Who are you, really?

One part of your mind wants to give up smoking,
another part wants to relax and have a cigarette.

One part of your mind despises envy,
another part feels clearly the bitterness.

One part of your mind is very serious and has high morale,
another part is frivolous and immoral.

One part of your mind is crystal clear and awake,
another part is like a hypnotized sleepwalker.

There are also genuinely friendly and unselfish parts of your mind,
and self-righteous parts, egotistical parts and ridiculous parts;
and parts that you don't know of,
until specific situations are showing them to you,
heroic parts, evil parts, idiotic parts...

Moreover, one part of your mind is able to notice and observe the other parts.

Your mind is a mixture, but who are you,
the observer that has a mind that is made up of many different parts?
Is the observer also a part of your mind?
I believe it is.
I believe that I am a part of the mental processes,
the electrochemical processes in my head.

It is possible to step outside oneself
and observe oneself, the question is if this is an illusion.


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

The Mind

Trillions of single cell organisms, interconnected and working together like an extremely complicated ant community, create your mysterious being. Your eyes, your ears and your nose are pure magic, even your feet, and, of course, your brain. Billions of brain cells are interconnected in a miraculously intricate way. Somehow, they are creating your mysterious mind.

However, your mysterious mind does not usually experience mystery and wonder. It is mostly occupied with everyday matters, making plans, babbling, creating explanations, rationalizations and justifications; watching stupid stuff on TV, surfing the internet... Very little of its time is spent on wonder.
Why is the mind so overly concerned about unimportant things?

Why have billions of years of evolution selected for rubbish and nonsense?

Realism

What would the world look like, if no one was there who could see it? There would be no colors, no fragrances, no sounds and no beautiful sunsets. It would be neither hot, nor cold. The moon would not be there.

Matter, as most people know these days, consists of practically nothing, void, empty space between the electrons and the atomic nucleus.

What are electrons made of? What is empty space really? What do you mean when you talk about the reality? Do you mean the void and a few vibrating strings here and there?

Realism and materialism are outdated worldviews, as far as I can see. Spirit and matter, the observer and the observed, are two sides of the same coin. One side cannot exist without the other.

To cheat or to be cheated

All people lie
and all people get upset when others are lying.
This is ridiculous.
To lie is the most natural thing in the world.

Don't try to get to know yourself.
Don't try to uncover yourself.
Don't throw a spanner in the works.
This is truly idiotic.

It's not the lies that causes problems,
it's the truths.
Have you noticed that those who take life too seriously
often become too hard headed?
It's not good to be too hard headed.

Lies serve a purpose.
They help us to survive.
They help us to endure.
Without lies and self-deceptions
what would be left to live for?

Yes, of course I'm lying.
You're stupid if you believe what I'm saying.

Life

You are born somewhere and you will die somewhere.
In life we wander about and give each other good advice,
like hens. Cluck cluck, cluck cluck.

We're so sensible.
We write books and articles,
we organize workshops and conferences;
we comfort each other and tell each other what to do.
Cluck cluck.

An oak tree grows where it grows.
It may have been planted there by a jay or a little girl,
but there is no ultimate reason why it stands where it stands.
There is no director who has placed it there.
There is no plan behind its existence
other than the growing instructions
that was written in the chromosomes in the acorn
three or four hundred years ago.

Of course there is no ultimate meaning with your life.
You just happen to be where you happen to be.
Right now, you happen to be here.
Cluck cluck.
The seed that gave rise to the universe contained no instructions
no genetic code, no blueprint.
Everything has just become as it has become.

All living things originate from one single cell
that happened to be formed, by chance, more than three billion years ago.
Cats and dogs, birds and bees, flowers and trees...

There are majestic oak trees, and tragic old oak trees
and there are newly planted oak trees from good German nurseries
with good genes and good crown structure
almost like young elite soldiers lined up in a row
outside well-planned residential areas.

The universe is not like a well-planned residential area.
Nothing is predetermined.
Everything just gets as it gets.

WWI

In the beginning of August 1914, people rejoiced in the streets.

In Germany, Austria, England and France, patriotic euphoria erupted.

At last, there would be war. Hooray! Hooray!

People longed for purification, in a noble fight for their fatherland.

They longed for a meaning to their meaningless lives,

Thomas Mann, Ludwig Wittgenstein, The Red Cross and the Churches,

all the cheering little women...

“I didn't like you much before you joined the army, John.

But I do like you, cocky, now you've got your khaki on.”

The enthusiasm didn't last long.
The front turned out to be hell.

Ten million men allowed themselves to be slaughtered.

Twenty million were seriously injured.

In March 1917, the Russians had had enough.

They refused to obey orders. Many went home.

Mutinies broke out, also in France.

In October 1918, even the Germans had had it.

Sailors and soldiers rebelled and Kaiser Wilhelm was dethroned.
The party was over.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/first_world_war/origins_conflict.htm

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