Your Ego Is Not Your Enemy

 

Unwrapping once faith

We are born in all innocence. Once growing up we are confronted with many things of which we have to come to understand some things are good whilst others are bad. Good and bad – right and wrong – that will keep us busy all our life long.

No wonder we can regularly find people who question their choices in life. And that is what we all regularly should do. Go over our lives and find out what we have done, why and how.

A recovered alcoholism addict, US Navy Veteran, now non-smoker, who uses the pseudonym jeffw5382,  who seem to want to become a friend of many, by wanting to help them. He finds it important to whom he is relating to and how he is, really appropriate and adding to life, loving-kindness, and compassion. He also likes to reflect and to seek stillness, even in motion, silence even in comotion and

will be better for it as I emerge on the other side. {What am I doing?}

By the years gone by, he wants to process and digest what has happened. Though confronted with those facts he might say

However hard it may be to fathom, one thing I must do above all else is to wholeheartedly accept what is. Eliminating or changing unhealthy ideas, behaviors or situations from my life are other options, but. I must accept that things are exactly the way they are supposed to be at this moment. {It is possible!}

In 2017 his life depended on being of service. He wrote

Not only am I self employed in a service oriented profession, I have integrated a desire to be helpful and generous wherever possible. The most important realization to me about this is, that it truly is selfishness that is behind it. By recognizing and admitting that, I am relieved of the urge to pat myself on the back. It’s just something I have to do today. I must give back in measure of what has been freely given to me. {Enlightened Self Interest}

That year he also felt so lucky to be able to embrace, wholeheartedly, the idea that he can improve his conscious contact with God. He wrote:

I acknowledge that many face seemingly insurmountable obstacles when even considering this. It started with the barest beginnings with me. Saying Please when I wake and Thank you as I lay down to end my day. {Please and Thank You}

He at that time found it impossible to describe what or who his God was.

I ascribe to the idea that God is incomprehensible to the human mind. In addition, that the greatest obstacle to finding God is the word, God. In my endeavor to get and stay clean and sober, I devoured all sorts of spiritual and religious texts. {Please and Thank You}

Three years later he is feeling that he might be embarking on a treacherous journey of sorts.

I am delving into my long-held beliefs and frail faith to discover my true self. That one that is in me and in Him. {Here I go}

he let us know and invites others

to share in this adventure that you might also question everything, scrape, prod, rip open and take apart the conceptions and ideas that inhibit our evolution to realizing our inheritance. {Here I go}

For lots of people, life is a great adventure, with many ups and downs. Sometimes very deep downs and lesser great ups.

Jeff writes:

Everything upon which I have relied is suddenly revealed to be a mere reflection of what I have found comforting to my ego. If I am to uncover my truest self all these ideas, preconceptions and formulas have to be incinerated by the flames of Love. {Here I go}

He also speaks about God, though we are not sure yet which god he means, because in 2017 he still thought of a three-headed god. From our side, we could and can only hope he one day shall come to discover the Only Real God Who is the All-knowing Eternal and everlasting (i.e not able to die, whilst Jesus really died) invisible Spirit, whilst his 2017 godhead is a not all-knowing god, Jesus even not knowing when he would be coming back to earth.

It is nice to see he understands that God

is a jealous and merciful God. {Here I go}

which makes it so important to worship the right God and not just any god. We should only worship the God of Jesus Christ, the Spirit God, Who is revealed in the angels and in Christ, but also revealed in the righteous faithful.
It is that “I Am that I Am” we should look at. It is that Godhead Who wants to be found.

The blogger Jeff seems to be willing to seek and to find Him. He writes:

He wants me to seek Him only in all my doings. Being human with a myriad of selfish desires I chase and grasp after things I think will satisfy, these seeming insatiable cravings, and when I do go after them without discernment, I get smacked down, disappointed and left wanting. I then am again desperate, confused and left wondering why I have been allowed to forget the Love that is merely a breath away. (Jealous) Immediately I am forgiven and realize I have been taught. His Love and acceptance are eternal. (Merciful) {Here I go}

The big problem with man is that they prefer to give a man a higher position than God. Lots of people do prefer to put the human doctrines above the Biblical doctrines and they believe that those human theologians do know it better than those Biblical writers or penmen from God. Instead of accepting the sayings from God (like Him saying that Jesus is His only begotten beloved son) and to believe the Biblical sayings or writings from Scriptures.

All should come to see the light shining in the darkness, the sent one from God, being such a light for mankind and the solution against the curse of death.

“If nothing that can be seen can either be God or represent Him to us as He is, then to find God we must pass beyond everything that can be seen and enter into darkness. Since nothing that can be heard is God, to find Him we must enter into silence.

