Tag: religion

Government is Religion – Episode 194

by Kurt Robinson on June 10, 2018 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Story: States are compulsory cults

In the USA, many children go to school and say a prayer to a piece of cloth, affirming their faith in a deity called a “nation”. Many of them will grow up to continue worshipping the flag, repeating the words of their pledge of allegiance impressed on them when they were too young to even sign a contract. If someone desecrates the flag, urinating on it or burning it, they will get angry, because they know it means something – in fact, in their minds, it’s very difficult to separate any flag from their god – their nation.

The American bald eagle is no longer endangered in the United States, but it’s still illegal to harm one. To the lawmakers, the bald eagle is also a sacred image, a totem that represents the unity of their tribe. If you question whether obedience to the state is really beneficial or necessary, it’s normal to hear the response “It’s the law!” as if just by virtue of being declared a law makes it worthy of reverence, deference, and subjugation. The code of the government is sacred, no matter what it says, no matter how absurd.

All around the world, people have similar practices, blurring the lines between government and religion. In fact, they may be the same thing. Worshipping the government is just a particular kind of religion, a “civil religion”. In this episode, Kurt interviews entrepreneur, traveller and thinker, Shamus Mac, as he presents his case that governments are imposing their own compulsory religions, convincing or brainwashing their subjects into believing that their government, their country, their symbols and the spirit of them are all identical. Join us on another deprogramming adventure on … The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

Civil Religion video

Robert Bellah’s Civil Religion in America essay

Peace of Westphalia on Wikipedia

Etymology of “religion”

Huichol Indians

What on Earth is happening – website of Mark Passio

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please like and follow The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit.

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The Episode:

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Meditate with a monk in a Thai Buddhist temple – Episode 193

by Kurt Robinson on March 20, 2018 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Story: Lessons from an expert meditator

If you’re an meditator, you’ve probably mentioned the practice to your friends and heard them say “Meditation isn’t for me. I can’t sit down and stay still for more than a minute. My mind just can’t stay quiet.” Then you yell at them “That’s the whole point of it!” And then you go and sit in meditation because you realise that you still haven’t learned to remain calm.

In this episode, I interview my friend who is a monk in the temple of Wat Tham Krabok in Thailand and an experienced meditator, asking him about why some people find meditation boring or frustrating to begin with, and what the experience is like once you reach a certain level, enjoying sitting with your own mind. We talk about different techniques, such as active and passive, mindfulness, mantra, and stacking layers of awareness, deliberately filling up your mind, and allowing it to be more empty.

Join us on a journey into your own mind on the next episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Thai Temple Drug Detox – Episode 192

The Links:

The toughest rehab in the world – Vice

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please become a patron on Patreon, or have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit.

The Episode:

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Thai Temple Drug Detox: An interview with a Buddhist monk – Episode 192

by Kurt Robinson on March 12, 2018 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Story: A monk tells the story of Wat Tham Krabok

Wat Tham Krabok is a fascinating place, home to scores of monks and nuns who practise an austere lifestyle, working patiently, making statues, sweeping paths, chanting and sitting for meditation three times a day. It’s also the home to a narcotics detox program for people looking to leave their bad habits behind. Vice once sensationally named their rehab program as “the world’s toughest”.

I had the opportunity to stay on the temple grounds for a few weeks, spending time with monks and others looking to improve their lives, trying the vomit-inducing medicine which officially contains 108 herbs, created by the temple’s founder, the mystic “Great Father” Yai.

There are many stories about the temple, and its founder, many of them contradictory. Luang Paw Yai was a mystic, illiterate, who gave lectures in a combination of Thai, the ancient tongue Bali, and a channelled language unknown to humans. Some say that Luang Paw Yai was ordained as a nun, others say she was a female monk. The detox program was started because a drug addict approached her two nephews and pleaded them to help, but it was also started because Luang Paw Yai predicted the problems that Thailand would have with drugs in the future.

