Cooperate or die

Have you read SHANTARAM? What a mesmerisingly amazing book! So honest, so magical and so bloody intense! If you haven't had the pleasure yet – yes, the almost 1000 pages might be a bit scary at first, but it's really worth it. A wonderful and very rare reading experience is waiting for you!

There is a story going round that Gregory David Roberts, the author of Shantaram, started to write the book in prison. One day the prison guards found the manuscript (paper in those days) and threw it away. Roberts started from zero, got half way through the book and then the same thing happened again! So he set off a third time and when he finally got out he managed to finish it. Now, that's dedication!

Whether this story is totally true or not, I don't know, but it's possible. And for me that's what this book is about: A reminder that life itself is a crazy adventure and that each moment carries endless possibilities.

When I finished Shantaram I read a few articles and watched some interviews to find out more about the book and the author. At some point I stumbled across a video with Roberts speaking at an event in Mumbai. The whole video is really good but there is especially one part where he talks about the current state of the world, and the way he describes our situation I find quite remarkable.

We are in transition – a much needed transition! For a long time we've been competing with each other and consuming the hell out of this planet. In fact, most of the stuff we do involves competition and consumption, the two have become God-like ideals to strive for. But our circumstances have changed, rather drastically, and so unless we start to cooperate and to conserve, very soon this whole place will be a story of the past. WE will be a story of the past.

I was going to write more about what he says in the video but I think that he puts it all so well, so clear and inspiring, speaking passionately and beautifully, that I recommend you to simply watch it.

“If we don't change, if we don't learn how to cooperate, we will compete ourselves to death.”

(The part about competition and cooperation is from minute 3:05 - 15:50)

  

This is it

“Once the house is sold, everything will be better!”

These were the words of a good friend, repeated every time we met, for almost five years. Last week we talked the first time in ages and she told me about all the struggles she is facing at the moment. Towards the end of the conversation, after about 20min, she said that she'll be busy next weekend clearing the house.

“What?”

“Yes, the house, it's sold.”

I was puzzled. For years one of her main hopes for a better future had been to sell this damn house, and now that it was sold she hardly mentioned it. Her big dream had finally become true but now that dream had lost its magic; it had drowned in the sea of all the other everyday crap.

A similar kind of story happened to me recently too. Three months ago I was finishing my first documentary film, anicca – embracing change, and during the final weeks I could feel my stress levels rising on an hourly basis. I remember that I kept saying to myself, 'once this film is done I'll be able to relax'. Now the film is out and since the middle of last month I've been working on a new book. Due to a self-imposed deadline I found myself yet again with rising stress levels, and again I could hear that voice in my head, trying to convince me that 'once this book is done...'

'Once I have a better job...'

'Once I finish my studies...'

'Once I get my money back...'

'Once I find a new home...'

'Once it's summer...'

'Once I'm in love...'

'Once...'

Yes, one day it might all be better. But what if not? What if it won't get better? Or what if I am dead when one day arrives?

“We always imagine that there's got to be somewhere else better than where we are right now; this is the Great Somewhere Else we all carry around in our heads. We believe Somewhere Else is out there for us if only we could find it. But there's no Somewhere Else. Everything is right here.” (Brad Warner)

Can you hear it too? That furious storm of excuses hurling through the air? 'All very well, but I first need more money', 'I first need to find a different house', 'I first need to fall in love', etc. etc. etc. Fine, get money, find a house and fall in love. Do what you have to do but in the meantime, live! Laugh, cry and dance, be kind and breathe deeply! Enjoy today and be grateful for everything you have already. For there might not be a better tomorrow. There might not even be a tomorrow at all.

Get real!

The first blog article of the new year was going to be about 'paying attention', or rather, us not paying attention. But when I sat down yesterday to gather some thoughts I suddenly got the feeling that I had written about this before... So I had a look and indeed, almost 3 years ago I wrote an article called – guess what? – exactly: PAYING ATTENTION! Here's a link if you are interested: Paying attention 2013 - still very valid in 2016.

It's the 7^th year of me writing a blog and this is actually blog entry number 70. Totally random and unimportant information, I know. Anyway, after realising that I had already written about paying attention I slid into a tiny but very pathetic one-hour long depression. I was looking for something else to write about but nothing seemed worthwhile. Then I started to wonder why I am actually writing a blog at all? And why every month? And why me? Maybe I should quit. I've just turned 40, maybe this is the beginning of a midlife crisis...