Since God cannot be imagined, anything our imagination tells us about Him is ultimately misleading and therefor we cannot know Him as He really is unless we pass beyond everything that can be imagined and enter into an obscurity without images and without the likeness of any created thing.” {It just doesn’t make sense}

When one keeps to the false human doctrines then a lot in the Bible might not seem to make sense, but when one really take the words like they are written in the Bible, they all make sense. It only demands an openess to be willing to listen to God Him speaking by His infallible Word, the Bible. Then you shall be able to

“receive the gift of an interior light that is so simple that it baffles description and so pure that it would be coarse to call is an experience. But it is a true light, perfecting the intellect of man with a perfection far beyond knowledge.” {It just doesn’t make sense}

Jeff writes

So to be calm, resolute in stillness appreciating what I can see and what I have experienced, being kind and helpful (if possible) to all I encounter, and forgiving those who are lost in hatred and poisoned by a vindictive heart, and also admitting that I am flawed. I am liberated into a Perfect Peace that Doesn’t make any sense. {It just doesn’t make sense}

But it is that incredible peace we have to look out for. It is possible for everyone to become a partaker of it.

Peace and Violence are with us and will be until the Lion lays down with the lamb {Nothing New}

But we have the great hope in the sent one from God: Jesus Christ, our saviour and the way to God.

Jeff looking for help; a little embarrassed and humbled to appeal for assistance covering impending medical expenses. (I must admit)

Learning from ourselves

Often it are the setbacks that bring people back with their feet on the ground and have they rethink about their position in this world and in their life.

The most difficult part in our life is often to liberate ourself from the chain of vanity that may have caught us, and to get to learn that we better have to become an instrument in the Hands of our Creator, following His path He has laid out in front of us.

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To remember

“You teach best what you most need to learn.”  = line from Richard Bach’s book ‘Illusions’ running through mind

Marianne Williamson frequently shares very personal stories about her honest trials through life which makes her advice all the more more palatable

• We share in our own ways + we learn in our own ways

 

today’s lesson = Humility.

• ego wants to (and has been) defending self, making excuses, + trying to justify own actions
• making way through personal feelings of remorse, embarrassment, + confusio
• often advice we give to others = exact advice we need ourselves.
• hold ourselves to some ridiculous standard of “perfection” => too self-conscious to admit struggle with things we advise others to do.
• listen to ourselves +  realize things we passionately want to teach other people = things we, ourselves, truly want to learn + embody =>  vigilant level of self awareness + honesty

enhance + deepen relationships with others + ability to impact them in a positive way

1)  Be Honest

2)  Have Compassion

3)  Stop Trying to be Perfect =>  sense of freedom

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Preceding

I is for Incompleteness

Timeless Insights on Humility

Het rommelt….

De natuur roept de mens dikwijls tot de orde, maar erg genoeg hebben de meeste mensen er geen zin in om er naar te luisteren.
Ook hebben veel mensen er geen zin in om over bepaalde dingen meer te weten. Het geestelijke is iets dat hun verder afschrikt. Liefst zoeken zij hun toevlucht in moderne gadgets die hun kunnen plezieren en afwenden van de meer ernstige zaken.

Weinigen beseffen dat zij zelf de balans in eigen handen hebben. Indien zij ook meer oog zouden hebben voor wat er rondom hen gebeurt en meer besef zouden willen hebben omtrent anderen zou vrede veel dichter bij kunnen liggen dan zij denken.

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Ter herinnering

• grootste gerommel = tussen westen + oosten.
• natuur laat ons zien wat wij op individueel vlak kunnen leren waardoor we inzicht kunnen krijgen. 
• vast houden aan de macht positie > Ego denkt daar zijn vrijheid in te vinden.
• Onwetendheid  grootste bondgenoot van meneer angst.. 

 

Life through Cat's eyes

Het rommelt en dat is zacht uitgedrukt, als ik om mij heen kijk zie ik niet anders. Het grootste gerommel is toch tussen het westen en het oosten. Als je goed kijkt verschilt het niet veel met ieders persoonlijke niveau van zijn, vind je ook niet.. ? De natuur is er op dit moment niet echt mee eens, stormen, orkanen, tornado’s, water, vuur.. Dit symboliseert ons ten voeten uit.. De natuur laat ons zien wat wij op individueel vlak kunnen leren waardoor we inzicht kunnen krijgen.

Het maar willen vast houden aan de macht positie omdat het Ego denkt daar zijn vrijheid in te vinden. Oude koeien van een ver verleden door onwetendheid van toen, nu nog steeds als de ware kennis en waarheid te ervaren.. Niet een omslag willen en durven maken, verlies, door de knieën gaan, geen optie is voor Egolandia. Denkend dat dit geassocieerd zal worden met…

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Dr. Shankar

Kunnen denken is al deel van het leven. Zonder leven is er geen denken mogelijk en is er geen uiting van denken, of weergave van gedachten.

Ook zonder ons gaat het leven verder, of wij er nu zijn of niet zijn. Maar als wij er zijn kunnen wij er best iets van maken van dat leven en leven in plaats van geleefd worden.
Kennis en besef dat leven sowieso gebeurt mag dan wijsheid zijn nog grotere wijsheid is te beseffen wie en wat achter dat leven zit en hoe wij beter deel kunnen uitmaken van dat leven.

