Reality is what comes and goes

Some people believe that there is a real reality
behind this everyday reality of constant change.
They believe that all this, which is constantly changing,
is an illusion, a mirage.
This is originally a Hindu idea.

I believe that the reality is always changing
and I believe that this changing reality is real.
Brahman is just a word to me
a mental concept.

However,
I have discovered that there are other dimensions
than this one.
I am not just the one I think I am
and the world does not work the way I think it works.
There are deeper levels in all of us.
To see this
was an awakening experience to me
a breakthrough.

I had, of course, read about the subconscious mind,
but I had not been able to put two and two together.
I couldn’t see that my conscious self, my ego, and all my ideas
were just a small part of me.

Today I am not shure of who I am
and I have no idea how this world is functioning.
Ten years ago I knew it all.
This is an important first step in the awakening process
as I see it.

Advaita Vedanta

The first person to explicitly consolidate the principles of Advaita Vedanta was Adi Shankara. (788 CE - 820 CE)

Shankara taught that access to Vedic texts, a prerequisite for liberation, should be restricted, in accordance with caste rules, to upper-caste Hindu males. He seems to have generally held that liberation can only be attained by a male renunciant of the Brahmin caste.

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

Things are not always what they seem to be.

Negative thoughts are not necessarily bad.
The idea that negative thoughts are bad
makes them only more terrible than they actually are.

And positive thoughts are not always something desirable.
Positive thinking can be a defense mechanism
a way to gloss over and escape the depths of human existence.

However, sometimes silly fart jokes and stupid stuff
are absolutely necessary,
and sometimes they are simply too much.

It is good to be critical, to some extent,
about oneself and the situation in the world.
It can motivate you to change
and realize that you have to do something.
The problem is when you drown in criticism.

Not even the now is real.

The past is a memory and the future is a fantasy.
Don’t forget that also the present now is a mental concoction.
What you perceive is first cooked in your subconscious mind.
Perceptions, preconceived ideas and beliefs,
some prejudices and a pinch of complete misunderstanding
is cooked up to a soup in almost no time.
This soup is what you are served as reality.

Thinking

Why bother about endangered species, carbon dioxide emissions, climate change and toxic waste? No species survive forever. Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.

Why bother about child labor, exploitation of poor people and injustice? Man is disturbed not by things but the views he takes of them.

Look for clever explanations. Be a wisecrack. Be like a surfer, wonderful, suntanned and witty.

Objectivity

Journalists and historians with right-wing views cannot be objective. The same is true, of course, for left-wing journalists or left wing historians. It would be better if they declared their views openly and didn’t play the game of objectivity or scientific accuracy. Journalism is never objective and history is not an objective science. Neutral, independent and objective people does not exist. We are all leaning left or right, forward or backward.

Biology is not an objective science either. A right-wing biologist will see the world through his right-wing glasses; and a left-wing biologist will see the world through his left-wing glasses. A right-wing biologist will emphasize competition and a left-wing biologist will emphasize cooperation.

It is indeed very difficult to look at things objectively.

Not even religion or “spirituality” is free from political bias. The Catholic Church and the different Protestant Churches have always supported the far right. We don’t have to wonder where we are with them. The problem is all the gurus and the spiritual teachers of today. Do they vote in the elections? Do they care about child labor and exploitation of poor people?

Many of the “spiritual people” believe that they don’t have a political view. This is a delusion. If they are voting in elections, they should declare whom they are voting for. And if they don’t vote, they should say so and give the reasons for it.

It is impossible, as I see it, to have no point of view.

“Racism is ok. White people are superior to the colored races.”
“It is ok to exploit small children in the third world in order to get very rich. This is how economic growth is created and growth is good. Greed is good.”
It is impossible to have no opinion about statements like these.
If you believe that these statements are wrong, you should be able to say so.

“Oh, I’m not siding with anybody. I don’t have an opinion. I’m above politics.”

If you had lived in Nottingham in the days of Robin Hood, would you have supported Robin Hood or the Sheriff of Nottingham?

“I would have taken care of my own business.”

And if Robin Hood would have needed your help, would you have helped him, or would you have helped the Sheriff’s men?

France and the Catholic Church were involved in the Rwandan genocide.

“At the end of 1950s, as decolonization swept through the African continent, king Mutara III and a group of his national council members vowed to initiate important reforms. In response to their demands for independence from colonial rule, the Belgian administration and the missionary church leadership adopted a new tactic: They shifted their support for from the Tutsi hierarchy to the Hutu elite and, in turn, blamed their divisive policies on the former. The Tutsi chiefs who had once been praised for their superiority and their natural born leadership qualities were now condemned as enemies of the Church and the white people and they were accused of being stranglers who had invaded the Hutu peoples land in order to exploit them. This colonial strategy sought to undercut the authority of the Tutsi, and, in doing so, position the Belgians as the true protectors of the Hutu people. Essentially, the colonial authorities, with the support of the Church played one group off of the other so that the real exploiters and invaders- the Belgian colonizers and white missionaries - could maintain their dominant position in Rwandan society.”
(The Catholic Church and the Nation-State page 176)

http://books.google.com/books?id=-8gqfwcbTaAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Catholic+Church+and+the+Nation-State&hl=sv&ei=z_MlTYXNE8vOswaSjfGiAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

France and the Catholic Church continued to support the Hutu regime also during and after the genocide 1994.

“In what was arguably the Rwandan bishop’s lowest moment, they published a letter in the April 1994 edition of the Osservatore Romano, which paid ‘tribute to the Rwandan Forces for taking security concerns to heart.’ Further, they expressed ‘their satisfaction at the institution of a new government ‘-The government that was using Hutus to kill Tutsis-’to which they promised their support. Finally, ‘they called upon all the Rwandans to ease the task of the new government by responding to their call favorably and help them achieve their mission.’ “

“Some priests and nuns were directly involved in the killings, while other members of the clergy acted as accomplices by gathering Tutsis into church buildings, where they were slaughtered. The Rwandan Church’s statements made no mention of the responsibility for these acts. To the contrary, the Church assisted those priests and nuns in finding safe havens in other countries to avoid facing trials in later years.”
(The Catholic Church and the Nation-State page 179-180)



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4481353.ece

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTWOIkX4N9k

http://www.afrol.com/Countries/Rwanda/backgr_cross_genocide.htm