Both spiritual and materialistic ways of looking at life are created in the thinking mind. Advaita-Vedanta, Marxism, Catholicism, Mahayana Buddhism and Empirical Positivism, delusions, explanations, great theories, political opinions, idiotic ideas, clever ideas, silly jokes, they are all creations of the thinking mind.
If the speech center of the brain is damaged by a hemorrhage, you’re no longer able to create explanations, theories and opinions. Hallucinations, dreams, daydreams, reveries and visions emanate from other parts of the brain. Anger and fear are created in the reptilian brain and love is created in the limbic system. So what? Why bother?
Where is the observing self or the sense of I located? It’s apparently not created in the speech center. Someone with a damaged speech center because of a brain hemorrhage will still wake up in the morning and feel that they are. To me it doesn’t matter. To me it’s not even particularly important if my sense of I is located in my brain or somewhere outside my body. I think that there are many much more important issues to be considered, for example: Where did I put my bike key? What shall I cook for supper? Should I drop my resentment towards Ms X though she is still full of shit? How shall I live my life?
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Right now
What you are experiencing as the present now, is actually something that happened a quarter of a second ago. The now has to be processed in the brain before you can experience it. This means that the now, the past and the future are made of the same stuff, neural activity.
If there had been no brain substance in the world there would have been be no present now. There would have been almost nothing at all, just dark, endless empty space, with a few electrons and quarks or strings here and there.
Such discoveries are useless, I think. What difference does it make to you if the world in reality consists of almost nothing? What difference does it make if it takes a quarter of a second to process sensory input or if the processing is instant?
What difference does it make if consciousness is created in the brain or somewhere else?
What difference does it make if the sense of I am is just a hallucination, some kind of weird mirage, or if it‘s the eternal soul?
Why do we fill our heads with so much irrelevant information? We are ruining this planet with our greed for more money. This is a fact. Our fantasies about what will happen to us when we die are of secondary importance. We strain gnats and swallow camels?
If there had been no brain substance in the world there would have been be no present now. There would have been almost nothing at all, just dark, endless empty space, with a few electrons and quarks or strings here and there.
Such discoveries are useless, I think. What difference does it make to you if the world in reality consists of almost nothing? What difference does it make if it takes a quarter of a second to process sensory input or if the processing is instant?
What difference does it make if consciousness is created in the brain or somewhere else?
What difference does it make if the sense of I am is just a hallucination, some kind of weird mirage, or if it‘s the eternal soul?
Why do we fill our heads with so much irrelevant information? We are ruining this planet with our greed for more money. This is a fact. Our fantasies about what will happen to us when we die are of secondary importance. We strain gnats and swallow camels?
What is the ego?
When we use the word ego in modern everyday language, we often mean the greedy, competing and selfish part of our mind. “He’s very egotistical. It’s his ego who controls him. It’s your ego who fabricates those explanations.”
The original Latin meaning of the word ego, however, was I. The word I was originally neutral. There was no valuation in it. “I am hungry. I am at home. I will meet you later.”
Freud used the word ego to denote the conscious executive part of our mind.
“To hell with wife and whining kids. I need to have some fun, not just endless harping and complaining. I shall go to the cabin over the weekend, with Monica. It’ll work out somehow with the money.” This is the ego’s voice.
“No, I’m not going to the cabin with Monica, even though she’s wonderful. I shall not cheat on my wife now when she’s going through all these things. I shall stay at home and play with the kids.” This is also the ego’s voice, as Freud used the word. Ego and selfishness was not the same thing to him.
Some people believe that ego is something bad which we have to get rid of, or that it will fall away, somehow, when we’re waking up. Others believe that a big strong ego is something good and that it’s important to strengthen it. They believe that a competitive ego is good in the struggle for a position in the hierarchy. In our modern societies many people are totally possessed by ego. In the old days, in the agricultural societies kids learned early that they could not have things their way.
Eckhart Tolle defines ego as the mistaken belief of who you are. You are not a miserable looser. You are not supposed to be pushing. These are ideas you have.
So, what is ego? What is it made of? What would happen if the ego disappeared? Which ego? What do you mean with the word ego? Are the ego and the observing self the same thing?
What is a memory? What does a memory consist of? Electric and chemical activities in the synapses? Isn’t it amazing that you remember who you are in the morning when you wake up?
Without an observer there would be no awareness of anything. Without an observing self nothing and nobody would exist. Nobody would be there to be aware of anything. From this point of view is the ego crucial.
Confusion arises when we use the same word in so many different ways.
The original Latin meaning of the word ego, however, was I. The word I was originally neutral. There was no valuation in it. “I am hungry. I am at home. I will meet you later.”
Freud used the word ego to denote the conscious executive part of our mind.
“To hell with wife and whining kids. I need to have some fun, not just endless harping and complaining. I shall go to the cabin over the weekend, with Monica. It’ll work out somehow with the money.” This is the ego’s voice.