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Te herinneren

Mani Shankar Mukherjee also known as Sankar

wereld niets anders dan gereflecteerde energie > reflecteert zich als beelden, woorden + kleuren=> ‘verstand’ deel van diezelfde energie

Waarom leven we? Elke zin of bedoeling van het leven = slechts een gedachte

ware zin leven = illusie + elk moment onvoorwaardelijk genieten zonder na te denken

Leven gebeurt, sowieso, wat jij er ook moge over denken. Dus wees gerust! Zelfs als je gelooft dat jij niet de doener bent, blijft alles aan de gang, vanzelf en als je dit beseft, dan is dit wijsheid. {Mani Shankar Mukherjee}

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Voorgaande

Alleen ogen die geweend hebben kunnen helder zien

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Aanvullende lectuur

1. Leef …
2. Mogelijkheid tot leven
3. Kies voor Leven
4. Levensspel
5. Handel alsof alles wat je denkt, zegt en doet uw hele leven bepaalt
6. Wees blij dat de doornstruik rozen draagt
7. Elke keuze die we maken veroorzaakt een rimpelig effect in ons leven
8. Monotomie van het leven
9. Laten wij verder gaan
10. Het leven is als een tien-versnellingen fiets
11. Je leven de som van al je keuzes
12. Hoe is jouw film van je leven?
13. Hebt U gerealiseerd dat je leven de inhoud bepaalt van uw doodsbrief
14. Aanvoelen en kennis
15. Weet door proberen
16. Activiteiten in dit leven nagaan
17. Leef alsof je morgen gaat sterven
18. Tot bewust zijn komen voor huidig leven
19. Beter een arme die in oprechtheid wandelt
20. Hopen zolang je leeft
21. Een te begrijpen oproep
22. Christus kennen is zin geven aan het leven
23. Geschapen om te leven in relatie met God
24. Overtuiging voor de dingen die God beloofde
25. Een uiteenvallende Bijbel teken voor iemand die dat niet doet
26. Nu wij naar het einde van het jaar komen
27. Bij de aanvang van een nieuwe dag
28. Angst is de grote boosdoener in ons streven naar een beter mens te worden
29. Reinigen van ons en anderen
30. Een kaars in het leven
31. Een kaars aansteken

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Verder aanverwante lectuur

1. Is onwetendheid een zegen?
2. Object is Subject
3. Versteende Harte
4. De lente komt eraan!
5. Heb een mooie week! 🙂
6. Intuïtie
7. leven en dood, het zijn buren
8. Hoi lief leven, ik ben terug
9. De Lichtpuntjes
10. Waarom de beste keuze hoop is
11. Logica?
12. Illusie doorzien?

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A Brief Thought on Leadership

Not everybody is given to be a leader and not everybody can take up the leadership. The one taking up leadership always should respect those under him, willing to give them something more and offering them positive prospects, putting them on fire, willing to explore, discover, strive, soar and excel.

Joe DeRosa loves marketing and has spent a significant amount of his time and energy studying buyer behaviours. As an executive leader of several Marketing and Sales teams he has gathered vast amounts of data – qualitative and quantitative – around the customer journey.

He, like us, is convinced that leadership is not selfish and that great leaders make it all about their teams which they lead with dignity. As we showed already in our previous postings, life is a learning process. In this competitive world the best leaders should be continuous learners, not claiming to have all the answers nor believing they themselves are the only ones capable of generating great ideas. With many youngsters, this might a be problem today and the cause of so many projects failing in the end.

An other big problem today is the lack of communication or the will to listen to others, and nobody wanting to take responsibilities.

With many of those born in the 1980s and 1990s we find a very placating and narcissistic tendency, many having a very strong ego. Many of them are also not willing to trust others and do not want to share all that they know, but want to be recognised as the one who knows most and best, which is not always so true.

Purpose-driven leaders understand the importance of gratitude.  Being gracious for a job well done separates a good leader from a bad leader.  There’s nothing wrong with expressing your gratitude or thanks to an employee who did a good job even though a good job is what’s expected.  It’s often the smallest acts of kindness that embolden a team to its leader. {10 Things a Leader is Not}

Many youngsters think they know already everything and are often not open to learn more. They forget that everything changes so fast and everyday offers again something knew. For good leaders there is no place for ignorance and no place for such proud that no questions are dared to be posed about matters not known.

In good leadership is also no place for indecisiveness or a regular hesitating attitude.

Enduring leaders know that making decisions are required for leadership longevity.  Those that shy away from making decisions, difficult or easy, don’t last long as leaders.  Indecisive leaders are some of the most difficult leaders to work for. {10 Things a Leader is Not}

Let us therefore remember

• Leadership = collection of experiences, ideas, values, beliefs, and opinions
• = demonstrating humility while acknowledging = still more to learn
• not about being right but rather getting it right.

relationship formed through existence of mutual trust

Very important > Knowing when to lead + when to follow = area that separates good from great leaders.

