Canned Dreams

Canned Dreams | Trailer from OktoberFi on Vimeo.

When shopping for food people often complain about the high prices. But have you ever wondered how a can of ravioli can cost 1 euro? If you look at the list of ingredients and the metal used for the can, how can all that be worth so little? This film shows the journey of the ravioli can, and it shows you the sacrifices made in order for you to be able to complain that 1 euro is too much. I saw the film today in the cinema where I work, and I realised it is the answer to the questions of all those people I know who wonder about my strange eating habits. Why do I choose organic? Why do I choose local? Why do I skip prepared and canned food? And why don't I eat meat? Watch this and you will know. I cried because of the cruelty of this world that we call civilisation. And I cried because those animals reproduce, because their sole purpose is to exist for us to walk over them. The Polish guy who murders cows for work, he who is describing how he wants to kill the man his wife fell in love with while he himself was sleeping with another woman; if he worked on a small biodynamic farm, planting beautiful flowers, I hardly think he would like to kill anyone. But there is no use blaming the workers, or even the corporate executives and owners. It is us who are to blame. Us, who buy these products which can hardly be called food. We make all this possible. A complete reconfiguration of values is needed. Next time you think real, organic, natural, healthy food is too expensive, think about whether you need those new jeans or that bigger tv. Or whether you would rather put your money into your well-being, health and happiness. Alarm bells should start to ring when a price is as low as that can of ravioli, it simply is not the right value for food.

Emma

Inspiration of the week

As promised, my inspiration for this week is a lecture me and C attended a couple of weeks ago. It was given by Dr Prashant Kakoday who spoke about consciousness. As such, this is also a continuation of the post about the documentary concerning consciousness.

Dr Kakoday talked about health, and the relationship between the mind and the body. For example, if we use our bodies in a wrong posture, we get physical pain, but the same applies to the mind: if our mind is in the wrong posture, we get mental pain. He talked a lot about the concept of ownership and of using the words my and mine. Whenever we think we own something, it becomes a burden because we get attached to it. This can be anything, from the smallest objects to other people, and is very relevant in relationships. Imagine, if you want to own something, it immediately creates problems for you: you worry about it being stolen, you start comparing it with that of others, you become afraid to lose it, and when you see that someone else has a better one you want a new one. And the more you own, the more problems you face because you need to protect these things and keep them from getting stolen or lost. Also, you get hurt if someone comments on them negatively because you link them with yourself and thus take the comments personally. Wouldn't it be great to enjoy everything without all the problems? Kakoday explained that the same applies to our physical body. If we think of it as our possession or as the essence of what we are, problems arise. He said that we should consider our bodies as vehicles that we merely use in this life, and as such consider ourselves as guests here. We are here for a little while, during which we might use our bodies and enjoy all there is, but we cannot own anything because we are simply guests and we belong to something much larger. He drew a picture of this to make it more clear, of which I made my own example:

In this picture, you are the star. The black line is a division below which is this physical world and above which is everything else. The white line is your journey, showing how small and short this life is, and how all the things you consider yours in your life are simply things of this short visit, belonging only to a very limited physical world.

With this, Kakoday wanted to highlight that the more we consider ourselves as guests, and the more we remember that we are the star, unattached to everything here, the more the position of our minds turn towards a healthier one, making us happy and balanced. This shift in posture does not mean that we need to give up everything, it will all still be there for us to use, love, and enjoy, and we can still buy things, but without the attachment and without the problems. So where to start? When someone in the audience asked this question, Kakoday simply said: as often as possible, simply think that you are only a guest, you are the star in the picture. Use this pattern of thought in your daily life, and if you want to go deeper, begin a daily routine of meditation.

Emma

Consciousness

Hello everyone! It's been a while. I got back from London, worked for a couple of days, and then caught a flu that lasted until today basically. It was my body's way of telling me that I needed rest. And I think I deserved some rest too, after all my dissertation stress. But now I'm here and the first thing I'll write about is an idea I had yesterday. I decided that every week we could introduce something here that has inspired us to a healthier life, or opened our eyes to a more truthful view of health. It could be a book, a film, a website, a blog, a lecture, or anything else really. And it can be about physical, mental, or spiritual health, as our intention here is to focus on all of these aspects.

So, to begin with I want to introduce a 3-part film called The secret power of the mind that I watched yesterday. Unfortunately, I saw it online through the Finnish tv, and although the original documentary is Danish, I couldn't find another version online. But for those of you who can't watch it, I'll try to write a summary of what it's all about.

Watch it here (the first part is only available for 10 more days so be quick).

This documentary shows how science is actually doing a lot towards understanding consciousness, even if these studies are often kept from us by the media. Consciousness is an aspect of the human that is probably the least understood by science, and it has widely been believed that our consciousness is in our physical brain, and therefore in our physical body. However, since time immemorial many people, who have often been stigmatised as lunatics or psychotic, have understood that we are much more than our physical bodies. Religions also share this belief, which can be seen in the different ideas about afterlife, and no religion states that the life of the soul ends when the body dies. Now science (or the people who ask the questions that science tries to answer) has evolved to a point where it is becoming increasingly clear that our consciousness is not restricted to our body. In the film, many different such studies are demonstrated, from the power of meditation to telepathy to near-death experiences. These studies all show that such phenomena can no longer be explained through conventional scientific ideas, but a complete change in the way we understand ourselves as humans needs to occur. In other words, we have a body, but we are not our body. Now, many people are already very familiar with these things, and for them this is nothing new, but I think what is so extraordinary about the film is that people who are confined to conventional ideas will soon have to open their eyes because they can no longer use science as a comforting ground for their scepticism.

Where I wanted to arrive with this is the idea that the more we understand that we are not our bodies (or our brains, or even our minds), the lighter we will feel and the happier we will become. I have a lot more to say about this but I'll leave it to another post soon to follow.

Emma

Open your eyes

“Taste the Waste“ — the trailer from tastethewaste.com on Vimeo.

This is something that pretty much summarizes the madness of 'civilization'.

I tried to find the complete documentary online, but it seems only to be available in Finnish (and only for 24 days more), access it here.

Emma