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?
Sunday, February 19, 2012
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?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
The porters and the donkeys long for home.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)