Different topic for once.
So I've gotten kinda bored with my journal being constantly filled with me lamenting about my romantic situation, so I've decided to share some semi-philosophical thoughts with you.
I'm currently reading this book entitled "Wenn du Buddha triffst, töte ihn! : Ein Selbstversuch" by Andreas Altmann, which literally translates into "If you meet Buddha, kill him!: An experiment on oneself". So this guy, a critical, atheist writer is looking for a way to live his life better, a happier life, without becoming more brutal, more callous with every passing day and all the misery and violence all around us. He isn't a whiny society-criticicizing person, don't get me wrong- he's basically a guy looking for a way to master his life better, who is afraid of gradually losing his ability to empathize with himself and other people (which is something I can relate to, personally).
Anyway, this guy went to India into a- for lack of better term, 'meditation training camp'. A place you don't have to pay, but where you stay for ten days, give up all you stuff such as cell phones, books, PCs etc and aren't supposed to talk to the other applicants. Instead you meditate for ten hours a day, the goal being to confront and find yourself. And there is nothing that can distract you, obviously. Though you are free to leave whenever you want, it isn't a boot-camp or anything. Just a place that is supposed to help you, if you want.
I'm not quite done yet, just started on the third day, but it already got me thinking. In a way, meditation seems to be portrayed by the author (or rather some of the characters from his book) as a kind of al round solution. Not that I'm against meditation, don't get me wrong, I'm sure it works, but I always rebel against absolute solutions.
See, I was traveling today, which is why I still have the train station in mind: So many different people. As in, completely different, each one of them unique, with an own, private story, own thoughts, own emotions, own internal psychological structures- you usually encounter 'normal' people in everyday life, people who dress normal and talk like you, but people who are sometimes considered the "dregs" of society, people with piercings everywhere, poor people, rich people, people who wear stuff completely different to what you would ever wear, people with disabilities, drug addicts or mentally ill people- there are those who you can just look in the eye and just KNOW, with absolute certainty, that they live in a reality that is vastly different from yours. A different world.
(Frankly and very obviously, I find this topic fascinating, but on with my story)
Point being, what applies to one person may be wrong for another. Some may have to meditate, by sitting hours on end and concentrating on their respiration. Others may be obsessive runners, maybe some achieve depth and clarity through writing- hell, I don't know! All I know is that I'm not sure I would want to subject myself to such a therapy.
Another aspect the author loves to discuss is religion. To be short, he despises it because it makes people stupid and irresponsible. Which I couldn't agree more with. When he talks about Hinduism, he also mentions the aspect of reincarnation and rejects it, by saying things such as "we only have this one life and we should live it to the fullest".
This perception unsettles me, because I have grown to believe that there is something after death and reincarnation somehow makes sense to me. When I look around, I see circles everywhere- wherever its the season, the famous Circle Of Life, the nutrient cycles, the way the Earth revolves around the sun and the galaxies revolve around another- it just feels right to assume that we will return to our current status as living organisms at one point of the cycle we must be part of.
And that makes me feel better. Not necessarily about myself, since my life is kind of perfect, but if you see how many people suffer, it hurts me to think that that was it for them- a few years of hunger, torment and misery, that's all they got. Also, what about those newborns who die shortly after they were born? Was that it for those potential little persons? I refuse to believe that.
When it comes to the sense of life, why we are here... I guess I kind of believe that we are worked for something. We change throughout our lives, and we should.
I believe in God, though not in any religious sense more as in a kind of- source. If you believe we have a soul, which I do, then it most come from somewhere. Maybe God is some kind of soul-pool, a "place" where all that we are some from and to which we return someday.
As in, God is the ocean and we are tiny little waterdrops, that are born when the evaporate into the air, are clouds and fall from the sky at some point- some of us as rain, others as snow, others hang around as mist- but we all return into the ocean one day.
But maybe we have to be something to get back, you know? Be kind of- pure, maybe? Or loving? I don't know- this is the wildest speculation, I haven't found an answer that satisfies me yet- and we go round and round, are born again and again until we are what we have to be and return to the ocean we came from. And be "we" and "I" I mean the soul, not the body.
