convenient – Dreamyoga

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Don’t it always seem to go

You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til its gone

Joni Mitchell

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The human ability to look at the shiny, the immediate, the trendy, the popular, the short term and the otherwise glamorous is well developed. People can fail to think things through. They can be petty and reactive.

Right now people are being persuaded that climate change is a bit of a con. This by people who want profit and personal gain. There is greenwashing and sportswashing. The popularist may claim net zero as a loony ultra-far-left ideology from their soap box.

“Vote for me, fuck the planet.” Seems to be one of the new mantra.

There are a lot of babies thrown out with the bathwater.

Afraid of facing up to a reality there can be a tendency for head in the sand cross fingers and hope “strategies”. People do not wish to see that which may be inconvenient to them or for them.

This form of put off today and maybe pay later thinking, is debt based. Tomorrow may never come so let’s make hay…anyone who disagrees is a fun sponge. Debt is however karmically bad.

The decision not to act is an action. A decision to prevaricate and procrastinate is a decision, nevertheless. This may be the path of least resistance. It seems less risky. When in fact it is very risky indeed. Procrastination is a risky endeavour. One whose risks are often ignored or downgraded in importance. Procrastination seems convenient.

More often than not the time for anything is now or much closer to now than many are willing to accept. One day tomorrow never comes…

What we value may change with the benefit of retrospect and hindsight. Yet the easy is more often chosen than the “difficult” even after hindsight has offered us lessons.

Learning by and through loss is something that can occur. The lessons of loss may not be accepted readily. Repetition may be needed. People can be slow learners.

It takes a while to understand that the overtly shiny bauble, the overtly enticing power, the seemingly offered advantage may not be all that it is first cracked up to be. Temptation by the shiny can lead to the loss of that which holds much deeper value and perhaps import. Fickle are humans. A quick fix, a sticking plaster is rarely a sound solution.

Humans are perhaps more primitive than they might like to admit. Shiny…

This time of year with the festivities in full swing can bring with it the metaphorical ghosts of Christmas past. They may rattle their chains in the psyche. Stuff can come out of the woodwork…

It is a weird time of year.

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Don’t it always seem to go

You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til its gone

Joni Mitchell

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I’ll speculate that many believe things, ideologies and religions for which there in no possibility of proof. Half of the UK “believed” that Brexit was a good idea, many were adamant even though the outcome was unknown. They professed with absolute certainty about something which had not yet happened. Some Americans chant the MAGA mantra. Exactly when was America ever a great and equal place? Bad stuff has always gone on there to some extent.

People will believe whatever it is they want to believe. The strength of belief may vary. The war in Vietnam seemed like a good idea at first. Someone thought agent orange was good.

The church had a vested interest in making people God-fearing. Bums on seats meant coins on collection plates and salaries for clergy. The gold held by the churches and all that chavvy stuff goes against my interpretation of New Testament Christianity which differs from Old Testament Torah. Yet many who name themselves Christian believe in an eye for an eye instead of turning a cheek. I personally cannot envisage any deity in human or anthropomorphic form. {With the exception of Ganesh} I was made to draw God as a white bearded white geezer at the convent school in Zambia.

People born with penises believe that they can be “women” after a few hormones and a change of clothes, a new frock.

Some of the conspiracy theories floating about are to my eyes far-fetched, yet they have their devotees. I do believe that the world is controlled loosely by rich people. The extent to which they conspire is moot. It is all about profit and the best way to get that is by being good at business and ensuring calm by means of pecuniary compliance. There is no need to do weird far-out stuff.

Yep, some get corrupted by power and this can be expressed by abuse, sexual abuse and coercion. There are a number of ring-like groups that take advantage of those who are corruptible by promise of an easy ticket. Sometimes the cost of association to/with a powerful figure is high. Savile, Epstein, Al-Fayed. There are mini-mes of these scattered through the population, the degree of unpleasantness varies.

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Between belief and proof, we might have working hypothesis. In which one tries out a framework or context to see how well it works, what the generality is like. There are “proofs” which are more circumstantial than direct. There are things which suggest or point at an idea.

I believe in the concept of karma, there is sufficient observable causality for me to trust it as a concept, a working hypothesis. However, the subject is vast. I once did a whole blog exploring karma. The cornerstone of karma is evolution. One needs to learn from mistakes. Evolution and karma are of the same process. There is a cost associated with some actions which “the universe” wants paid. Karma not worked at in a timely fashion and with willing mood accrues karmic debt, much like a bank loan. One learns the effect of a causal action or behaviour. Sometimes people are slow learners.

The coypu no longer trouble our lotuses. Electric shock training with 0.25 Joule pulses at kilovolts works. We have a low electric fence which I installed. Cause and effect. Coypu karma.

I have had sufficient circumstantial evidence via visions and dreaming to believe in reincarnation. There is no way, on this planet, that I could ever prove reincarnation to the satisfaction of my scientific training. I could not put data into a spreadsheet and plot a graph with a fitted equation and a statistical quality of fit metric. I share the belief in reincarnation with millions. I probably believe it more strongly than most.

Karma and reincarnation as concepts are internally consistent. Karma spans lifetimes so that we can evolve. Karma is a teacher of sorts, in my world. It takes lifetime after lifetime to learn somethings.

Is it significant that I who once was a pukka scientist at a pukka institution can remember three lives as a Buddhist monastic?

Depends upon what you think is significant. To your average common or garden UK football supporter it means nothing. To someone who is a committed Buddhist it would not be a huge surprise, it might be tad interesting. Why not a scholar scientist and a scholar monk? It is not so different. Both have cerebral elements. To a bunch of scientists, it might be a red flag which needs disproved.

Have you noticed how science has a negation bias?

I’ll speculate that most people have a host of things which they believe which cannot be proven and moreover they do not question their beliefs or the provenance of the source from which they were obtained / picked up. Gossip and tittle tattle being a common currency which can become Gospel or God’s honest truth. “They” know and say an awful lot, do they not?

People can be very adamant about things which they have not checked or researched themselves. There is heavy reliance on hearsay. There are a lot of soap box orators both in real life and on-line. Hearsay has it that the spread of disinformation is huge and increasing. This is consistent with what I see on Twitter.

If you watch BBC, Sky, France 24 and Al-Jazeera the reporting on Gaza is very different. The British news is very sanitized and biased. People trust the BBC but it is reporting on a very different “war” to Al-Jazeera. Chalk and cheese. The UK right think the BBC is luvvie-socialist oriented.

People will believe whatever they want to believe. Convenience is a major factor in belief. They will believe what is the most convenient for them to believe. Inconvenient truths are generally not preferred. Coming round to an inconvenient belief takes time and is resisted, exemplified by the three individuals mention previously. So far nobody has said a great deal about the Princess Diana – Al-Fayed relationship. That narrative is altered by recent news. Did King Charles have her bumped off? Is he still the villain or are there other factors now?

Belief is also mutable…

What you believe today is impermanent…I can’t prove it to you…I can offer it as a working hypothesis which you might see to be applicable.

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How many of your beliefs are convenient?

Why did you prefer them?

Tag: convenient

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Belief and Proof