“No, I’m not going to the cabin with Monica, even though she’s wonderful. I shall not cheat on my wife now when she’s going through all these things. I shall stay at home and play with the kids.” This is also the ego’s voice, as Freud used the word. Ego and selfishness was not the same thing to him.
Some people believe that ego is something bad which we have to get rid of, or that it will fall away, somehow, when we’re waking up. Others believe that a big strong ego is something good and that it’s important to strengthen it. They believe that a competitive ego is good in the struggle for a position in the hierarchy. In our modern societies many people are totally possessed by ego. In the old days, in the agricultural societies kids learned early that they could not have things their way.
Eckhart Tolle defines ego as the mistaken belief of who you are. You are not a miserable looser. You are not supposed to be pushing. These are ideas you have.
So, what is ego? What is it made of? What would happen if the ego disappeared? Which ego? What do you mean with the word ego? Are the ego and the observing self the same thing?
What is a memory? What does a memory consist of? Electric and chemical activities in the synapses? Isn’t it amazing that you remember who you are in the morning when you wake up?
Without an observer there would be no awareness of anything. Without an observing self nothing and nobody would exist. Nobody would be there to be aware of anything. From this point of view is the ego crucial.
Confusion arises when we use the same word in so many different ways.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Agnosticism
Life is so hard. There is so much suffering and pain here on earth. Is this fact not proof enough that there is no God, or at least not a good God? What kind of God would let small children die from torturous cancer? Is this fact not proof enough that there are no angels or other spiritual beings out there with the power to help us?
Life can’t be a school. Which school would torment their students in this way? Life can’t be a prison. Life is certainly not a party. However, how could the earth’s rocky crust turn into living matter? Isn‘t this strange?
Is it correct to say that the earth is nowadays thinking, dreaming, and wondering? Is it correct to say that the earth has created consciousness, or does this just sound contrived? How do you explain this? Which explanation is the best? What do you think?
Do you believe that God created the plants on the third day and all the animals on the fifth day? Do you believe that extraterrestrial beings came here and sowed life seeds some three billion years ago? Do you believe that cosmic consciousness existed long before the earth was formed and that this cosmic consciousness has somehow created the world? Do you believe that the world is but an illusion, a mirage created in our overheated minds?
Do you believe that life began with a very improbable coincidence? Do you believe that a cell was accidentally formed in the primordial soup, that this happened once, and that this magic has never happened again? Do you believe that all life forms stems from this cell?
Which is the correct explanation? What do you think? Which proof are you able to produce to support your theories? Aren't all explanations unproven theories created in the thinking mind? Aren’t all explanations fantasies or mental speculations? What can we do but inventing explanations to help us through the day?
Isn’t it better to say to a child with terminal cancer: “See you in heaven soon. Have fun with all the angels?” What can we do but create optimistic explanations?
No one would say: “Goodbye my child. We will never meet again. Your life here on earth was nothing but suffering and pain. And soon you’ll be gone forever. Soon they’ll burn you in an incinerator. There are no angels and there is no other side. These are just fantasies. These are just explanations, things we say to make life bearable” No one would say this even if it was true.
However, things change when you are able to understand that you don’t know anything at all about life and death. The world doesn’t work the way you think it works. The truth is that you have absolutely no idea what life is all about. All your explanations are nothing but explanations, words, misunderstandings, misapprehensions or ungrounded theories.
We simply can’t stop speculating. To speculate and come up with explanations is obviously in our nature. This urge to find explanations came when the evolution gave us a language.
It is so liberating to realize that our explanations and speculations have absolutely nothing to do with the true nature of things. Those who claim to know what life is all about are either lying or seriously deceived.
You can’t prove that God exist and you can’t prove that he doesn’t. You don’t know if life is a school or if it is a prison. You don’t know how life begun here on earth and you don’t know what will happen to you when you die.
Life can’t be a school. Which school would torment their students in this way? Life can’t be a prison. Life is certainly not a party. However, how could the earth’s rocky crust turn into living matter? Isn‘t this strange?
Is it correct to say that the earth is nowadays thinking, dreaming, and wondering? Is it correct to say that the earth has created consciousness, or does this just sound contrived? How do you explain this? Which explanation is the best? What do you think?
Do you believe that God created the plants on the third day and all the animals on the fifth day? Do you believe that extraterrestrial beings came here and sowed life seeds some three billion years ago? Do you believe that cosmic consciousness existed long before the earth was formed and that this cosmic consciousness has somehow created the world? Do you believe that the world is but an illusion, a mirage created in our overheated minds?
Do you believe that life began with a very improbable coincidence? Do you believe that a cell was accidentally formed in the primordial soup, that this happened once, and that this magic has never happened again? Do you believe that all life forms stems from this cell?
Which is the correct explanation? What do you think? Which proof are you able to produce to support your theories? Aren't all explanations unproven theories created in the thinking mind? Aren’t all explanations fantasies or mental speculations? What can we do but inventing explanations to help us through the day?
