Sunday, March 30, 2008
I'm not sure if I agree with Eckhart to 100%. This is my idea of ego:
A man without an ego is like a car without a driver. The driver can be drunk or crazy or full of hatred, but he can also be reasonably relaxed. The ego is nothing you can get rid of, but it is possible to calm down. It is possible to realize that most thoughts, opinions, beliefs, likes and dislikes are nothing but misapprehensions.
Yes, the ego might be a bunch of conditioned responses and in a sense an optical illusion but still, what would you be without it? Where would you go? Would you like to stay in bed for the rest of your life? Someone has to drive the car. Someone has to pick up the kids from school and buy groceries or whatever.
The delusions are like a manuscript to a tragedy. We have always been driven by delusions. When we wake up and realize that the delusions was nothing but delusions, that the play was just a play, we get disillusioned. What will now take us anywhere? Who will now come up with new ideas and make up new plans? I think we need to realize that we need the ego, it may be an illusory ego, it may have been conditioned in a dysfunctional family in a dysfunctional culture, but without it we have nothing. We need the delusions, the matter is what delusions and what manuscripts.
The play is over. We are leaving the theater and stream out to the streets. Tomorrow we are back to work again, caught up in traffic jams and worries about bills we need to pay and lazy workmates. This is life as it is. Welcome to the reality.
*
What if we blow this little planet to pieces in a nuclear war.
What would the reality be like if no one was there to perceive it? There wouldn’t be any colors and not any sounds. It wouldn’t be hot or cold, good or bad. Just an endless empty space without any quality at all. Isn’t that an interesting thought? We are creating this world with our senses.
*
The voice in my head can sometimes be immensely nagging, going on and on about something; sometimes like a nagging mother, sometimes like a wino in a commuter train. Shut up for Christ’s sake, I want to get lost in my book! Yap,yap,yap…
What the hell to do? How do you deal with a nagging inner voice? How do you deal with talkative winos in commuter trains when you want to read your book in peace?
A man without an ego is like a car without a driver. The driver can be drunk or crazy or full of hatred, but he can also be reasonably relaxed. The ego is nothing you can get rid of, but it is possible to calm down. It is possible to realize that most thoughts, opinions, beliefs, likes and dislikes are nothing but misapprehensions.
Yes, the ego might be a bunch of conditioned responses and in a sense an optical illusion but still, what would you be without it? Where would you go? Would you like to stay in bed for the rest of your life? Someone has to drive the car. Someone has to pick up the kids from school and buy groceries or whatever.
The delusions are like a manuscript to a tragedy. We have always been driven by delusions. When we wake up and realize that the delusions was nothing but delusions, that the play was just a play, we get disillusioned. What will now take us anywhere? Who will now come up with new ideas and make up new plans? I think we need to realize that we need the ego, it may be an illusory ego, it may have been conditioned in a dysfunctional family in a dysfunctional culture, but without it we have nothing. We need the delusions, the matter is what delusions and what manuscripts.
The play is over. We are leaving the theater and stream out to the streets. Tomorrow we are back to work again, caught up in traffic jams and worries about bills we need to pay and lazy workmates. This is life as it is. Welcome to the reality.
*
What if we blow this little planet to pieces in a nuclear war.
What would the reality be like if no one was there to perceive it? There wouldn’t be any colors and not any sounds. It wouldn’t be hot or cold, good or bad. Just an endless empty space without any quality at all. Isn’t that an interesting thought? We are creating this world with our senses.
*
The voice in my head can sometimes be immensely nagging, going on and on about something; sometimes like a nagging mother, sometimes like a wino in a commuter train. Shut up for Christ’s sake, I want to get lost in my book! Yap,yap,yap…
What the hell to do? How do you deal with a nagging inner voice? How do you deal with talkative winos in commuter trains when you want to read your book in peace?
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Many people go to Thailand for a two week holiday trip, also many families. It is a wonderful country. The Thai people are nice and friendly, the climate is pleasant and the beeches are excellent.
But the family tourists are rarely aware of the Thai prostitution industry. They don’t know that children are sold to western weirdo’s and they don't know about the extent of that business. Their level of awareness is often very low. They don’t see anything; they don’t hear anything, so they don’t have anything to say about it. They are happy. They are charging their batteries.
Most people are not aware of the fact that the chocolate they enjoy so much is produced by slaves in West Africa. Kids are kidnapped and forced to work in the cocoa plantations. Slavery never came to an end. I read recently that about 27 million people are kept as slaves in the world today.
Many people are not aware of that the clothes they wear and the toys their kids play with are made by children that work under horrible conditions in Asian sweat shops.Also adults are forced to work under horrible slavery like conditions.
Well, we're happy to get good bargains and in order to stay happy we have to make ourselves unaware. We have to numb ourselves. Alcohol, drugs, endless TV nights, anything goes; exercise, dieting, hobbies. Why not try gardening? And if nothing else works we have to construct rationalizations. "It is good for them to find employment, isn't it? Otherwise they would starve. They should be thankful to us."
