Thoughts and ideas are not particularly important—except those that affect your actions and decisions, thoughts that make you stay or make you go, or make you vote for Tweedledum or Tweedledee.
Some thoughts and ideas are critical; they can change your life. They may make you jump off the bandwagon or jump on another. The idea that thoughts must be silenced or ignored is wrong. Meditation and being in the present now do not necessarily lead to awakening.
The moment you realize you have been fooled is an awakening of sorts. This form of awakening is not a pleasant experience. You feel like an idiot.
Deception has many faces. You can be deceived by your partner, parents, best friend, salespeople, mainstream and social media, politicians, gurus, and religious leaders. You can also be deceived by yourself and your ideas about who you are and how the world works.
Before awakening, you may feel great or depressed, wise or stupid, but after, you always feel like an idiot. ”How could I let myself be deceived like that?”
The world will spend more than $2,500 billion on arms in 2024. We must defend ourselves against each other; we cannot afford to invest in a green energy transition. The top priority is to accommodate defense production needs.
The US and its NATO allies are at war with Russia in Ukraine. After this war, they have to take on Iran and China. Israel is trying to get rid of the Palestinians, and in Africa, there are numerous tribal wars.
Humankind does not have a future; we're doomed: climate collapse or nuclear war armageddon. However, this insight is not helpful. If we want to spend the final years at peace with ourselves, it is much better to be optimistic and listen to fairy tales with a happy ending.
And if most people understood how dire the situation is and where we are heading, our economy would collapse right now. We wouldn't bother to work hard to save money for our pensions.
There are around 4000 different religions in the world today, and there have been many, many more throughout history. There are also many different political ideologies. People with all these various religions and ideologies are at odds with each other, which results in wars and hostility.
There are also many different private belief systems. And all people are convinced that they have it right.
Some people are convinced that they are superior to you, and some are convinced that they are inferior. Some worship the golden calf, and some worship baloney.
Pluralism is the idea that everyone must be accepted in society regardless of their beliefs. However, we can only become close friends if our beliefs are similar. Then, we belong to the same tribe.
Romeo and Juliet came from two feuding families. Their love story did not end well. Love is not a force strong enough to win over bigotry.
What part of you is going to heaven when you die, do you think? And, if you are a Hindu, what part of you is reincarnating? What part of you is coming back here? Do some of your memories survive? If so, how could that be?
Buddhists believe that the soul is an illusion. They think that it is only your actions that are somehow reincarnating.
Materialists and physicalists don't believe in reincarnation, and they don't think there is any heaven or hell. They believe that no part of you lives on after death.
How do you explain that people of different religious faiths interpret their Near Death Experience differently?
The kingdom of heaven is within you, not among you. It is located somewhere deep down in your unconscious mind.
The kingdom of hell is also in there somewhere.
What would the world look like if no one was there to see it? The real world, the thing-in-itself, consists of nothing to more than 99,9% – space between the atom's nucleus and the electrons.
The phenomenal world—the sun, the moon, and the stars—is created in our brains. So are the birds, the fish, you and me, everything.
My mind, your mind, and everybody else's minds are the same mind. The mind is where the mystery unfolds.
Within or without, inside or outside, are just words.
B: Where is your information coming from? Have you ever been to the kingdom of heaven? Are you speculating or fantasizing?
Hinduism is only for the higher castes, the Priests, the Nobilities, and the Merchants. The employed can go and fuck themselves. Christianity was originally for the poor, fishermen, and outcasts, but it became appropriated by the higher classes for some incomprehensible reason.
The Upanishads, Vedanta, Advaita Vedanta, Yoga, and the Bhagavad Gita are only for the upper classes. If you are a low-caste Indian or a Western working-class seeker of spiritual truths, you should look somewhere else. The idea that you can be more fortunate in your next life and become a priest or a warrior is silly.