> Please do find to read also:

1. Should You Clean House? The most difficult question you’ll face as a leader.
2. Is it time to change?
3. Leader or Executive – Which Are You?
4. Preparing to Fail is the First Step to Winning
5. Best Practices…Who Says?
6. Your Ability To Change Determines Success or Failure
7. Are You a Helper, or a Server? An Important Question for Your Brand.
8. Be An Inspiration
9. Never Settle
10. Stop Managing Change, Start Inspiring It
11. Why Generosity?
12. How Pressure Affects Performance
13. 3 Hints to Help You Hit Your Goals in 2016: Hint #1 – Visualization
14. 3 Hints to Help You Hit Your Goals in 2016: Hint #2 – Write it Down
15. 3 Hints to Help You Hit Your Goals in 2016: Hint #3 – Tell People

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Preceding article:

Failures, mistakes and Initiatives for Excellence and success, Working towards turning a Dream of yours into reality

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• Learning to lead: Hamilton students pay it forward with leadership training
• The future of leadership
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Joseph DeRosa

Leadership is a collection of experiences, ideas, values, beliefs, and opinions. Good leaders ask great questions. Great leaders apply what they’ve learned from those questions to their actions.  It’s not about having,or projecting an attitude, but rather demonstrating humility while acknowledging there is still more to learn. It’s not about being right but rather getting it right.

Leadership is a privilege.  It’s not a right, nor a duty as some may think. It’s a gift given to those who have earned it by demonstrating their desire to serve others. Those who have been given a leadership role without earning it are exposed rather quickly.  People are eager to follow those they believe in, trust, and care about.  That relationship can only be formed through the existence of a mutual trust.  It’s the leaders job to build that trust.  It is granted to the leader who demonstrates his or her genuine interest and caring for…

View original post 121 more words

One can buy a lot in the supermarket, but not hope

A thermometer in the proverbial mouth of society would measure a high temperature. We are all feverish. Psychiatrist Dirk De Wachter calls our society ‘borderline‘. Are we aware of a kind of collective delusion? ‘Hypermarkets’ , that offer up to 30.000 articles, have increased their turnover from 616 to 4.823 billion euro. A good and strong pupil who perfectly meets our economic model of better, faster… and always more.

The supermarket is a temple of consumption.
Every product cries out to be bought . With an agressiveness that borders on hysterical, our advertising boys try to convince us that margarine produces a more harmonious family life and that coca cola creates friendships. They shamelessly use insights of psychology to encourage people to consume. And they do not spare anyone, not even children.

The energy that is required of human beings to produce 30.000 articles, to distribute them and to sell them is colossal. This whole chain mobilises gigantic forces and realises this with such passion, that it betrays the conviction that to produce and consume material things will give us what we are looking for.

Does it still surprise you that we are drawn into consumption with forever stronger stimuli , at the cost of other things ?
 
It is a kind of psychological materialism that makes that we are more preoccupied with ‘having’ than ‘being’. If there even is time for ‘being’. Recently a study with 8000 students at the Catholic University of Leuven has shown that 1/7 has serious emotional problems: fear, depression, suicidal thoughts. Philosopher and author Hein Stufkens said in an interview :

” People that think about suicide, do not really want to stop living, they want to stop living ‘in this way’. They want to live differently. They are looking for real life “.

These are hard facts that in the West we are strongly ego-centric. Isn’t it high time that we look beyond the borders of the ego? One can maybe buy a lot in the supermarket, but you do not buy friendship there, no hope and no trust. Just like it is impossible to buy happiness, which is a good thing!

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Preceding

Dutch version / Nederlandstalige versie: In de supermarkt kan je (g)een hoop kopen

Looking for the consummation of presents

Luxury

Summermonths and consumerism

Your position about materialistic desires having conquered the world

Learning that stuff is just stuff

Fear, struggles, sadness, bad feelings and depression

Material wealth, Submission and Heaven on earth

Family happiness and little things we do

Why “Selfishness” Doesn’t Properly Mean Being Shortsighted and Harmful to Others

Looking at a conservative review of Shop Class As Soul Craft

Life isn’t unfair

Soft values? Needed heart- and- soul!

Watch out

You’re Lighter Than Air~

How do Other People Feel About Mental Health?

How to Find the Meaning of Life and Reach a State of Peace

Misleading world, stress, technique, superficiality, past, future and positivism

O’ Captain! My Captain!

Just be yourself…

Searching for fulfillment and meaning through own efforts, facing unsatisfaction and depression

Less… is still enough

Less for more

A bird’s eye and reflecting from within

We all have to have dreams

Forward ever backwards never!

“Der Grad der K… De mate van creativiteit – Degree of creativity

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Additional reading

1. Capitalism
2. Increasing wealth gap of immense proportions in the Capitalist World
3. Capitalism and economic policy and Christian survey
4. Migrants to the West #3
5. Materialism, would be life, and aspirations
6. Poverty and conservative role patterns
7. Forms of slavery, human trafficking and disrespectful attitude to creation to be changed
8. Welfare state and Poverty in Flanders #3 Right to Human dignity
9. Welfare state and Poverty in Flanders #9 Consumption
10. Paris World Summit of Conscience, International interfaith gathering #3
11. Message of Pope Francis I for the 48th World Communications Day
12. société, crise, esprit
13. From Winterdarkness into light of Spring
14. Parenthood made more difficult
15. Living Apart together
16. Being Charlie 6
17. Land not an ordinary asset
18. Securing risks
19. Reflect on how much idolizing happens
20. Looking to the East and the West for Truth
21. Oh god, this is never going to end!
22. Depression Is and When
23. What IF you’re only driven by stress?
24. A little ray of sunshine.
25. Getting fate in your change to positiveness
26. Remember there’s a light in the next day
27. Pieces
28. Joy: Foundation for a Positive Life
29. Be an Encourager
30. Four Pressing Needs in Rural Communities, and How the Church Should Respond
31. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #2 Instructions and Laws