In the Thai conception of history, there’s nothing unusual about these contradictions. Unlike in the west, Thai people aren’t hung up about discovering one true and factual version of the past. After all, in many cases, Buddhism is all about leaving the past alone, and focusing on what we can control – our mind, our speech, our actions.

In this episode, I interview my friend who has lived as a monk for some years in Wat Tham Krabok, talking about the reputation of the temple, the process of detoxification, the herbal medicine, the historical and religious context of its founding, and how drug addicts are actually excellent candidates to absorb the teachings of the Buddha.

Join us on another karma-cleansing episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

I believe in holy things Part 1

I believe in holy things Part 2

I believe in holy things Part 3

I believe in holy things Part 4

The Cash:

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

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I believe in holy things – Part 3: Karma & Learning to walk again

by Kurt Robinson on February 16, 2018 in Religion • 0 Comments

People think karma is a list of good and bad acts, each one of which will be ticked off as it is returned to you. What do Buddhist monks think of karma? Read more →

I believe in holy things – Part 2: Be ready to enter the Temple & Gratitude for food

by Kurt Robinson on February 8, 2018 in Religion • 0 Comments

It’s important to be well-prepared to enter a holy place, but even so, sometimes the most important thing is to enter regardless. Read more →

I believe in holy things – Part 1: A visit to a Buddhist temple

by Kurt Robinson on February 6, 2018 in Religion • 0 Comments

What does the phrase “I believe in holy things” mean to you? Kurt finds his own answers in a Buddhist temple. Read more →

Put your worries in the hands of Providence – Episode 180

by Kurt Robinson on October 17, 2017 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Story: Have a little faith that things will be okay

Many people have an aversion to the word “faith”, because they think it refers to a superstition. However, it’s perfectly rational to have faith – at least a little bit, and you will see for yourself if you look back over your life, examine your experiences, and project the likely future.

Every day of your life, or almost every day of your life, you have woken up once more. Every day of your life you have faced your challenges, in one way or another, by yourself or calling on the support of loved ones, and helping your loved ones face their challenges. I know this is true, because you wouldn’t be reading this if you hadn’t. You might not have always found a perfect solution, but without a doubt, you did find a solution.

You might have gone through dark times, and you might even be going through dark times. Even so, when you look you can find things to be grateful for. If you’ve lost your house, you may still have your family. If you’ve lost your family, you may still have your health. If you’ve lost your health, you still have your life, perhaps even surviving against terrible odds. So, in one way or another, things have worked out for you.

In all probability, your life is much better than that worst case scenario. You may even have had the fortune of finding a partner to share your life with, or been blessed with children whom you adore, who inspire you to previously unknown purpose and resolve, or perhaps you have found some wealth by well-timed investments, or even just managed to get by, day after day – even when it seemed that fate was against you.

Think about when you were a child of 5 or 10 years old. You probably had many ideas of how your life would turn out. Your life probably turned out very differently to how you expected, and when examined, you may well find that it turned out much better than expected – with intricacies finer than the finest painting, and details that you never anticipated which delight you. So, things generally do work out, and you can expect that things will continue to work out.

Whether you think of it as a metaphor or a literal expression, putting your worries in the hands of Providence, expecting things to work out – providing you take all reasonable steps to protect yourself and your loved ones – makes sense. If you take that first step towards faith, opening the curtains just a chink to let some light shine in, who is to say exactly what it might illuminate, what courage it might grant, what change it might bring. Go ahead. Find out for yourself.

The Eps:

Being grateful in Bangladesh – Episode 178

Everyday existential crisis – Episode 176

The Links:

Ayahuasca Diaries – Why I believe in God by Macey Tomlin

The Cash:

The Episode:

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Everything is Meaningless – Episode 169

by Kurt Robinson on June 20, 2017 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Story: Life has the meaning that you put into it

When you’re a child, life can seem simple. Perhaps the adults around you even give you a simple framework with which to view the world – something like, God loves you, Jesus died for your sins, and as long as you love God and do good, it will be alright. You accept this as a valid interpretation of events – and perhaps you even believe it is the only valid interpretation. Many people live their lives in this way. Perhaps occasionally they have a niggling doubt, but in some way they make it work and feel happy.

