mindfulness

Let's take some help from the Philosopher Ricoeur and the author Auerbach to approach the question. But first; Religions learn that there are some state, probably in the future, that will be a salvation. - or a hell. Even Buddhist texts talks about it in the sense of karma and afterlife. Some modern Buddhists, as Thich Nhat Hanh means that hell is a state of mind, ebut with mindfulness and awareness of every step you can reach some kind of heaven. In here and now you don't regret the past or worry about the future. When I practice mindfulness its really like that... But my tinnitus gets more obvious and maybe hidden feelings will come to the surface. When I practice with my sangha its a bit easier.  Originally Buddha wanted us to see the terrible sides of life, like sickness, changes and other unsatisfactory things in life and of course old age and death. Its better not to be reborn. Its better not to think so much... Its better not to collect things for yourselves, a...

I went to a funeral yesterday. It was held in a small chapel near the graveyard. A female priest held the ceremony which was simple and nice. But I couldn't believe in the talk about God and Paradise. For me both paradise and hell can be here on earth or in our own minds. The buried man X , I had helped for some years in a place for slightly handicapped people. He was a bit mentally handicapped. But very kind was he. He stayed with his grandmother as a kid, and as at teenager at a family on Gotland, the big Island in the Baltic sea. His wife had Asperger's syndrome. She could be angry for small things. She shouted to him if he did something wrong. He cold strike back, banging  the table, sometimes he hit her. But when he got weaker he just trembled, while she dominated him. If you have asperger you easily get angry for small things. You cannot understand that other people dint think like you. Everything is black and white. And X got dementia. He was a kind an...

The novel, Stoner, by John Williams was published in 1965. But its first now its really known and   its sold  in thousands of copies, especially in Europe. Why? Mainly because its well written, in an epic and pre-modern style, not at all experimental.  and it I tries to say something - what? It's the one of Williams's books that is nearest his own life. Stoner is a teacher in literature, as Williams was. So maybe it's that he want to say something about his life or about the life of Everyman. I'm sure Prince had the same kind of love for music as Williams had for litteratur. You can hear it in the album "Prince; Piano & a Microphone" recorded in 1983 but not published until last year. Maybe we also can hear the foundation for his music here. His father worked as a pianist but was not so good as a father. He left the family when Prince was ten. In the recording from -83 we can hear him sing a bit of the song "a case of you" by Joni Mit...

You may say that this has nothing to do with mindfulness. On the other hand you can think that these topics comes to your mind when meditation has made the talking monkey inside silent. Let's say that David Deutsch is right in his view of time in a multiverse  landscape: Well, then, as i understand it, you can be in different ages in different universes. And different universes can interact with each other, at least at the atomic level.  That seems to be the implication of the theories of quantum physics.  Here is a painting by Hilma af Klint that could illustrate an interacting multiverse.    Well I may go to far, other things can be interpreted there too. Even af Klint didn't know what she was painting.  I better stop here for to today with a winter scenery from Rättvik - to come down to earth

I recently watched a tv-program about natural disasters in 2017. They were many; storms, hurricanes, floods and big fires. Hundreds of people dead, not to mention all the animals, also dead or without their natural habitat. Its seems  to be a time of destruction. But under the catastrophes lies an underlying hope. Quiet friend who has come so far, feel how your breathing makes more space around you. Let this darkness be a bell tower and you the bell. As you ring, what batters you becomes your strength. Move back and forth into the change. What is it like, such intensity of pain? If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine. In this uncontainable night, be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses, the meaning discovered there. And if the world has ceased to hear you, say to the silent earth: I flow. To the rushing water, speak: I am. Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29 Or like another German poet, Hölderlin, wrote : Wo aber gefahr ist wächst das rettende auch But wh...

John Muir wrote about nature for instance in the Yosemite. Here is a Quote:       Here is calm so deep, grasses cease waving. . . . Wonderful how completely everything in wild nature fits into us, as if truly part and parent of us. The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing. The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and; tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song, our very own, and sings our love. And here one of his sketches:  You can feel that he is in love with nature.  We all know that nature can heal us.   There is a photographer showing her photos in a museum in Stockholm right now, she is also describing her relation to nature.  Her name is Kirsty Mitchell;  After her mo...

The question of free will is a never ending story. It seems that i can proof free will by raising my arm and say, "I choose to raise my arm, and just see..." But if If I do it to give proof to another person  Im interact with that person. And if we are really aware of it, we always interact with someone or something. We are never in a vacuum. we are always interrelated. So if there are no separate I, the question of free will for the individual will disappear. I the future we will interact with AI, what about freedom then? Well it will not be total; we have to interact with the people who programmed the AI, and if the AI will be really intelligent, with the AI itself. But we are not there yet. We are on the journey towards understanding about our interaction with nature. We have influenced it a lot - but we must understand that nature interact with us too - to a degree where we cannot cannot tell the difference between us and nature. Nature will response wit...