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Further reading

1. What I Want
2. Materialism or Emotions?
3. Snail
4. The choice of being “choiceless”
5. Convenience Store | Grocery Store in Delhi-NCR, India
6. Gloomy retail outlook for the first quarter
7. Walmart – World’s Largest Retail Chain
8. The Supermarket is the Nexus of Existential Dread
9. Battle Of The Supermarkets
10. Grocery Chains Aren’t Building New Supermarkets Where Most Needed
11. there’s more to stacking shelves than you think
12. These are the dirtiest places in every supermarket
13. Grass hair clip..?
14. Russian supermarket slammed for selling chopping boards with photo of Barack Obama as a monkey
15. Russian store sold ‘monkey Obama’ chopping boards & apologized
16. Day 7 – An Educational Day at the Supermarket
17. What’s the Best Way to Sell a Product?
18. Overhaul the world’s money policy
19. Intermittent truth
20. Global economies shape our cities: is it acceptable?
21. Woes and Watch-out Warnings
22. Listening to the Web
23. Please Sir, I Want Some More
24. I am rich and famous. Now what…?
25. The truth about Consume
26. How Much Do I Consume?
27. Rule #105: Cyclical consumption
28. Materialistic Wants? Not.
29. “money is the reason we exist, everybody knows it, it’s a fact, kiss kiss”
30. Top Risks for a Consumer-Driven Society
31. Cotton and cocaine
32. The Culture of Excesses- Losing Humanity
33. Contrasts.
34. Contented Consumer?
35. The foolish man
36. Being No One One, Precis: Part 2
37. Turning the Poor into Consumers
38. Capitalising on Christmas
39. Lighting up Christmas
40. Christmas fragment 1
41. Holiday Shopping For Your Token Atheist Friend
42. Holiday gift-giving between adults is a needless, consumerist chore
43. To Save Pandas, We Must Eat them
44. Things I’ve learned from killing consumerism #13 – We want beauty for ourselves
45. Obama: Stop pretending you care about Syrian people
46. Should We Be Scared?
47. Its 100% OK to offend people in my world
48. Life..a never ending..
49. Born Privileged
50. {quote of the day}
51. Only to be Lost
52. Run
53. Self Harm
54. My Only Way Out
55. Ahhhhhh
56. the curtain comes up
57. I Have This Urge
58. Letter Of Departure
59. The truth about approuachable
60. Officially Trumped: When “being Real” gets too Real
61. Contented Consumer?
62. Magic
63. First Feelings – Sonnet No. 4
64. Friends
65. Universe
66. 2015/2016

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Related articles

• Big changes coming to Coles
• ‘97% of Scientists Say…’
• How to find out about the human mind through stone
• The future of supermarket shopping, right now.
• Working for peace in 5776
• The Daily OM for September 24 – Grounding Ourselves
• Yom Kippur Guide for the Perplexed, 2015
• Big changes coming to Coles
• Basic guaranteed income
• Human Beings: The Omnicidal Species. There is Nothing They Won’t Kill

In de supermarkt kan je (g)een hoop kopen

Een thermometer in de spreekwoordelijke mond van de samenleving zou een verhoogde temperatuur meten. We lopen er koortsig bij.
Psychiater Dirk De Wachter noemt onze samenleving ‘borderline’. Zijn we ons bewust van een soort collectieve waan? ‘Jumbo supermarkten’, die tot 30.000 artikelen aanbieden, zagen hun omzet stijgen van 616 naar 4.823 miljoen euro. Een goede en sterke leerling die perfect beantwoord aan ons economisch model dat staat voor beter, sneller én… altijd meer.

De supermarkt is een consumptietempel.

Elk product schreeuwt om gekocht te worden. Met een vaak hysterische opdringerigheid proberen reclamejongens ons te overtuigen dat margarine een harmonieuzer gezinsleven en cola vriendschap geeft. Zonder schroom gebruiken ze dieptepsychologische inzichten om aan te zetten tot consumeren. Daarbij ontzien ze niemand. Ook kinderen niet.

De energie die van mens en aarde wordt gevraagd om 30.000 artikels te produceren, te distribueren én te verkopen is kolossaal. Heel deze keten mobiliseert gigantische krachten en wordt met zo’n hartstocht neergezet, dat zij de overtuiging verraadt dat materie produceren en consumeren ons zal geven wat we zoeken.

Verwondert het u nog langer dat we met steeds sterkere prikkels naar ‘buiten’ worden getrokken in de consumptie, ten koste van andere dingen?Het is een soort psychisch materialisme dat maakt dat we meer bezig zijn met ‘hebben’ in plaats van met ‘zijn’. Als er al tijd is voor dat laatste. Recent liet een onderzoek bij 8.000 studenten aan de KU Leuven zien dat 1/7 ernstige emotionele problemen heeft: angsten, depressie, gedachten aan zelfdoding. Filosoof en auteur Hein Stufkens zei in een interview:

“Mensen die nadenken over zelfdoding willen helemaal niet ophouden met leven, ze willen ophouden met ‘op deze manier’ te leven. Ze willen anders leven. Ze zoeken écht leven.”

