Religion and views of life

The 12 basic needs

Religion or any view of life is a basic need of every human being. Of course the content is spiritual, but in the division of labour we are consumers where we ask a priest, an imam or a guru to help us to find our way “up”.

Introduction

The allround basis for our quality of life is of course our motivation! WHY are we living now and here? What’s the meaning of life itself? Where do we come from and where and how will we go on? If we don’t try to find the answers on those questions in one way or another everything else will always be a cycle of question after question. So we should have to think about religion as the first “daily need” very thoroughly before thinking about all the other needs!

A fast-forward answer is that there has to be reincarnation after reincarnation as an eternal ongoing life not as a cycle but as a developing process to ever higher degrees of being. Otherwise life itself should only be a time-filling holiday or a struggle-for-life which always ends in a bodybag and a coffin or some other way of vanishing from this playing ground. Although everybody has to think about the meaning of life him/herself to get the answers, we could imagine that the human being is on its way to become a free and self creative copy, clone, child or descendant of its Creator and has now just become mature in this 21st century! Then and only then the human being and its role as consumer becomes as clear and understandable as possible!

Religion as reality

All religions around the world are speaking about a spiritual world which is as real as the material world. Since the 20st century more and more people are talking about experiences by meditation, praying, or even drugs, almost-dead situations in crashes, hospitals or during climbing in the alps. Reinhold Messner the greatest climber of this century who reached all the 8000-summits alone and without oxygen said on German tv in 2005: “Yes – I experienced that spiritual world where we came from and where we go to, even three times when falling during my mountaineering expeditions – for me that spiritual world is a reality – what’s your next question?”

Also more and more scientists in nucleair research after Fridjof Capra (see his bestselling books Tao of Physics and The Turning Point) became aware of the treshold between light and matter. Where the wisdom of the Kaballa centuries ago already said that when light comes via an inward spiral into a circular move – it becomes matter – as we can see in the structure of every atom. In this 21st century these things will get clearer and clearer and give way to understand the world and the cosmos in space and time as a composition instead of the big bang theory of a chaotic warehouse of probabilities ….. The development of mankind becomes more and more visible as a more-than-one lifelong learning proces.

Religion as development

When we look more intensely to all religions in a time-line everything becomes more and more clear being a developing process in the history of mankind. Then we can recognise religions as different directions of believing, but also as a coherent system of “schools” in educating the human being in a systematic order towards a self-creative individual-citizen-consumer.

Therefore we can stop writing our text here on this page in the same way that all information from the Cheops Pyramid, Nostradamus and others stop around this time. All religions are from now on more and more working towards the future, in oecumene, meeting of cultures, and renewing religion in itself as a developing process of working together with the spiritual world in a mature way! Especially in the opening of all esoteric schools we can find the answers that all religions are related to each other. The 21st century is only the beginning of Religion 2.0 as to say it in modern words! A (more than one) lifelong learning process!

Religions in a time-line

  • 3000 Natural beliefs (Living with the gods)
  • 0900 Hinduism (Remembering the spiritual world)
  • 0700 Zoroaster (From remembering to searching)
  • 0600 Budhism (In search for the spirital world)
  • 0030 Christianity (The first link … )
  • 0732 Islam (Connecting the -scientifical- dots between heaven and earth ….)
  • 1500 Atheism / Materialism / Natural sciences (Freedom in individual thinking)
  • 1900 Esoterical schools open up / New Age (“Re-Orient-ation” …..translation of old knowledge in today’s words)
  • 2001 Maturity: the human being reached the age of maturity (21st century)

Religion and globalization

In fact all family-trees go back to Adam and Eve and our Creator (or the Big Bang). Especially since the 9/11 experience more and more of us worldwide feel that they are part of one big family in the global “village”. Plus realizing that we have to manage a better way of living together between us all and with nature as a whole. And with the cosmos and the spiritual worlds!

So we have to continue that lifelong learning proces not only to find ourself but also to understand each other. The world of economy can give us the best opportunities to learn, because especially as producers and consumers! we ARE interrelated!


Read more:

01 202501 January 2025

News january 2025

 

 

 

 

La Rivoluzione siamo Noi – The Revolution is Us!
 