Why do I bring this up? Doesn’t all the horrors belong to the old world? Why not simply leave the old world behind and wake up to a new world? Yes, why not! It is a brand new day today.
But the family tourists are rarely aware of the Thai prostitution industry. They don’t know that children are sold to western weirdo’s and they don't know about the extent of that business. Their level of awareness is often very low. They don’t see anything; they don’t hear anything, so they don’t have anything to say about it. They are happy. They are charging their batteries.
Most people are not aware of the fact that the chocolate they enjoy so much is produced by slaves in West Africa. Kids are kidnapped and forced to work in the cocoa plantations. Slavery never came to an end. I read recently that about 27 million people are kept as slaves in the world today.
Many people are not aware of that the clothes they wear and the toys their kids play with are made by children that work under horrible conditions in Asian sweat shops.Also adults are forced to work under horrible slavery like conditions.
Well, we're happy to get good bargains and in order to stay happy we have to make ourselves unaware. We have to numb ourselves. Alcohol, drugs, endless TV nights, anything goes; exercise, dieting, hobbies. Why not try gardening? And if nothing else works we have to construct rationalizations. "It is good for them to find employment, isn't it? Otherwise they would starve. They should be thankful to us."
Why do I bring this up? Doesn’t all the horrors belong to the old world? Why not simply leave the old world behind and wake up to a new world? Yes, why not! It is a brand new day today.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Human beings are created with a free will. If the free will is not used it will atrophy, like muscles. Muscles that are not used begin to atrophy within a few weeks, for example when a leg is in a cast.
This applies also to attention and awareness. If you are habitually inattentive and unaware you will lose those abilities. And you might lose them for good. It is terrible. You might end up in mire for the rest of your life.
Christians are deeply convinced that Hindus say their prayers to illusory Gods. Muslims believe that the Gods animists pray to are but fantasies. Most people believe that people of other faiths are misled. Introverted people think that extroverted people try to escape reality and extroverted people think the same about the introverted. Right wingers think that left wingers are jerks. Everybody seems to know everything. Isn’t it amazing? Not many people say that they really don’t have a clue about anything.
What if the God you pray to doesn't exist!
What if also you have got it all wrong.
What if also you have been deceived and misguided.
You don’t tell all the details to a child about how grandmother died. You don’t tell about what happened when you had to kill the cat. You just say: “Grandmother and the cat have gone to heaven now.”
It makes things easier.
This applies also to attention and awareness. If you are habitually inattentive and unaware you will lose those abilities. And you might lose them for good. It is terrible. You might end up in mire for the rest of your life.
Christians are deeply convinced that Hindus say their prayers to illusory Gods. Muslims believe that the Gods animists pray to are but fantasies. Most people believe that people of other faiths are misled. Introverted people think that extroverted people try to escape reality and extroverted people think the same about the introverted. Right wingers think that left wingers are jerks. Everybody seems to know everything. Isn’t it amazing? Not many people say that they really don’t have a clue about anything.
What if the God you pray to doesn't exist!
What if also you have got it all wrong.
What if also you have been deceived and misguided.
You don’t tell all the details to a child about how grandmother died. You don’t tell about what happened when you had to kill the cat. You just say: “Grandmother and the cat have gone to heaven now.”
It makes things easier.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Historians know of about 22 000 different kinds of Christian faiths. Isn’t it amazing? 22 000 different interpretations of the same book! But how many different kinds of Hinduism and how many different kinds of Buddhism is it possible to find. And how many different psychological and philosophical schools do we have? And how many different political viewpoints? Where do we get it all from? Where is the source? Is it possible to find anything that we all can agree about?
Have you noticed that whatever book you read the author seem to know it all. He or she has found it. How can it be that so many people out there have found all the answers? And how do you explain that so many of them arrive at completely different conclusions and point in different directions?
2+2=3 2+2=9 2+2=63 2+2=15 2+2=78 2+2=12 2+2=3 2+2=22
Have you noticed that whatever book you read the author seem to know it all. He or she has found it. How can it be that so many people out there have found all the answers? And how do you explain that so many of them arrive at completely different conclusions and point in different directions?
2+2=3 2+2=9 2+2=63 2+2=15 2+2=78 2+2=12 2+2=3 2+2=22
Monday, March 24, 2008
If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
I hereby solemnly declare that I now have stopped my digging.
I have dug in the same clay hole for opals for at least forty years, but I have never had much success with it. OK, I have found a few opals, but only small ones and not very good ones. So, now it is over. I have now given up that trade. I have finally realized that I will never find, down in that hole, the opal that can change my life.
I will now take a bath to clean off the mud and put some clean clothes on and go in to town, as a new man.
I hereby solemnly declare that I now have stopped my digging.
I have dug in the same clay hole for opals for at least forty years, but I have never had much success with it. OK, I have found a few opals, but only small ones and not very good ones. So, now it is over. I have now given up that trade. I have finally realized that I will never find, down in that hole, the opal that can change my life.
I will now take a bath to clean off the mud and put some clean clothes on and go in to town, as a new man.
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