Perception of God

My understanding of the concept of a God has changed over the years

When I was a child, the concept of God was introduced by the Catholic Church, my parents and family,

we all adhere to the idea of a God almighty that we had to fear, while he was really benevolent and kind to us, but from the reading of the Bible was also able to call upon us lots of calamities.

And God had a Son (Jesus) and Jesus was the bridge  between this all patriarchal God and us, the sinners, then there was the Holy Spirit, but the concept was difficult to visualize, ... 

There were chants, prayers, rituals and all that, and since I was a kid, and my parents seemed happy with the whole thing, I followed blindly. 

Later, I started to find the whole story quite challenging to accept, and I was also discovering other religions or Philosophies, like Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism, and older mythology including Greek, and Roman Gods, and the idea of a unique God just made no sense anymore.

From that point, God was a separate Judge somewhere up in the sky, that was the ultimate arbiter of the human activities, and would decide which one was worthy to go to Heaven, or would be sent to Hell.

This ideology was probably acceptable during Medieval time, and the concept of the all mighty God was more or less embodied by the Kings, and Queens, and the Bible was pretty much a brain washing device to have all the good workers being obedient and keep working while the noble blood was having a good time (or would kill each other).

The big problem was that in the early Christian time, there were miracles, there were people who would experience God action, and would be later able to perform miracles as well, cure illnesses, etc ... And from that I could understand that converting to Christianity made sense.

But nowadays, Science is performing miracles, cure illnesses, provides to the masses devices that enable us to communicate over continent, ... and the Holiness, the Gods, the cultural rites, are all there to offer an excuse for War in the middle East, pretty much.

We're doomed

 Here is what happened earlier, I am in a shared office and my duty is more or less to take care of the lunch facility ; which lately has become a little challenging because I do not know for sure how many we are going to be around the table.

There are the 2 regular (a couple) but lately their eldest son is also joining, he has just turned 18, and he may or may not join, won't call before, it is always a surprise.

Today, the regular left the office a little early and I assumed they would come back around noon, table was set, I had prepared one meal for 3 and extra rice, a salad, and there was a couple of leftovers from the day before. 

Then I heard someone entering the shared office, and it was their 18 years old son, let's call him 'Gil' he grabbed a few potato chips and started to check what was cooking, I left my seat, and greeted him. He barely acknowledge me, then went into the toilet with his phone, I checked the table, crumbs everywhere.

That already started to piss me off, but I said nothing, I knew the meal would be a bit too small of the 4 of us, after about 5 or 10 minutes he left the toilet, and started to serve himself a plate, I sit next to him, and served myself some salads, he made no comments, grabbed some more potato chips, I stand up to open the casserole, and noticed, that he took about half already, I took my share, and then he served himself another portion, and at this point I told him that the remaining would not be enough, and he just grunted  'they will manage' 

I was really embarrassed, this young dude, was depriving food from his own parents, and while he left the table leaving his dirty plate, and crumbs everywhere, he lied on the couch with his mobile phone watching funny videos, with his greasy hair and dirty socks, ...

We are screwed, if this is the new generation, it made me uncomfortable.

In case of emergency

Lately I have noticed, how the mood can be influenced by TV Show, books, gossip, general conversation or interaction with people, music, etc ...

The weird thing is that for example depending on the moment, the same song, or movie will have an emotional impact, meaning tears will goosebumps, or great joy ; and later nothing ... because we moved on, or the overall mood is different, or we are not open to the same extent.

Reading is a great example of an activity that will impact completely differently our mood, if our mind is already filled with a lot of stress, or unsettled thoughts.

Meditation has its place in this process, because it is like coming back to the center of our being.

If we were a computer, deep sleep, meditation, having a good workout session would be like pressing the reset button.

Having a nice voice in our head, also a benevolent general atmosphere of supportive advice, like a very confident coach having our back at all time.

The internal dialog;

- You are doing good, you are fine, look at all the past events, and all the good things you've done so far.

- Remember that difficult time, you thought you would not be able to survive, you did it!

- Enjoy life, relax a little, look around you, realize how life is always surprising and accept it like a fish accept to swim in the never ending flow of water.

- There is nothing to do, in the end ; but to enjoy this good time, to breath and be grateful

- If you have a good job, a nice home, a quiet place to sleep, most of our worry are imaginary.

Calming the mind

There are thinkers, and there are undisciplined thinkers

thoughts will pop up in our mind, like rain drops during a storm,  passing like clouds on an October evening in Ireland, this is a fact of life.

Now sometime thoughts are nice and comforting, sometimes they are filled with regrets, guilt, anger, hatred, sadness, melancholy, and these are not fun.

I could suggest to observe these passing thoughts, not to act on them, not to pursue them even, just to  acknowledge them, and let them go.

By chance, I was introduced to the Work of Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie and  Anthony Metivier they all have found a way to 'filter' the flow of constant mind chatter.

- Are these thoughts true? Am I absolutely sure that they are true?

- Are these thoughts about the possible future? then focus on the present moment

- Are these thoughts about the past? then focus on the present moment

- Are these thoughts useful? and how do they behave?

Add this new tools into your mental health first aid kit

Smoking and global warming

 At the personal level smoking is an addictive habit, but it has benefits

- the smoker feels in charge

- the smoker feels relaxed (temporarily)

- smoking provides a break 

- smoking facilitates social networking (a sense of belonging)

but of course there is a high price for this toxic activity

and this is health 

- smoking cause serious illnesses, and this has been proven

At the collective level, we can also see the same pattern

- the excessive production is facilitating consumption

- owning new product feels great and empowering

- economic growth requires excessive production

- the whole concept of constant economic growth is unnatural

but here also there is a high price for this 

- the high demands for new products is causing artificial obsolescence

- and the general economical activities aggravates pollution and global warming impact

Louise Attaque - J't'emmène au vent

Good music from France

Gabor Szabo - Dreams (1968)

Thanks for passing by, 

Enjoy your stay