Monday, back to work, life is terrible! Train is late! Traffic jam! So many emails to answer and facebook posts to read! So much ironing to do! So many restaurants - damn, it's so hard to choose! Which film to watch? Which shoes to wear? Which phone to get? And what should I write about? Where should I go on holidays? I NEED holidays! And fuck me, why is the internet so slow? 

Lovely all those problems we think we're having. What about this one for a change: Right now it's winter in Nepal. Like, REAL winter! Thousands of people are without housing, without heating, without electricity. REAL problems!

Since the earthquake happened in April of 2015 my sister Lisa has been fundraising and with the help of her Nepali friends every single cent that was raised went DIRECTLY to support those in need. Here's a little video about her work:

Jai Nepal - people helping people

Last week a stranger donated 1400 Euros; the week before we've raised almost 800 Euros on my birthday party. A neighbour put in 20 Euros, an old friend sent 10 Dollars and a little girl gave 50 cents which she stole from her piggybank. Everything helps.

Details:

Name: Lisa Mikosch

Bank: Sparkasse Mönchengladbach (Germany)

IBAN: DE11 3105 0000 0005 9581 37

BIC: MGLSDE33XXX

Subject: Help for Nepal

Paypal: lisamikosch@yahoo.de

THANK YOU!

Everything is possible

Back in my innocent teenage years I used to dream of becoming a football player. Or a lawyer, like Matlock. Or Robin Hood. Needless to say, all of these dreams have failed miserably and none of them are likely to ever manifest. And it doesn't matter – the little boy who might get disappointed is long gone.

As we grow older and change, our dreams change too – what seemed once like a great idea is now nothing but a sweet little fantasy from distant times. However, new dreams are born constantly and while many of these also disappear again, some persist. And when a dream persists in your consciousness you have two options: Either you ignore it, in which case you are left with a rather unpleasant feeling of 'I wish I had...', or you try to turn the dream into reality.

For quite a few years I've been wanting to see what happens if I combined three things that have played an important role in my life – music, photos and words. I kept thinking, 'how exciting it must be to do a film one day'. One day...

At the end of 2014 'one day' was suddenly right in front of me. I had no clue about filmmaking yet somehow it seemed possible. All I had to do was to jump over some stupid self-doubts and dive headfirst into a new adventure. Scary and uncomfortable stuff, but doable. And so I did...

11 months later, I've just finished a 85min documentary film about change. It's been an amazing journey full of ups and downs: shooting in several countries, great conversations, messed-up recordings, 3 months spent like a super nerd solidly in front of the computer, having to deal with a bunch a very unprofessional professionals, working with some highly talented artists, running a crowdfunding campaing, frustration, gratitude, madness...and learning, so much learning!

The result is a film called 'anicca - embracing change'. It's a very personal and honest documentary about key issues regarding our strugge with change: fear, courage, trust and the big challenge of accepting reality as it is.

Last Sunday we celebrated the official premiere in Bonn. It's been a wonderful event, full of beautiful people, inspirational stories and hope. Half way through watching the film I suddenly thought, 'wow, I've made a film - I'm a film maker now!', quickly followed by, 'how on Earth did this happen...?'

You have a dream? Make it happen! And if it doesn't work out, try a different one. As my Dad always says, you will never fail as long as you keep trying. And as they say in India, everything is possible!

From today, anicca is available to be watched online - in English, German or Spanish.

www.aniccathefilm.com

Now what?

Last Friday the tragedy of Paris happened. One day earlier, a similar act of senseless violence occurred in Beirut. Thousands if not millions of people have died in other attacks in the last years, all around the globe. And, unless you are drowning in some kind of utopian dream, many more casualties will follow soon. So much unnecessary death, so much suffering – at times, life sucks!

May those who already died rest in peace. But what about us, the ones who are still alive? We can't rest, because we're not at peace. We're left with a feeling of helpless impotence and rising fear, and we keep asking ourselves: now what?

Blaming others – terrorists, politicians, Gods – doesn't really help, for it will only lead to more conflict, hate and bloodshed. So instead of playing a ping pong game with guilt and blame, here are a few things we could try to do.

Minimizing news intake

If an alien came to planet Earth and listened to the news for a single day, he or she (or it?) would very quickly get the impression that this place is hell. War, murder, terror, racism, speciesism, egotism – bad news, 24/7.

Yes, it's important to not ignore what's going on, but we all know by now that a lot of shit is happening in the world. Reminders are great, but all the time? Constantly? There's a lot of good stuff happening too, it's just for some reason the news people don't want to talk about it. Fine, it's their choice, everyone can talk about what they want. However, WE can choose to not listen to them anymore. Because why would you want to listen to someone who's making you feel scared and miserable ALL THE TIME?