Het zijn harde feiten dat we in het Westen sterk ego-gericht zijn. Wordt het dan geen hoog tijd dat we voorbij de grenzen kijken van het ego? Je mag dan hopen kunnen kopen in een supermarkt, je koopt er geen vriendschap, geen geloof of geen vertrouwen. Net zoals je nergens geluk kan kopen. Wat een geluk!

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Gedachte van de dag:

Als je maar lang genoeg
naar iets kijkt,
wordt het vanzelf
interessant.
‘(Gustave Flaubert)

 

English version: One can buy a lot in the supermarket, but not hope

 

 

 

 

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Voorgaande

Zachte waarden? Hard(t) nodig!

Materialisme vs. minimalisme

Met minder is… nog genoeg

Kledingruil

Waarom sterren zoeken?

Who’s to blame?

Fatsoensnormen Online

“Der Grad der K…

De mate van creativiteit – Degree of creativity

Leeg en alleen

Shawna Howson over eigenwaarde

Duistere gevangenis

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Vindt ook om te lezen

1. Bank crisis en Occulte tekens
2. Economie en degradatie
3. Materialisme, “would be” leven en aspiraties #4
4. Materialisme, “would be” leven en aspiraties #5
5. Materialisme, “would be” leven en aspiraties #6
6. Paus waarschuwt voor ‘tirannie materialisme’
7. Kijk op het Vrije Wereld Handvest
8. Eigendomsrecht, welvaarttaks en waardigheidsrecht
9. Marx, het Volk, Religie, Christendom en verwrongen ideeën
10. Wat levert het mij op?
11. Waarom een Europees Jaar van actief ouder worden en solidariteit tussen de generaties?
12. Hoe de rijken de wereld regeren
13. Energie met vergiftigd geschenk
14. Gezin in postmoderne samenleving meer in verdrukking
15. Druk op ouderen
16. Langer Werken of Vroeger Sterven
17. Religie en samenleving één geheel
18. Geestelijk gezonde school (studiedag, Leuven)
19. Hoe de Satan vandaag rond toert
20. Neil Anderson en het juk van angst en depressie
21. 2015 het jaar dat ISIS duidelijk maakte dat het ook in Europa is – Vervolg 2
22. Nieuwkomers, nieuwelingen, immigranten, allochtonen en import
23. Strengere wapenwetgeving kan doden met vuurwapens beperken
24. Voor- en nadelen van internetspiritualiteit
25. Vrees klopte aan de deur
26. Angst is de kloof tussen het nu en later
27. Angst uitsluitende liefde
28. In de hand #2 Vorming en afleiding
29. In de hand #4 Angst voor de wereld
30. Vrees hebben voor de juiste persoon
31. Wees niet bang, er is goed nieuws want een redder is geboren
32. Bijbel medicijn tegen depressie
33. Vertrouwen, Geloof, Roepen en Toeschrijving aan Jehovah #3 Stem van God #6 Woorden tot voedsel en communicatie
34. Wees sterk en moedig
35. God wordt heerser van onze passies
36. God is positief
37. Verzoening en Broederschap 4 Deelgenoten in Christus
38. Christian the Lion
39. Zeker zijnde van Bevrijding
40. Als sneeuwvlokken een zacht tapijt vormen

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Verder aanvullende lectuur

1. Rothbard Over Economische Depressies: Oorzaak En Remedie
2. Leef als een koning
3. Een verhaaltje voor het slapengaan voor onze leiders
4. Repliek op Vanackere (Financiën): Investeringen zijn nutteloos indien consumptie zwak blijft
5. Boven de storm // Nunc est bibendum: Atay
6. Consumeer eens een auto
7. Een jaar later: Bangladesh
8. Food waste
9. Work in progress // Om toch maar eens over de economie te hebben
10. oproep aan supermarkt klanten
11. Ergenis in de Supermarkt
12. Roes
13. Discussies die nooit plaatsvonden: in de supermarkt
14. Genieten van goede gewoontes
15. Formidable!
16. Veertig situaties uit mijn dagelijkse leven
17. Duurkoop is goedkoop
18. Verpakkingsloze winkels
19. Maatschappij | Veel mensen, weinig vertrouwen
20. Gelukszoeker
21. Vluchteling (3) De Militair.
22. De aarde warmt op – voor vluchtelingen en andere slachtoffers
23. De nieuwsconsument is informatiezoeker geworden
24. Drie doelen van het onderwijs en de psychotische samenleving
25. Democratie, gelijkheid en draagvlak: terug naar de Tocqueville
26. Laten we ons onderwijs en de kerk in het midden houden?
27. Groen en N-VA samen in bad? Enkele vragen
28. St. Augustinus en het gezin als kern van de samenleving
29. Kardinaal Cottier over synode
30. Encycliek: Laudato Si
31. Betekent een BTW-verhoging een belasting op vermogen?
32. No to racism
33. Koorddansen
34. Toekomstloos
35. Presies ‘n week later…
36. 31. Laten we elkaar helpen
37. Voor uzelf zorgen, dat is toch echt niet simpel
38. Mijn medicatie en waarom
39. Column 558
40. “Weer een aanrijding van een persoon tussen Almelo en Deventer. Triest.”
41. Recensie Zonder script – Charles Martin
42. ”Er zitten gewoon gaten in mijn geheugen, terwijl ik compleet nuchter was”
43. Verloren dagen
44. R.I.P.
45. Liebe Kunden
46. Kassiererstory
47. Hartes Brot in harten Zeiten
48. Lehrer & Supermärkte
49. Arzt Gespräch
50. Står i stormen
51. Take a look in a Swedish supermarket
52. Sunday Supermarket
53. How to Avoid a Traumatic Supermarkt Experience
54. Whole foods, New York
55. Resorting to this
56. Thoughts from the cocoon
57. I wish…
58. Just Going Through Some Stuff Right Now
59. Seize the day
60. Between Borderline and Buddhism…
61. Pride
62. If It’s Not One Thing
63. Lower than the border
64. I’m Done
65. Day 10
66. Day 11
67. 100 Tahun Misteri Quantum
68. Materialisme històric