This famous image of Beuys was originally used on a poster for a Beuys exhibition held in Naples in 1971 – hence the Italian title of the work. In the late 1960s and early 1970s revolution was in the air, particularly among students. There were demands to change society and the means of production. Beuys does not deny that society needs to change, but stresses first and foremost that people must change before true revolution can take place. In this work Beuys sets himself up as a Christ-like figure striding confidently into the future, encouraging us to do the same.

 
Read more
 

01 202401 January 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am a consumer!
 
March 15 1962 Kennedy announced the Consumer Rights Bill. Today that day in March is still the World Consumer Rights Day.
When Kennedy was speaking at the Berlin Wall on the 26th of June 1963 his words were meant as a call for friendship for all
people of the city and for the whole world as well: “Ich bin ein Berliner!” (Berlin: I am one of you!). Listening to those words we
could now let it sound as: “I am a consumer!” And that is exactly the case in the 21st century where the consumer became highly
concious about his/her role in the world!
 
But rights alone are not enough to be a consumer. The 21th century as an image of “maturity” also means that we have to learn
to acknowledge our responsibility for everything we pay for.
 
We can see the human being evolve through all the centuries untill today. Especially when looking to the follow-up of all the great
religions! In very old times we had our relation still more directly as we can still see in the religions in India. Then Buddha appeared
to show us our individual roadmaps to find the way back to the heavens we came from when needed. The Greeks investigated the
world and the spiritual worlds as well by concentrating on thinking, beginning in philosophy. Islamitic scientists especially developed
the sciences of the outer world of matter, astronomy and mathematics. To find the basic laws to understand the living down-to-earth.
And so the “finishing touch” to become a free individuality, a real portrait of our creator. And today we are in the 21st century which
we can experience ourselves as the beginning of real maturity!
 
As one can read and understand in this story Christianity can be understood best when we see it not as a re-ligion but as the story
of the human being him/herself.
 
 
Read more
The 7 “I am” words (Wikipedia)
 
 
 

01 202006 June 2020

This is the Moment to Change the World

This is the text on the frontpage of Time Magazine last month and the main article written by the historian and writer Rutger Bregman. His fifth book Humankind – A Hopeful History is now translated in English and was already a bestseller in the Netherlands. Big changes mostly begin in the middle of great crisis (note: the chinese character for crisis is also the character for the possibility of change). During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, the Second World War and the Great Recession of 2008 the whole world became significant “Upgraded” in international relations, culture and economy. Now in the middle of the Corona crisis we can see again many new initiatives of cultural, social and economic relations worldwide! After every human illness or crisis we can often see the person or organization getting better – better than before! That is what we call the essence of development.

Read more:

Time Magazine Interview with Rutger Bregman
 
Humankind A Hopeful History (Amazon Books)



01 200906 June 2009

Dalai Lama in Amsterdam:
About the Power of Compassion in Turbulent Times

His Holiness said that man is a social animal, with a need for interaction with others. The economic crisis and environmental problems affects us all and creates interdependence and the need for a compassionate society. His Holiness said that he speaks as just one human among six billion and gains a personal benefit from a peaceful world. A more self-centered attitude is unrealistic in a modern, connected society.

His Holiness explained that although the health of the world in the early years of the new century was poor, he viewed the overall development as positive. The Berlin Wall was removed through a popular movement rather than violent upheaval and in general there were signs that the world had the capacity to grow closer together. He acknowledged that while not enough was being done to address environmental problems, the awareness of the problems was, in itself, a positive sign since this was a relatively recent phenomenon.

However, to end global violence there must be an end to violence at the local and individual level. Many people may feel that the idea of ‘world peace’ was too big for anyone to effect. His Holiness felt that the practical approach is to start with the inner peace of the individual, progressing through the family to the community and beyond.

Far beyond our expectations his speech developed into a historical and situational 360-degrees overview, directed to all of us as consumers or producers, as citizens or as politicians. He suggested how to work harder towards a better world and thus, motivated by our compassion for all of our fellow human beings, help solve all existing problems.


01 200905 May 2009

News in the making… UN Decade of Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue 

There’s a lot of news in the making worldwide! While everybody is doing now his/her “homework” we may hope for interesting plans when schools start again in september!

The UN Decade of Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue DIID 2011-2020 or the coordination in the research about the vanishing of the bees, or consumereducation starting in september by Consumers International and Unesco, or the restructuring of finance and banking, or even the end of materialism let’s call it “Darwin and beyond”, or what about Europe where citizens can learn to become worldcitizens ….. !

Life is an interesting challenge Hemingway would say!