Points of View and Opinions
The Meaning of Life - The Individual - The Community - Sex, Friendship, Love - Consciousness - Communication - Religion and Politics.
Let us begin with the most difficult of subjects: the meaning of life. Without intending to be metaphysical, esoterical or philosophical I dare say that there is a relative and an absolute meaning. As with the absolute meaning I most certainly lack knowledge, experience and power of expression. I'm occupied here more with the relative meaning. "Relative" means that this meaning with each one differs in the beginning and changes in the course of life and the development of the consciousness. For a baby the meaning of life seems to be to survive, to establish a relation to the environment and to learn. When one grows older these aspects retire and are substituted by others: Success, love, power, founding a family (if one is heterosexual).... And so one lives his life and has more or less fulfilled his meaning of life, the way wolves fulfill their life's meaning or butterflies. But - is this all??
If one has progressed further in the development of his consciousness, a higher "meaning of life" rises to the surface: to learn, to explore oneself, to grow, grow, grow..... This leads us to the next point:
For me the meaning of life cannot be to be an ordinary mass man, abiding honestly the directions of nature and to simply live his life until one's death. For me at this time the apparent "meaning" presently seems to be to grow into an individual, to grow into somebody who has his own identity, a distinguished, unified personality and who is capable to withstand the formations of the environment in a sovereign way, to grow into somebody who is pushing the borders in his consciousness ever farther away and tears them down. The subject here is growth. Who stops growing begins to decay (which is by the way not an exclusively medical realization). Together with the accent on the individual (not to confuse with egoism) there comes a related "meaning": The greater whole,
Individual and Community often are presented as incompatible areas of conflict. Either the individual renounces his individuality in favor of the community (state, church, tribe, monastery...) or many-faceted individualism leads to non-commitment, chaos, anarchy. In a sane community however the community encourages the development and independence of the individual (contrary for instance to the stereotyping of school and military) and the individual feels himself to be an important part of the totality and with his most inherent personality contributes to the cultural and social variety (till now more or less unwanted), while certainly the isolated individual can achieve a lot inwardly but soon comes up against nearly unsurmountable limits because of a certain poverty in experience.
The smallest form of community is the relation between two beings. This relation has several variations. The most known of them are
Sex, Friendship, Love
Sex is a relation of the physico-vital kind. All the realizations of psychoanalysis and all achievements of the sexual revolution of the generation of '68, alas, haven't really brought about a true sexual liberation. Certainly it is now possible to talk more openly about sex. Front pages of magazines have become more open-minded. The section of pornographic films experiences a flourishing (though not necessarily in artistical or erotical expression). And there is even a growing number of films with gay contents (at least verbally gay), but fundamentally unrestricted nudity is still a taboo (it's always ridiculous to see a man emerging at least with shorts on from the bed where a moment earlier he had had sex with his friend or wife) in the same way as kissing men are on screen. And then there also is this blending of sex and love, the incompatibility of sex and friendship and these mating rituals that sometimes are quite stimulating but often also very ineffective. Why does it seem to be so difficult to conceive of sex as sex and of experiencing the joy in it without feelings of guilt (after all joy is what sex should be for). And why is it necessary for this to play 'Great Love' before the partner? Why isn't a friendship a friendship anymore if one is experiencing something together in bed also? Shouldn't sex be much more fun if the participants are friends? Does friendship end at the bed's border or is it then - necessarily - love?
Basically sex, friendship and love are only different kinds of relations: sex is of a physical-vital kind, friendship shows vital, mental and psychic aspects and love is a movement of the soul. One can have with somebody one or the other relation or all three together, for half an hour or the whole life. I believe, that if one simply takes things the way they are and especially is truthful to oneself and to others, some of the basic tensions would stay away and we all could meet each other more open-mindedly and more full of love and compassion, which is one of the basics for a healthy community life.
If in the course of one's development one wants to change something, a material change normally isn't sufficient. What is needed is
Consciousness
Consciousness doesn't mean to take note of a thing mentally, but to have it always present and to be filled with it as an important matter. Only if one is really conscious of a thing and really wants to change it, this great change is possible. And if one doesn't want to be mentally dead by the age of 20 or earlier one needs an alert and active consciousness that always seeks for possibilities to learn and to grow and to go further. A help at this is
Communication
This doesn't mean monologues but dialogues and polyalogues, exchange with other people. This aspect of life for me is extremely difficult as for this end I have to undertake very basic changings in my character and my attitude, because till now it always is as if I would stand beside me and watch and listen without feeling any need to say something. I am always fascinated anew on the range and details of things men can talk about. But such things only very rarely enter my mind. Seen in this light these pages are a first step to do something about these conditions that meanwhile have become very unsatisfying, because communication (and this is again theoretically speaking) is important to put oneself into question and to see oneself with new eyes and from other angles as well, and in this way to effect a kind of renewed synchronization to reality. This synchronization to reality I miss greatly in
Religion and Politics
To say first things first: I don't belong to any religion, any sect, any party, any soccer or football club, any club of atheists but only to a group of free minded and free feeling men in different states of development. For my object is freedom and any such group is a hindrance to freedom, because they always tell men (in the section they pretend to "understand" something about): This is so and only so!
Only, in these clubs it doesn't seem to be known that there is also an evolution in the inner development of man - and what today is right, tomorrow can be wrong, or can be right with me, but not with my neighbor. And besides, much depends upon the angle and the point of view. Basically one cannot be true to a thing if one hasn't really looked at it from all angles, that means psychologically (Freud, Adler, Jung, Reich, Perls...), sociologically, theologically (Christian, Buddhistic, Hinduistic, Shamanistic...), physically, esoterically, atheistically, ethnically....... - and then, who is able to do so? Religion and politics are certainly not regarding such questions. - And those who are "under their wings" suffer from it.
By the way: Jesus Christ once upon a time has proclaimed that one should love all men (that also means to understand them). This sentence is binding to all sects that base their right of existence on his working and binding also to all C-(=Christian)Parties and to the pope himself:
Why don't they act according to it???????