappointed. You are not there to notice.
In early August 1914, Europeans were euphoric. They cheered, sang, and waved flags. At last, there would be war; at last, they would get to fight on The Field of Honor. At last, they would find meaning in their meaningless lives. It had been a long time coming.
But the war was a disappointment. The field of honor turned out to be a run-of-the-mill farm field that reeked of corpses and feces.
In the spring of 1917, the Russians had had enough. Also, many French soldiers longed for home. By November 1918, even the Germans had grown tired of the party and left the festivities, disappointed.
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When the Germans went to the polls in November 1932, the Nazi Party won 33% of the vote and became the largest party in the Reichstag. In January 1933, a coalition government was formed, and Hitler was appointed Chancellor.
In early March 1933, elections were held again. The Nazi Party now won 43.9% of the vote. On March 23, Hitler introduced a bill in the Reichstag to transfer all power to him personally. The right-wing parties voted for the bill. Hitler became an absolute ruler, and millions of Germans were overjoyed. At last, they had regained faith in the future.
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What if you, too, have been deceived? Imagine if everything you believe in and live for is misconceptions or pure idiocy. People have always been deceived into one thing or another, only to realize later it was a misconception. Or pure idiocy.
Neo-liberalism, neo-conservatism, neo-darwinism, nihilism, postmodernism, this or that particular guru, pastor, priest, mullah, imam, or spiritual teacher.
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It is important to be passionate about something, fired up. It doesn't matter what you are passionate about: your homeland, Jesus Christ, or the Prophet Mohammad, a free market economy, or art. An extinguished person feels tired and lonely. A passionate person, on the other hand, is full of life. It really sparkles in the eyes.
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Words are not just words. Words are magic spells that can transform a person into pretty much anything. You can become right-wing or left-wing, religious or an atheist. You can become so unhappy that you want to kill yourself.
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If there is no afterlife, you will at least not be disappointed when you die. But if there is an afterlife, you will likely be very disappointed.
Humanity's defense spending now exceeds more than $2 trillion annually. But this is not enough; now it's comprehensive military rearmament that has the highest priority. The whole world is rearming. We need new nuclear weapons, new missile systems, new drones, and new submarines. We have to defend ourselves against each other. The struggle against climate change has been deprioritized.
We live in a very dangerous and crucial time. The Doomsday Clock is now at 89 seconds to midnight.
You have two eyes. They scan these letters and convert them into electrical nerve impulses that quickly find their way into your brain, like a failed and petty New Year's cracker.
Maybe you don't have a brain. Perhaps it's a brain that has you. But what difference does it make to you in your life?
Anyway, you also have a nose, a mouth, ears, and feet. You have a heart that pumps blood and an abdominal cavity that is filled with disgusting entrails. Now you have come here, for some reason.
Reading is a mystical activity, but you don't find it mystical. Not the least. You are so used to reading. It's an everyday thing. But think about it, your brain converts these letters, in some incomprehensible way, to an inner voice that you can clearly hear inside your skull. Isn't this amazing? Is it really me speaking in your brain? If you listen very carefully, you can hear that this voice has a dialect and a tone that you recognize. This is your voice, yes, but it has now been temporarily taken over by me.