Practicing forgiveness

Not long ago a friend told me that, for him, 'the most powerful medicines are hope and forgiveness'. I think there's a lot of truth in these words. The only problem I have with hope is that, while it can be certainly very healing and comforting, it's a rather passive thing to do. 'I hope the world will be a better place soon...' – nice, but is it going to get better by itself?

Forgiveness on the other hand is full of action. 'I forgive you', that's me doing something very actively. And one thing is for sure: with so much violence and injustice going on, the world is in desperate need of a lot of forgiveness!

Even a suicide bomber needs to be forgiven because no child was born that way. 'Natural born killer' is a phrase which might make good movie titles but in real life I don't think that natural born killers exit. No one is born evil, people become that way because they've been misguided by false friends, false beliefs and/or a sick society.

Of course this is easy for me to say – if my daughter had been hurt or killed by some terrorist, I'd probably struggle to forgive. But then, what else can be done? What do we gain if we continue to hate?

By forgiving those who have done wrong, whoever they are and whatever they've done, we get a chance to heal our wounds, to let go of what was and to move on. To make it better.

Asking yourself: Are you 100% peaceful?

Talking about change and the problems in the world, another friend of mine recently said that, 'if we've created an aggressive world, then only because we are aggressive beings'.

You might say now that of course you'd never go and kill innocent people in a concert hall. Well, I hope so! But aggression has many faces – you don't have to be a mass murderer to be aggressive.

Perhaps you're even convinced that you're not aggressive at all, ever! But is this really the truth?

I think it's safe to say that there are very few people alive today who are totally peaceful. Most of us have feelings of anger, we have thoughts of hatred and revenge and we might even do violent things (for example eating meat is, ultimately, an act of violence; even calling someone an arsehole is).

No, we are no saints and it's okay that we're not. But it's really important to acknowledge the violence within, no matter how big or small it is. Because only if we honestly acknowledge this, only then are we able to change.

Peace can't be created if we merely pretend to be peaceful. Only if there are more and more people becoming truly peaceful, only then the whole world will become more peaceful too.

It's not them. It's us.

Time to care

The image kept coming back. In flashes. Violent and clear.

A grey bin bag flying into the rubbish container at the side of the road.

The air filled with death and cold indifference.

One of our dogs had already killed six of our chickens. It was Friday, sunshine at noon, my house mate's birthday. The lunch guests were about to arrive when I saw another dead chicken on the lawn. Not the best sight when the family is coming for a birthday gathering...

Since there wasn't much time I did the first thing that came to mind: I grabbed a bin bag, put the dead chicken in and drove to the nearest rubbish site. Slightly in a hurry, I stopped, engine running, got the chicken bag out and threw it into the container.

Two minutes later I was back home.

While the chicken started to rot away, covered by all sorts of other stuff that we throw away, my own life continued as usual. But then, out of nothing, the images of that moment at the rubbish container started to infiltrate my mind. And my heart.

The day after the birthday lunch (which was totally vegan by the way), we indulged in a huge and very tasty Argentinian BBQ. Chewing on the blood-drenched meat, a wave of pleasure sailed over my face. Here I was, eating death and enjoying it.

Then the memory of the dead chicken returned...

Ethically and morally it's a very weird and definitely questionable habit to eat meat, but I guess it's just something many of us do. So let's accept that for a moment.

What's totally NOT acceptable though is that we kill other beings AND treat them like shit, every single day of their lives! We steal the babies from the mothers, we pump them up with drugs and crappy food, put them in cages, no fresh air, hardly space to turn around, noise, excrements everywhere and no hope for any happiness. Then, after a short and miserable life, we kill them, eat them and don't even say thank you.

The chicken that I've thrown into the bin got killed running around the garden, by a dog who probably just wanted to play. Bad luck, and nothing I can do about.

But here's the question I've been asking myself ever since that day: The chicken had given me eggs to eat for many months – didn't it deserve a bit more than a heartless flight into a black container? A little gesture of gratitude, was that too much to ask for? I still can't believe that I didn't take the time to dig a hole somewhere and at least show the chicken some respect. Shame on me!

Carnivore, vegetarian, vegan – it doesn't matter. Well, it does, but what's much more important is something else: Whatever we do, whatever we eat and consume – shouldn't we make an effort to do it in a respectful manner? Shouldn't we care for and love everything that helps us to enjoy life? Whether it's a chicken, an apple tree or a mountain spring; whether it's a person who makes our clothes or a whole planet that provides food, shelter and special moments.

