Hold on

What do you refuse to give up? Do you refuse to give up alcohol or cigarettes? Do you refuse to understand why she left you for someone else? Do you refuse to realize that you will never become a rock star?

What’s your issue?

What outdated political belief system do you still hold on to, nazism, communism or neo-liberalism? Are you still on a hippie trip or do you keep on playing your old cassettes from 1983?

What outdated religious belief system are you unable to drop? Do you still hold on to the idea that the earth is flat? Do you still believe in astrology? Do you still believe that you will go to heaven when you die?

Hypocrites

Some people think that they are good Christians, but they are not. They deceive their own hearts. They store up treasures for themselves on earth, where moth and rust destroy. They worry about tomorrow. They don’t turn the other cheek. They are eager to throw the first stone. They don’t do to others as they want others to treat them. They sound trumpets when they give alms to the poor. They love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. They don’t practice any of the teachings in the New Testament.

Positive thinking

Some people don’t know that they have a negative outlook on life. They think that they are positive and cheerful. They have played the ‘car salesman with a big smile’ roll for so many years that they have forgotten that they don’t believe in love and friendship. They don’t believe in equality. They don’t believe that it is important to try to make this world a better place. They don’t want to share. They don’t want to stop exploitation of nature, animals and other people. They believe that life is about to eat or be eaten, nothing else. They have no other desires in life, but more money. They say, “You have to be positive. You have to believe in yourself. You can also become rich and successful, like me, if you put your back to it.”

Learned blindness

Many people in Germany said, after the second world war, that they never knew what was going on in the concentration camps. They never knew what was going on in eastern Europe. They never knew of any horrors.

Today many people don’t know that we are ruining our planet. (How is this possible?) They don’t know about the man made climate change and what deforestation leads to. They don’t know where the nuclear waste, toxic waste and insecticides end up. They say. “There are so many negative losers out there. Don't worry. Try to be more positive. Science and private enterprise will solve the problems.”

Well, many people know that our way of living is unsustainable but they don’t want to live in an environmentally friendly way. They prefer to use a private car instead of public transportation, and they prefer to travel by air instead of trains. They prefer to eat cheap pork from factory farms. They are like nicotine addicts who know very well that smoking is harmful and causes cancer but they keep on smoking anyway.

 

Ego

Ego is like a dog that refuses to let go of his bone.

Ego is like a bored upper class bitch. "I want this. I want that.
I’m desperate for some fun." Nothing is good enough.

Ego is like an inner taskmaster, or perhaps, an inner dance teacher.
She is so hard to please.

Ego is like a very, very prominent scholar, a pompous piece of shit.

Ego has so many different guises.

Ego wants to have the best seat. Ego wants to win and to be right.
Ego wants to have the last laugh. Ego wants to be a moral roll model.

Many people don’t know that they can observe their own ego in action.
In fact, they don’t even know that they have an ego.
They believe that their ego is their true self.

Anyway, you can observe your ego. You can, at least sometimes, see clearly how stupid and selfish you are. This part of you, which is observing your selfishness, is this part, also a part of ego, or is this a separate entity? If so, should this part also have a name? Is this observing self the true self? What do you think?

Ego is pulling the strings. Ego makes you say and do things you’ll later regret. What do you do when your ego is just too much, when he is about to ruin your life?

You can’t lock him up in the basement. You can’t send him to a mental hospital and forget about him. You can’t speak to him, with a soft voice, like a social worker
to make him change his ways. It doesn’t work. He won’t listen.

Here is a piece of good advice. Let him be. Don’t try to change him. Accept him for what he is. He will calm down and go back to bed soon, sulking. If he is very stupid, you can use another strategy: try to make him even a more stupid. I’m not kidding. Make him into the most selfish jerk you can imagine, like Donald Duck, Oliver Hardy.

I have this idea from Russ Harris book the Happiness Trap. And it works, sometimes.

Ego will, of course, continue to be as stupid as always, but he will loose some of his power when you are able to laugh at yourself, goodheartedly, or if you are able to observe your self, when you are able to see for yourself that you are not your ego.

Sometimes, though, it is very important to listen to your ego. The ego cannot always be dismissed. Sometimes he is right. If you don’t listen to your ego when he is right, you will also create problems for yourself. The important point is that your ego is your servant, not your master.

The sky is blue

The YouTube gurus have a lot to say. However, I think what they don't say is more interesting.

They never talk about the exploitation of nature, people, and animals. They never talk about injustice, hypocrisy, and greed. They never talk about how the capitalist system is ruining our planet. They never mention that the super rich ought to share their obscene wealth with all those who are starving.

They talk about the now. They can talk about the now for hours.

Imagine I discovered the sky is blue and began giving talks about it. Imagine I arranged workshops to teach people how to discover the sky's blueness. Imagine I even wrote a book about it. Wouldn't that be somewhat silly?