Friday, December 08, 2006

Challenging Reality

We live in a time, my friend, where genius in art and science is measured in money. We live in a time, where beauty is only acknowledged, if it can be sold. We live in a time where Goethe and Schiller would never be published, A time where Shakespeare would end as a curbside beggar, a starving fool writing poetry for food in vain. We live in a time where people never see the sky, because they stare at screens from dusk till dawn. If you are not the master over at least two thirds of your daytime, you are a slave, Said Nietzsche. We live in a time where freedom is consumption – for which we lack the time. Using things is replaced by obtaining them. We live in a time where greed is challenging reality itself. We live in a time, my friend, A time, that will come to an end.

I know not

How can I possibly know, who I am – or what, if I cannot even be sure, whether I exist – or NOT!

December Spring

I see the rain in the hills that falls onto fertile ground.

The Grass is green on well watered soil, soaked with life granting liquid,

While the trees are waiting for snow that does not come.

The warm Spring air this Winter carries a hint of shivering frost biting deeper into the flesh of our soul than mere cold.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Intellectually challenged fan users

Does an electric fan decrease the room temperature? It is one of the physics question tricks that you can ask someone to check if he has any idea about physics at all. I find it absolutely fantastic that at the beginning of the 3rd millennium practically everyone thinks a fan cools the air. Some people even let the fan run when they are not in the room. Causes me physical pain. In my view someone who lets the fan running when nobody is in the room should not be allowed to vote or to drive a car or to do anything else that requires even the most minimal intellectual capacity.... I wonder if George Bush leaves the fan on when he is not in the room... He probably does. Until the shit hits the fan.

Brrrrrrr.. What a world.

I am overdoing it of course.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Unexpected

"...AND SUDDENLY THE AIR SOLIDIFIED UPON ME" said the finch that flew against a glass-window.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Liquid Astronaut Insanity

I still did not quite return to Earth. I had chicken for Dinner. With: Dave's Temporary Insanity sauce. (It arrived today) Wow. WOW! My GOODNESS. I think if I ever would want to, say, kill my father (hello FBI or BKA: no such intentions), I only have to call him a coward... And make him try... Booff! That would be it. My eyes turned into overflowing lakes. My heart felt like it had to pump the Pacific Ocean. My good old SELF became the Pacific Ocean. Liquidified. Flowing over. Wavy. And the face turned into one big grin, while every pore, every gland, started to frantically produce liquid in defense. And neurotransmitters running wild, endorphines on the rise. Haha! Amie insisted to try a bit of chicken, with a tiny, tiny drop, and she disappeared behind the couch, whining, with the tail between her legs... "Du Nase!!" baby Sophie Maris shouted. Haha! "Du NASE!" And it sounds like NASA, when she says that.

PS: Nase is nose in German. Sophie Maris, of course, grows up bilingually.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Do Not Believe in Anything - Think Yourself Instead!

I find the following an immensely compelling invitation for a Homo Sapiens:

Quote From the Buddha – Kalama Sutta.

Do not believe in anything (simply)
Because you have heard it.
Do not believe in traditions
Because they have been handed down for many generations.
Do not believe in anything
Because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything (simply)
Because it is found written in your religious books
Do not believe in anything merely
On the authority of your teachers and elders.
But after observation and analysis when you find that
Anything agrees with reason and is conducive
To the good and benefit of one and all then accept it and live up to it.

Source: World Buddhist University

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Cybermonk and Buddhadog

Cybermonk sits on the mountain top in a world that ceases to exist. In a golden moment his Buddhadog hopes that the trajectory of compassion will finally cross the path of REALITY. But Cybermonk knows that the crossing point ist just an instance in time, a speck of knowhere in the nothingness. He cites the mantra of merging, and the universe waits...

Simulated Clouds

A consumer advocate dances with simulated clouds, while the creators of science long for the truth about it all. Cybermonk is not so easily fooled: Someone behind the mirror, suddenly, is very hungry. These men of the cloth denie to legalize the hidden truth, but Cybermonk finally demands the knowledge about how things are.

Cbyermonk in Gold

A Gypsy cleverly comes alive after midnight, whirling across the collective unconscious. The Masters of addiction want to legalize uploading of the brain. Someone's idea of a simulated joke. Jezebel smiles. Cybermonk is bathed in golden sunlight, Trying to control anything resembling maturity, he comes to life with the new moon.

Golden Veil

The spies of mercy do not include life on this planet. Cybermonk keeps applying for time at heaven's gate. His constant companion, unexpectedly keeps asking for love, and finally turns out to be his former self.

His memory of the flash is fading, mountains of illusion sinking into dust. Trembling with delight, the soldiers of mercy will never forgive the city of greed. Cybermonk finally lifts the veil from the golden cage....

