Aleppo and Neanderthals

Syria is burning, Aleppo is bombed.
So many people killed.
So many suffering.

But the war will come to an end.

We actually live in a quite peaceful time.
When we read the news we might not think so, but the big picture is quite bright.

Stephen Pinker explains this;

To be mindful is to look at the big picture.
As Nobel price winner, Daniel Kahneman, puts it; think slow.

Our gut- feelings are often misleading - they lead to fast thinking, fast actions.

In mindfulness you will learn to not always follow your thoughts.

You can let them pass as clouds on the sky.
It's even more important when we are angry or depressed.

Just focus on the breast for a while, just in some minutes the thoughts and feelings can change.

We are influenced by our ancestors by the DNA. Scientist has found out that people that have some more DNA from the Neanderthals in their bodies, often are more depressed. All of us, except Africans, contains some percent of Neanderthal- DNA.

So if we are depressed it can  be "Neanderthal-thoughts" that we are listening to!

But for sure, if we wait a second or two, other thoughts will come.

Neanderthals could not send money to UNHCR - to help the refugees.

But as modern beings we know that we are connected to the whole humanity.

We suffer when people suffer in Syria. We can no longer hide from the rest of the world.

But if we have the ability to donate we will suffer less.
Here is one way:
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cora Diamond on eating animals - with the help of Wittgenstein´s ideas

Image
Cora Diamond is a new name for me, even if she has worked as a professor in Philosophy in the states for a long time and is still  teaching at the university of Virginia, even she is over 80 years old. She has written a lot about Wittgenstein and that has helped her to express her view of the topic. Although she, like Wittgenstein,  has lived in a hut in Norway - and actually brought Tractatus with hes - she seems to be different and for sure more glad than W. Anyways, its W: s writings that interests her and especially his critics of metaphysics and ethics in philosophy. As it is said in Tractacus  : " Whereof one  cannot speak , thereof one must be silent." And of ethics philosophy should not speak - why? Is it like in Buddhism - its better to sit in silence and let know yourself, than to speculate about what will happen when we die? But for sure there ethical guidelines in Buddhism,  but the behaviors is often named skilful, not good (or bad). Another
Read more

I think, therefore I am NOT

Image
So Descartes was wrong. He said that he could doubt everything about himself except that he was thinking. That proved that he existed. The word "I" is the central point here. What does it mean? Perhaps we are sure that we know the answer. Is it the thoughts? In that case - where are you when you aren't thinking? Is it your job, your title? In that case - what happens if you loose your job or change job? Is it your house, your nation? Under my course to be a mindfulness instructor, the teacher, Ola Schenström, made us ask to each other; "Who are you?" After each answer the question was repeated by the questioner.We soon discovered that there were no end to the answers - or maybe an adequate end could be; "I don't know."Or maybe; "It seems I have no essence." Other thinkers have come to the same conclusions; Buddha, Sartre and more recently Damasio and Parfit. Sartre, for instance, has said that we are the sum of our actions. We ha
Read more

Wittgenstein and Buddha -buddies?

Image
Ludwig Wittgenstein, the famous philosopher, reflected in the posthumously published  book "Philosophical Investigations" about the picture above; Is it a hare or duck?  He meant that we make, or must make, a statement what it is. And I suppose he meant that we often or always has to interpret the world around us. But two different interpretations can both be right! Language and thoughts controls what we see.....   You can compare with the picture of a glass. Half empty or half empty?  Who decides? Yes, it's you... And whatever you say is right.  But you can be aware of what you think. That can say more of yourself than of the glass....  You can be aware of that you always do interpretations of things that happens.  If you have a pessimistic or a naive point of view, you can be aware of the view and your statements.  Buddha and Wittgenstein were both aware of that different persons uses different perspectives.  But Buddha spoke about the "right 
Read more