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Related articles

• Some Thoughts On Self-control From Various Authors
• Take a sip, thumb through at leisure

Going on holiday is… silence in your head

An average Westerner lives in his head. From kindergarten until university he is indoctrinated with the idea that there is an answer to every question and a solution to every problem. In this way his need to understand and control keeps the illusion alive that we have a grip on our reality and have everything under control.

But nothing is further from the truth.

In his book ‘De Schaduw van de Verlichting” Eddy Van Tilt speaks about ‘the over-drive of rationality‘.Because we give our ratio absolute status , we have become estranged of that part of reality that is not rational and with which we have lost touch.

The psychologist Van Tilt asks :

” What happened that caused the heads of Westerners to become so hard and their hearts so weak?”

Because he is confronted with the pathological results of too much ego, the delusion of manipulability and rationalising.

The psychiatrist Mark Epstein reacts to this as follows :

‘our thinking mind is compulsive, because it does not want to forget or be forgotten and therefore always has something to do’.

That is why it will not be easy to ” let go of everything” on holiday.
Because as hungry and restless as our mind is preoccupied with the past and the future, it will need other kinds of stimuli, in order not to forget or be forgotten.

We can put our mind at rest.
In the first place by keeping our heart open, by simply observing what happens inside ourselves and by reconnecting with our body, our surroundings, and by accepting …to be moved. When we enter silence, we will experience “now” and  not so much hearing it, but rather feeling it or even better …. experiencing it.
 
To obtain this , it is not necessary to leave your ego or anything else behind, but to look past its borders.

‘By standing still we do not see new things, but we look at things in a different way’,

is what C.G. Jung concluded once.

Or how going on holiday is mainly… silence in your head and heart.

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Preceding:

Summerholiday season time to read the Bible

Holiday making and dreaming

Home-stayers and their to do list

Written by inspiration of God for our admonition, to whom it shall be imputed if they believe

Dutch version / Nederlandstalige versie: Vakantie is… stilte in je hoofd

Sigmund Freud, G. Stanley Hall, C.G. Jung, A.A. Brill, Ernest Jones, and Sándor Ferenczi posed at Clark University, Worcester, Mass. Photograph first published in September 1909. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Additional reading:

1. Be still and listen
2. Control and change
3. Control your destiny or somebody else will
4. Malefactors becoming your master
5. Patience is the ability to count down before blasting off
6. He who smiles rather than rages is always the stronger
7. Know Who goes with us and don’t try to control life
8. A Living Faith #7 Prayer
9. Praying is surrendering in all circumstances
10. Giving cogent reasons to young people why Christian faith is relevant to them

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Further reading:

1. Rationalisation
2. I’m proud of me
3. Day 300: Rationalising Not Buying Anything
4. Day 552 (or 1 Year, 6 Months, and 7 Days of Continuous Sobriety)
5. When We Shouldn’t – And Should – Argue from Authority
6. Hofstadterisms
7. Why imagination is great (and why many evangelicals don’t like it)
8. People focus on what they can see
9. An Artifact of Our Time
10. Are biases deviations from the mean?
11. Do we really live in the Age of Empathy?
12. Excellent. With musings on religion and mass extinctions.
13. Rationality as a Social Process
14. Illogical Rationality
15. Sam Harris’s War on Rationality
16. The Image of Objectivity
17. Looking at the world through the eyes of others
18. Relapse
19. Working toward a new paradigm
20. Does your brain know what’s best for you?
21. Effective Altruism: the global movement that combines your heart and your head
22. Animal rationality
23. Do irrational idiots exist?
24. The Grasshopper and the Ant – a story of economic rationality
25. Maybe Everyone Is Actually Super Rational!
26. Note: Misconceptions on Understanding
27. Too many decisions can be exhausting.
28. How to make the best decisions you can
29. Rationality over the long term
30. Desperate for a “Pause”
31. “Time to take out the trash”
32. It doesn’t always stand to reason

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Related articles

• It’s Okay Not To Be Okay
• 10 Things You Need To Know About Yourself Before You’ll Have The Life You Want
• Secrets of Psychotherapy: Ten Ways to Be More Happy (Pt. 2)
• Inside Inside Out, a review of sorts
• ‘The eyes may be wrong, but the psyche is right’
• Carl Jung on the “Mystic” and “Mysticism.”
• Tapping into God’s Strength by Waiting on Him
• Improving the world by improving the Faith

Vakantie is… stilte in je hoofd

Een doorsnee westerling leeft in zijn hoofd. Van de kleuterklas tot de unief wordt hij geïndoctrineerd dat er voor elke vraag een antwoord is en voor elk probleem een oplossing. Zo houdt zijn wil tot begrijpen en beheersen de illusie overeind dat we greep hebben op onze realiteit en alles onder controle hebben.