How long until we become beautiful humans?

Time to care.

The art of harvesting

Imagine you are sowing seeds in a garden – do you know beforehand which seeds will die and which ones will survive? And of those who will survive, which one will turn into the most beautiful flower?

3 weeks ago I've started the crowdfunding campaign for the documentary film that I'm working on. It's been quite a journey so far, with lots of ups and downs. A few days after the launch, funds suddenly stopped coming in and nothing happened, despite me sending out hundreds of emails and posting like hell on facebook. There I was, stuck on 23%, feeling left alone. I must admit that I felt a bit disappointed... Over the years I had done lots of favours to various people and now nothing was coming back.

But of course my feeling of disappointment was my own problem – I had created it by having expectations which were simply not appropriate. After all, when you give something, you shouldn't expect anything in return. If you give, you should give because you want to give. At least that's the theory...

Anyway, in the second week of the campaign things picked up again and slowly I was moving towards the set goal. And then, all of a sudden something truly amazing happened. It's quite personal but I'd like to share the story with you:

One morning I checked my mail and saw that someone had made a contribution of 500 Euros. 'Holy shit!', I thought. I looked at the name: a woman from Germany who I didn't know. Strange... She had an email address from a company, so I checked out the website. It was an agency for Heavy Metal concerts. WTF? Something didn't seem right and so I stayed totally calm and thought, 'ah well, probably someone has added accidentally one or two zeros'. So I wrote to her and said that, if it had been a mistake, to get in touch with me so that we can sort it out somehow.

I waited for a reply. Nothing. The afternoon passed, still nothing. Weird... Then, when I came home late that night, I had an email from her. It started something like this: “You don't know me but I know you...” Just imagine my face! I took a deep breath and kept reading. She said that I had helped her with several problems during the last year and that it was now time to give something back. I was like, 'what???'

It turned out that someone had given her one of my books (The Little Buddha), and then one thing had led to another and she also started reading this blog. She told me that I have shown her some different perspectives which have triggered positive changes in her own life. Finally she wrote: “Over the last year I've been saving some money. The I ching (the chinese book of changes) says that if you take you should also give – and today was a day of giving. It was pure coincidence that I stumbled over your campaign this morning...”

Far out or what? It was amazing to receive a contribution of 500 Euros for the film, absolutely fantastic! But what touched me even more was her very personal email, sharing some of her story with me. You know, sometimes, sitting here in my little room writing random stuff, I kind of lose track with the real world and actually wonder whether anybody is reading it... Not that it really matters if somebody reads it or not – I write because I feel like it and I guess it saves me many therapy sessions. But when I received her message I suddenly felt that there was more to it than just me trying to stay sane. Suddenly there was a purpose in what I'm doing. And this feeling...this moment... Priceless!

The whole experience has made me reflect on lots of things. Suddenly I almost felt embarrassed for having felt disappointed about not receiving any money from those who I had thought would support me straight away. The 'poor-little-me' syndrome – totally pathetic! Life just doesn't work like that, life isn't a two-way road. No, life is one huge network of roads and junctions and endless little paths, and somehow they are all connected.

If you help someone today, it might be that this person will never return the favour and that's absolutely fine. Because ultimately you're not helping an individual but life itself. And if you help life, life will remember... In other words: What goes around comes around.

Yes, we heard it all before. It's like 'living in the Now': Everybody knows about it, but how many actually do it? It's similar with the film I'm working on: The central message is that everything changes and that you have to accept that. Nothing new. But since the most simple wisdoms seem to be the most difficult ones to put into practice, we need to be reminded. Over and over again, until it really sinks in. Until we understand – not only intellectually but until we really understand, with our whole being, with every single cell of our soul.

Coming back to the beginning, when we sow seeds in the garden of course we don't know which ones will survive and which ones will turn into the most beautiful flowers. But one thing is for sure: If we don't sow, there won't be any harvest...

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PS: The crowdfunding campaign has reached its goal – thanks to everyone who has contributed! Does this mean the campaign is over? No, not quite yet. The initial goal was the absolute minimum that I need to get the film out. More funds will mean that I will have more money to invest in a website, mastering, etc. Films are kind of expensive business... There are a few days left, so if you want to get a streaming voucher or a DvD or an organic&fairtrade t-shirt, or if you simply want to become part of anicca – now is the time!

www.aniccathefilm.com