So my rant took the long route and ends in the middle of nowhere, but I don't wanna write anymore. Just in case anyone is interested in this stuff.
I'm currently reading this book entitled "Wenn du Buddha triffst, töte ihn! : Ein Selbstversuch" by Andreas Altmann, which literally translates into "If you meet Buddha, kill him!: An experiment on oneself". So this guy, a critical, atheist writer is looking for a way to live his life better, a happier life, without becoming more brutal, more callous with every passing day and all the misery and violence all around us. He isn't a whiny society-criticicizing person, don't get me wrong- he's basically a guy looking for a way to master his life better, who is afraid of gradually losing his ability to empathize with himself and other people (which is something I can relate to, personally).
Anyway, this guy went to India into a- for lack of better term, 'meditation training camp'. A place you don't have to pay, but where you stay for ten days, give up all you stuff such as cell phones, books, PCs etc and aren't supposed to talk to the other applicants. Instead you meditate for ten hours a day, the goal being to confront and find yourself. And there is nothing that can distract you, obviously. Though you are free to leave whenever you want, it isn't a boot-camp or anything. Just a place that is supposed to help you, if you want.
I'm not quite done yet, just started on the third day, but it already got me thinking. In a way, meditation seems to be portrayed by the author (or rather some of the characters from his book) as a kind of al round solution. Not that I'm against meditation, don't get me wrong, I'm sure it works, but I always rebel against absolute solutions.
See, I was traveling today, which is why I still have the train station in mind: So many different people. As in, completely different, each one of them unique, with an own, private story, own thoughts, own emotions, own internal psychological structures- you usually encounter 'normal' people in everyday life, people who dress normal and talk like you, but people who are sometimes considered the "dregs" of society, people with piercings everywhere, poor people, rich people, people who wear stuff completely different to what you would ever wear, people with disabilities, drug addicts or mentally ill people- there are those who you can just look in the eye and just KNOW, with absolute certainty, that they live in a reality that is vastly different from yours. A different world.
(Frankly and very obviously, I find this topic fascinating, but on with my story)
Point being, what applies to one person may be wrong for another. Some may have to meditate, by sitting hours on end and concentrating on their respiration. Others may be obsessive runners, maybe some achieve depth and clarity through writing- hell, I don't know! All I know is that I'm not sure I would want to subject myself to such a therapy.
Another aspect the author loves to discuss is religion. To be short, he despises it because it makes people stupid and irresponsible. Which I couldn't agree more with. When he talks about Hinduism, he also mentions the aspect of reincarnation and rejects it, by saying things such as "we only have this one life and we should live it to the fullest".
This perception unsettles me, because I have grown to believe that there is something after death and reincarnation somehow makes sense to me. When I look around, I see circles everywhere- wherever its the season, the famous Circle Of Life, the nutrient cycles, the way the Earth revolves around the sun and the galaxies revolve around another- it just feels right to assume that we will return to our current status as living organisms at one point of the cycle we must be part of.
And that makes me feel better. Not necessarily about myself, since my life is kind of perfect, but if you see how many people suffer, it hurts me to think that that was it for them- a few years of hunger, torment and misery, that's all they got. Also, what about those newborns who die shortly after they were born? Was that it for those potential little persons? I refuse to believe that.
When it comes to the sense of life, why we are here... I guess I kind of believe that we are worked for something. We change throughout our lives, and we should.
I believe in God, though not in any religious sense more as in a kind of- source. If you believe we have a soul, which I do, then it most come from somewhere. Maybe God is some kind of soul-pool, a "place" where all that we are some from and to which we return someday.
As in, God is the ocean and we are tiny little waterdrops, that are born when the evaporate into the air, are clouds and fall from the sky at some point- some of us as rain, others as snow, others hang around as mist- but we all return into the ocean one day.
But maybe we have to be something to get back, you know? Be kind of- pure, maybe? Or loving? I don't know- this is the wildest speculation, I haven't found an answer that satisfies me yet- and we go round and round, are born again and again until we are what we have to be and return to the ocean we came from. And be "we" and "I" I mean the soul, not the body.
So my rant took the long route and ends in the middle of nowhere, but I don't wanna write anymore. Just in case anyone is interested in this stuff.