Reality of the unreal

Reality. Shouldn't everything we do, every decision we arrive at, be grounded in reality? But is there any way to arrive at a conclusion as to what this reality thing actually is? A hell of a task! Let's see if you can agree with my list of unreal things, which may be illusionary or human inventions and yet basically run the world:
  • Money is not real.
  • God is not real.
  • Ideologies are not real.
And yet almost every action of mankind is based upon these illusions.

A few things that are real, at least as far as I can tell, include:
  • The stink of the shit in my daughter's diaper.
  • The suffering of a family who lives through Winter in an unheated tent in Pakistan after their home was destroyed by an Earthquake.
  • The pain of the feet of their little boy who walks barefoot through the snow.
  • The rain falling from the sky, drumming onto my window this very moment.
  • The angular momentum of our spinning planet.
  • Photons.
  • Electromagnetic fields.
  • Atoms.
  • Gravity.
  • The sun.
  • The stars in general.
  • Black holes in the centres of Galaxies.
  • Human brains.
  • Emotions:
  • Anxiety
  • Love,
  • Fear,
  • Compassion,
  • Joy,
  • Greed,
  • Sadness,
  • Envy,
  • Hatred.
  • Amie the dog snoring on her own armchair in our living room.
They are real.
They can be observed, felt AND they can be measured with physical instruments. They are not invented.

The list of real things that are not invented is truly endless. And still the actions of our leaders have little to do with the endless items on the reality list. They are mostly concerned with the three items on the list of unrealities.

I assume most of you out there won't agree...




Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Not so little anymore...

This is what Sophie Maris looks like these days. Always in deep thought...

Oh this complicated world!

My last post was a bit premature. That much I have to admit. Through the Alumni Network of the University of Münster, where I used to study, I yesterday received a long, detailed and very sober assessment of the idiotic cartoon conflict and its background that was written by Professor Dr. Muhammad Kalisch, chair of Islam Religion studies in Münster. He reluctantly had written an 11 page statement that I must say so far is the only reasonable assessment of the entire mess that I so far have read or heard. I myself am not an expert on the Islam religion, but I am also not entirely ignorant. Yet I had to reconsider some of my - admittedly emotionally colored - views. Yes, that happens. it made me wonder whether perhaps as a 14 year old I was wiser than I am now, for I was not so easily fooled. When in school back then we learned about the cold war, the evil empire, the nuclear bombs and the looming threat of global destruction, I had thought: they behave like little children fighting over the possession of toys in the sandbox . "I am right, you are wrong, no I am wrong, you are right..." It is mine, no it is mine.. NO IT IS MINE..!!" What a nonsense. From Prof. Kalisch's article I learned about the Danish Newspaper (the name of which my fuzzy mind already discarded). it seems to be a populist right wing newspaper with a history of racist, reactionary publications. It is well possible that the effect the cartoons had was indeed intended! This then is not freedom of press anymore - it is propaganda for lower purposes. At the same time: still nobody has the right to get violent over a drawing - let alone abduct people, burn buildings, threaten countries with destruction etc.

In any case: the deeper one digs, the more messy the entire subject becomes. The problem with thinking and getting informed is that complicated topics generally cannot be assessed with simple methods, cannot be described with easily understood one sentence descriptions. To my utter amazement I myself had to learn from Prof. Kalisch, that here in my own country, in Germany, home of Immanuel Kant, Blasphemy is a crime. But which blasphemy? And how is that defined? In any case: if this law applies to the established majority Christian churches only and not to every religion, our state is deeply hypocritical.

There are other points that Prof. Kalisch made and that I agree with. It is not a secret that the West - mainly the US - is mainly interested in the resources of the middle east. They are not interested in political stability, democracy, humanitarian issues etc. it is all about oil. In addition, the US seems to be interested in having a permanent enemy. This is not new - an external threat unites the nation. External threats are the only reason why Mr. Bush still is president of the United States. The US government is almost happy about every lunatic dictator. If they wouldn't appear by themselves now and then, they would have to be invented!

Islam is no more violent than any other religion. There are extremists hiding behind almost every faith. Although I must say it is extremely difficult to imagine an extremist Buddhist (like..uh.. becoming EXTREMELY compassionate? Practicing EXTREME meditation?). Well. But I, as the utter layman with an admittedly shallow understanding of the Quran, I do not agree with Prof. Kalisch when he says there is nothing violent in the Islam. My impression is that the word war appears quite often, that killing is justified under a variety of circumstances, that historically the Prophet himself duly carried a sword and at the very root of this religion we find military expansion.

The Islam described by Prof. Kalisch is of one of deep beauty - it is the Islam of dialogue, the friendly and tolerant Islam of mystics and scholars. It is similar to the Catholicism of for example the German Zen Master and Catholic Mystic Benedictian Monk father Willigis Jäger. But not only that Willigis Jäger's view of science, religion and mysticism can hardly be considered the view of the majority of Catholics (or even a significant portion - as desirable as that may be) - the Vatican also prohibited him to teach. This is what happens to the voices of tolerance and dialogue, the voices of the true seekers of answers. And I am afraid that is so in all Western religions - to varying degrees - the religion of Mammon being the worst of all.