Maar niets is minder waar.
In zijn boek ‘De schaduw van de Verlichting’ spreekt Eddy Van Tilt over de ‘over-driving van de rationaliteit’. Precies omdat we onze ratio een absolute status geven, zijn we vervreemd van dat deel van de realiteit dat niet rationeel is en waar we geen voeling mee hebben. Psycholoog Van Tilt stelt zich de vraag:

“Wat is er gebeurd dat de hoofden in het Westen verhard en de harten zo verslapt zijn?”

Omdat hij geconfronteerd wordt met de pathologische gevolgen van te veel ego, maakbaarheidswaan en rationaliseringen. Psychiater Mark Epstein reageert:

‘Onze denkende geest is dwangmatig, omdat hij niet wil vergeten of vergeten worden en daarom altijd wel iets te doen heeft’.

Het zal op vakantie dus niet zo eenvoudig zijn om ‘alles eens los te laten’.Want hongerig en ongedurig als onze geest bezig is met verleden en toekomst, zal hij weer andere soorten prikkels nodig hebben om ‘niet te vergeten’ of ‘vergeten te worden’.We kunnen onze geest tot rust brengen.
Door in de eerste plaats ons hart open te houden, gewoon waar te nemen wat er in ons leeft en ons opnieuw te verbinden met ons lichaam, onze omgeving en ons… te laten raken. Als we de stilte ingaan, gaan we het ‘nu’-moment ervaren en niet zozeer horen dan wel voelen of beter nog… gewaarworden.Je hoeft daarbij je ego niet achter te laten, wel voorbij zijn grenzen kijken.

“Door stil te staan, gaan we geen nieuwe dingen zien, maar gaan we anders naar de dingen kijken”,

concludeerde ooit C.G. Jung.

Of hoe vakantie vooral… stilte is in je hoofd en je hart.

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Voorgaande:

Zomertijd ideaal op met Bijbellezing aan te vangen #1Bestseller aller tijden

Zomertijd ideaal op met Bijbellezing aan te vangen #2 Blijvende waardevolle schat

Engelse versie / English version: Going on holiday is… silence in your head

Zalig Zijn De Armen Van Geest (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Aanvullende lectuur:

Wetenschappers, filosofen hun zeggen, geloven en waarheden

Wees stil en luister

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Lectuur van anders denkenden:

• Busy Busy – Work
• Ben jij al zomerklaar?
• i love summer tag
• Ben ik weer!
• Zomervakantie
• Vrije tijd
• Wat doe jij in je vrije tijd? What do you do in your free time?
• Wat te doen in de vakantie?!
• We zijn los! De vakantie is begonnen.
• What to do in summer at home.
• Summer bucket list
• Inspiratieboost #9
• Rondje langs de dijk
• Very Fine House Vakantieboek – 1
• Vakantie!!!
• Summer loving, had me a blast!
• Mijn leven inrichten
• Lazing… Luieren…
• VVB in de zomer
• Die vlam
• Beginnen aan een nieuw avontuur
• Geloof aan mijn voordeur
• We leven in een gouden tijd volgens een wetenschapshistoricus maar we hebben ook te maken met een #systeemcrisis allerwege #trouw #cultuurverandering #nieuwespiritualiteit
• Bel, die weet het wel
• 001: De vechtsport van de rationaliteit
• Rationaliteit in meervoud
• Kleinigheid zonder rationaliteit
• Coen Simon, ‘En toen wisten we alles’ (2011)
• Gonçalo M. Tavarez, ‘Jeruzalem’ (2011) Leven in tijden van waanzin en geweld
• Geen realiteit.
• Dom
• Welcome to the freakshow
• Daaglikse dosis realiteit
• Generatie Y
• Verwondering // Jouw waarheid vs. mijn waarheid
• Opheldering onderwerp

Related articles

• C.G. Jung on John D. Rockefeller
• Carl Jung on “ESP” and “Synchronicity.”
• Secrets of Psychotherapy: Ten Ways to Be More Happy (Pt. 2)
• It’s Okay Not To Be Okay
• 10 Things You Need To Know About Yourself Before You’ll Have The Life You Want
• Health Care – The Alchemy of Emotions
• How May I Best Use it… She asked
• How to Attract a Conscious/Evolved Man.
• Christ DID teach of Karma, reincarnation, self-realization and the Divine Feminine as Holy Ghost!
• Journal: Green Pastures, and The Storybook