Others won’t be so satisfied with a belief system like that. When they start to see the holes, it’s the beginning of the end. Sooner or later, it’s going to click with them that the interpretation of the world that was given to you, was a lie. You plunge into existential despair, not really knowing what to believe. You become a nihilist. “Everything is meaningless,” you say. But then you go a little too far. “Therefore, life is pointless.” You might even believe that you’re special for having discovered this secret, and for the deep-seated dread that you feel in reaction to it. And in a way, you’d be right.

Remember, there is no pressure. No one will force you to evolve. You can stay at any one of these levels as long as you wish.

But, in your own time, you do evolve. You’re not content with the empty cup of meaninglessness. You decide to set your own rules, play your own game. You decide who you are and what you accept from yourself. Some people might call that “self-actualisation”. You know that life is meaningless, you embrace it as true, and you see it as a blank canvas on which to create your own masterpiece, designing a form of living which delights your soul. Because, why not?

Join me in a reality-confronting episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Cash:

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Catholicism in Mexico: A death cult?

by Kurt Robinson on December 21, 2016 in Religion • 0 Comments

When I walk into a church in Mexico, I can’t help but escape the images of death. There will normally be several idols of Christ, bloody and beaten, on a cross or in a coffin. In the Cathedral in Guadalajara, there is a mummy in a glass coffin, which supposedly belonged to a martyr, a young lady beaten to death by her father, enraged by her ambition to be a nun. I saw a similar mummy in Pachuca, Hidalgo, with a similar story. Apparently this story is repeated in churches all over Mexico – an archetype, a story too good to be told just once, like a rerun of ‘I Love Lucy’.

The other day I walked into the sacred art museum, which is attached to the Cathedral. In the first room we walked into, while looking at the paintings, I had the uncanny feeling that the people in the paintings were looking at me, or waiting to look at me. My companion also felt that there was something dark about the place. (Unfortunately, I can’t show you any pictures of the museum as they asked us not to take photographs.) In another room, there was a stand intended to hold books for a chorus, in the shape of a ziggurat or burial mound, with Christ on a crucifix at the top. The whole thing was painted black. Again, I felt I shouldn’t turn my back on it. I wondered about the dark things this object had seen, wondering if children had been abused while perched on its shelves.

In another room, there was a particularly gruesome picture of Christ, apparently already very dead, with Mary Magdalene by his side, holding his hand. His hand was by her mouth, but instead of kissing it she appeared to be sucking it. In front of Christ stood a dark female figure in a black robe with very white skin, tears streaming down her cheeks. I assume it’s supposed to be Mary, but it looked like Death.

In the entire museum, I saw Christ as an infant, as a dying man, and as a corpse – almost always in states where he wasn’t capable of teaching anything. The only exception was a handful of paintings depicting the scene “Christ among the doctors”, in which Christ is about 12 years old. The Sermon on the Mount was never portrayed. I wonder if that’s a decision of the curators, or of the Mexican artists over the centuries, or of their commissions from the church. Perhaps there are different ways to interpret it, but to me the message seemed to be: your god is impotent and helpless.

I hope I don’t offend anybody with this post, as this is just my experience as an outsider looking in, and obviously there are subtleties that someone more familiar with Catholicism would notice. However, I do think that people should be wary of these types of images. A man might make a fine idol for you to pray towards, and you might even kiss its feet, as I’ve seen many people do. If the man controls the image that you pray to, you can be sure that he also controls you. God needs no intermediaries.

Episode 21 – God Mode

by Kurt Robinson on March 27, 2015 in Podcast • 0 Comments

In this episode, we take on a huge subject, perhaps the biggest. We’re talking about God. Who is God? What does He/She/It do in Their spare time? What’s Their phone number? We find the answer to none of this questions in this exciting chapter of The Paradise Paradox.

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