In any case: think! Our own absolute view of things is just as likely to be wrong as someone elses is!

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Religion and freedom and the flag miracle

Reality currently is turning into a painful real satire. Triggered by cartoons. For heaven's sake. C A R T O O N S !!!! I have to check the calender... which year do we have again? Two years ago we celebrated the Kant year in Germany. Does anyone remember him? Immanuel Kant? The guy with the categorical imperative, the Philosopher of the enlightenment? The father of modernity? No? Admittedly... he is not easy to read. Even for me, a not entirely uneducated person, his text require significant thinking. Thinking. Freeing oneself. Wow. And now: A Cartoon "war". ??ß=&§#*+<>-ß?09/%&-:;??$§*!??

Okay... Tolerance. My saying always was: Almost anything can be tolerated, except intolerance. Of course this is more a Zen Koan, than an overly logical statement. The point is to think. Think it over before you judge. But how about the question: Can freedom of religion be granted to a religion that rules out freedom of religion? That brings it down to a more practical problem. My answer is no. My answer always is: religion must remain a private affair. Otherwise we end up in chaos. The separation of church and state is a must. In the US it is already near dead, but in Europe it is still functioning. More or less.

But there is another aspect to the Cartoon Conflict. Those were expressions of *private opinions* in a *private newspaper* which were perfectly legal under the law of Denmark and which are perfectly legal under the laws of all EU states as far as I can tell. Nothing of that was endorsed by any EU Government. And of course a Danish Newspaper has the right to publish whatever they wish in their own country - only the law of their own country is in charge there. Just like nobody has the right to regulate what I privately express in my own house or my own circle of friends. It is outright ridiculous.

During the history of mankind religion and ideology have been one of the main reasons for human suffering. Much of the European population has been wiped out during endless religious conflicts among Christians, although it requires significant mental twists to find anything in the teachings of Jesus Christ that could possibly justify greed and violence. If we are to believe scripture, he never held a sword and wasn't exactly positive about piling up riches. With the old testament it is slightly different - as it is with the Quran. Anyone saying they are only about peace and friendliness and seeking God apparently never read these books. They both are in fact oozing with blood and violence. They both make absolutistic claims. They both justify utmost cruelties under a variety of rather arbitrary conditions and circumstances.

And now Danish Flags are burnt because of cartoons. Cartoons depicting a Mohammed with a bomb on his head (not far fetched since so many self declared martyrs bomb themselves into oblivion, mass murdering others along with them, all allegedly in the name of Allah and Mohammed.) And the Cartoon with Mohammed and the Log in his eye.

It can be historically traced that Religion - and therefore God - are cultural inventions of mankind. And still it is not allowed to talk about the atrocities that are being brought about in the names of established religions. I stress established religions for if I claimed that I act in the name of, say, the Hawaiian Demigod Maui, who talks to me, I would most likely simply be locked away. It therefore seems that it is acceptable to behave in an utterly implausible way if there only are enough people who also do the same!

But it is not that easy. It never is. There is a level of reality that escapes out understanding, and there spirituality has its place. But in the moment where spirituality serves as an excuse for violence against others, something went wrong in the mind of the believer. Even in Islam, a religion brought about by a warrior prophet, the highest form of holy war is the war against self delusion. People should keep that in mind before they fall into religious psychosis and call for the destruction of a little country that many demonstrators in Afghanistan probably cannot even locate on the map. Makes me think: where actually did demonstrators in Afghanistan, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Indonesia suddenly obtain all those Danish Flags? I am living in the middle of the EU, and I would not have an inkling where I could spontaneously buy a Danish flag...

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Who is wanted for Sept. 11?

After all this time, I am still clueless about what in detail is the background of Sept. 11. I am a physical scientist, but not a structural engineer, so I cannot evaluate the engineering arguments of this discussion. It seems unlikely to me that both both buildings would collapse in the exact same manner after different hits on different levels - if they would collapse at all.

But something else bothers me more: if I don't get anything wrong, the FBI is as clueless about the individuals behind the Sept. 11 mass murder (which it was in any case) as I am. Among the most wanted terrorists - including Bin Laden - as of today, NOT A SINGLE ONE is charged with being involved in this monstrosity. So I am afraid it significantly bothers me that the government considered the evidence strong enough to attack foreign countries and murder tens of thousands of people along the way, while the FBI possibly fears that any half bake lawyer would take the case apart in court. I will not speculate about the background of Sept. 11, but every murder in the deep province seems to be investigated more thoroughly. And I really wonder why there never was a public outcry about that!

What I find funny are all the people posting sentences like "There is no doubt..." about this or that speculation about what actually was or is going on. I wonder where they find their strength for such conviction.