mindfulness

You may have heard of the anthroposophic reason why the universe is shaped the way it is: It's because we are here! The universe wanted us to be here, so it was shaped to make us humans to appear... Why not? If you are religious you may think that God created the laws that in the end created us. "In the beginning God created..." Or it may be that we are created by algorithms that was created by... what? That's anyway a anthroposophic claims. The anthropic reason why we are here is that the universe was created to produce life or maybe consciousness. As somebody has said; even a sun may have some consciousness and maybe a galaxy may have it. (with another relation to time - maybe it takes a year for a galaxy  to say hello.... ;~) The third reason may be chance; there are so many multiverses out there, so one of them must be suited for life. Or we may say; one of them must be suited for complex things as the human brain. We may never know, though some ph...

Qualia is an interesting word. Its interpretation is not so clear. But usually its described as the subjective consciousness experience. That is what we all have but what is quite difficult to share. For example the colour blue, how can we explain it for another person? And if we point to a blue dress and the other person says; no, that's a black dress? (that has happened to me...) Actually qualia has never been proven as a fact. But we all now that it exists. On of the Royal academies in Sweden has a big crisis. Its the one that choose the winner of the Nobel prize in literature. Last time it was a surprised Bob Dylan who got the price. Many criticized the  academy to give price to a singer songwriter, while others applauded it. Anyway the head of the academy was a woman, Sarah Danius, until recent days. Now she had leaved the place because of big quarrels in the group. Actually three other members that supported Danius has leaved. And the people left are accused of bei...

I know, you shouldn't mix up the quantum world with "our" world. But Rovelli, the theoretical physicists, seems to do it. He anyway describes the quantum world in this way; "Quantum mechanism teaches us not ti think about the world in terms of `things` which are in this or that state but in terms of `processes`instead. A process is the passage from one interaction to another. The properties of  `things`manifest themselves in a granular manner only in the moment of interaction, that is to say, at the edges of the processes and are such only in relation to other things.....an electron is nowhere when it is not interacting" (from the book Reality is not what it seems) Yesterday I met five monastics in the Buddhist tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. They gave us lay people meditations and we shared some questions to them. In the eyes of Rovelli and Buddha, we all interacted, even when we meditated. Maybe some of us lay people meditated in a deeper way than som...

Is Roger right? Well he for sure believe he is... " Believe in whatever is good for you". That is a common advice in a postmodern time. It's a very broad view, and a relativistic one. Let people believe in what they want,  don't argue.  Even Buddha had that advice; dont be hooked on a view.  But he even meant; don't stick to anything, not even to yourself. I guess that in the light of reincarnation.  Let's say that there no right view... Anyway no one that we can discover.  It's probably good to have many views or perspectives. Will that not be like schizophrenia?  Well not if you don't have many of them at the same time.  But who would trust you?  Maybe its a view to be compassionate.  It seems that that behavior make you glad.  But will it make you survive?  Is aggression and violence not a part of life, produced by evolution?  Every specie seem to fight each other.  Lets...

Here are first the 12 rules , first  shortly published in The Guardian and now even in a book with the same name. 'The author is Jordan B Peterson.  (First a reminder; the rules is Peterson's, not mine.  But they made me interested, after first have made me disturbed.)  Just a few years ago, I was an unknown professor writing academic books that nobody read. Then, with God’s help, I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and develop my potential. Pinkos and wishy-washy liberals had cornered the market in cod psychology, so I guessed there must be a huge hunger for a self-help book, backed up with religion, mythology, CAPITAL LETTERS and stating the obvious – one directed at responsible, socially minded conservatives craving some pseudointellectual ideology to prop up their beliefs. And bingo! Here are my 12 Rules for Life. 1 Stand up straight with your shoulders straight Most lobsters are complete bastards left to their own devices. Most humans are comp...

People around the world know about Hilma's paintings now. She forbid the relatives to show them for anyone until 20 years after her death.  Why?  Maybe because of that Rudolf Steiner, the leader of Anthroposophy didn't like them.  But he may have seen Hilma as a competitor.  She had then thoughts of  to burn them.  But she was also a proud woman.  She was the first to paint abstract art in Europe. She was before Kandinsky.  But she thought she was instructed of invisible teachers.  Nowadays many see her as a painter of her time.  A time were electricity and the telegraph were new. And if invisible signals could be send, why could not other beings send messages to us? In the beginning of the 20-century there were many esoteric streems.  And some were lead by women as Blavatsky.  Maybe that was a way for woman to get recognition.  Not many women were known to be...

In his book, The Future Eaters, Tim Flannery describes how a British ship  came to a remote and small island in the Pacific. The year was 1788 and the Island that now is called Lord Howe Island had probably been without visitors before. There the animals and the birds were so unafraid of the newcomers. They could knock down big birds, as special kind of doves. Thomas Gilbert who visited the island the same year writes:         Partridges are likewise in a geat plenty... several of those I knocked down, and          their legs being broken. I placed them near me as I sat under a tree.         The pain they suffered caused them to make a doleful cry, which brought five         or six dozen of the same kind of them, and by that I was able to take nearly         the whole of them Now only six of the original 15 endemic birds have survived. Black rats fro...