Isn’t it better to say to a child with terminal cancer: “See you in heaven soon. Have fun with all the angels?” What can we do but create optimistic explanations?
No one would say: “Goodbye my child. We will never meet again. Your life here on earth was nothing but suffering and pain. And soon you’ll be gone forever. Soon they’ll burn you in an incinerator. There are no angels and there is no other side. These are just fantasies. These are just explanations, things we say to make life bearable” No one would say this even if it was true.
However, things change when you are able to understand that you don’t know anything at all about life and death. The world doesn’t work the way you think it works. The truth is that you have absolutely no idea what life is all about. All your explanations are nothing but explanations, words, misunderstandings, misapprehensions or ungrounded theories.
We simply can’t stop speculating. To speculate and come up with explanations is obviously in our nature. This urge to find explanations came when the evolution gave us a language.
It is so liberating to realize that our explanations and speculations have absolutely nothing to do with the true nature of things. Those who claim to know what life is all about are either lying or seriously deceived.
You can’t prove that God exist and you can’t prove that he doesn’t. You don’t know if life is a school or if it is a prison. You don’t know how life begun here on earth and you don’t know what will happen to you when you die.
Friday, May 6, 2011
The now
Chimpanzees have no thinking mind. They don’t create religions or ideologies and they don’t worry about tomorrow. They live in the now.
Human beings have a thinking mind. We have a language. We talk and we think. We create theories. We invent religions and ideologies and we worry about the future. We are rarely in the here and now. We are almost always somewhere else.
Buddhist mindfullness meditation practice is about practicing being in the now. When the mind drifts off into the future or in to other dream worlds it is gently pulled back.
Eckhart Tolle claims that no meditation practice is necessary. The thinking mind simply calms down and falls silent after the awakening and there is nothing we can do in order to wake up. Awakening is spontaneous when the time is right. It’s like when we are waking up in the morning from a nightmare.
So the question is, is spiritual awakening about to silence the gibbering mind or is it that the mind becomes silent by itself? Is spiritual awakening to return to an animal way of looking at things, to be conscious without thoughts?
Human beings have a thinking mind. We have a language. We talk and we think. We create theories. We invent religions and ideologies and we worry about the future. We are rarely in the here and now. We are almost always somewhere else.
Buddhist mindfullness meditation practice is about practicing being in the now. When the mind drifts off into the future or in to other dream worlds it is gently pulled back.
Eckhart Tolle claims that no meditation practice is necessary. The thinking mind simply calms down and falls silent after the awakening and there is nothing we can do in order to wake up. Awakening is spontaneous when the time is right. It’s like when we are waking up in the morning from a nightmare.
So the question is, is spiritual awakening about to silence the gibbering mind or is it that the mind becomes silent by itself? Is spiritual awakening to return to an animal way of looking at things, to be conscious without thoughts?
Saturday, April 9, 2011
“If God does not exist everything is permitted.”
Inquisition trials and torture cambers.
Witch hunts.
Dreadful religious war.
Slave trade and colonialism.
Repression of women and children.
Child abuse.
Child spanking.
Oppression.
Support of oppressors, dictators and greedy capitalists.
Hypocrisy.
Lies.
Witch hunts.
Dreadful religious war.
Slave trade and colonialism.
Repression of women and children.
Child abuse.
Child spanking.
Oppression.
Support of oppressors, dictators and greedy capitalists.
Hypocrisy.
Lies.
Monday, April 4, 2011
God
Who or what is God, do you think? Is he like a father or is she like a mother? And what kind of father is he like, if he’s like a father? Is he like a drunkard or is he like a psychopathic CEO?
What kind of person is he? Is he like a mad and hard-to-please dictator? Is he made out of imagination? Is he made out of flesh and blood or is he made out of spirit?
What is spirit? What does spirit consist of? What do you think? Is spirit made out of the same substance as imagination or fantasy?
When you look at all the suffering in the world, do you think of it as created by a good God for some kind of weird reason?
And what kind of mother is she like, if she's like a mother, is she like the goddess Kali or is she more like Margaret Thatcher? What do you think?
And if you don’t believe in God, what kind of God is it that you don’t believe in, a God made out of spirit or a God made out of flesh and blood?
There are so many different ideas about who or what God is. What do you think? Remember that only your thoughts are real.
What kind of person is he? Is he like a mad and hard-to-please dictator? Is he made out of imagination? Is he made out of flesh and blood or is he made out of spirit?
What is spirit? What does spirit consist of? What do you think? Is spirit made out of the same substance as imagination or fantasy?
When you look at all the suffering in the world, do you think of it as created by a good God for some kind of weird reason?
And what kind of mother is she like, if she's like a mother, is she like the goddess Kali or is she more like Margaret Thatcher? What do you think?
And if you don’t believe in God, what kind of God is it that you don’t believe in, a God made out of spirit or a God made out of flesh and blood?
There are so many different ideas about who or what God is. What do you think? Remember that only your thoughts are real.
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