About Socrates – His main message and Gautama Siddhartha’s similar message.

 Socrates: The unexamined life is not worth living. 

 Can be translated as: Living without contemplating life is meaningless.

 Socrates was careful to emphasize the importance of first and foremost considering the well-being of the true self (he used the word soul) and not caring so much about the person’s current life. 

 Throughout his life, he worked according to this principle. This is obvious from Plato’s dialogue “Apology”.

 Gautama Siddhartha’s (Buddha’s) message meant basically the same thing. It is important to, in accordance with the Law of Karma: Draw lessons, with the help of your Human Nature, that improve the karma of your Buddha-Nature.

 It was, according to Socrates, with the help of the Socratic midwife method that the individual should “contemplate life”.

 I summarize the messages to: Your life as a human being should be set up so that you (your true self) use yourself (your true self) of your human identity (your false self) to improve the karma of your true self. This also means that your human self willingly submits to your true (eternal) self.

 I recommend Bettany Hughes’ video (1 hour long) about Socrates. Socrates’ life’s work and his message are clarified in this video.

Listen at least starting at 43 minutes into the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P05xZMAfQ30

Todd

Also check: 

https://axiom1b.blogspot.com/2016/03/about-socrates-and-his-attitude-to.html

 

Tribute to Socrates and his method

 I cannot help but present some information about my dear friend - Socrates.

 His method - the "midwife method" - is not as well known as one (especially I) would like. If we start with the word philosophy, it consists of two parts (from the Greek) "philos" meaning "friendship" or "love" + "sophos" meaning "wise" or "wisdom".

 The word philosophy was created when the philosopher Pythagoras was asked "Are you wise?" and replied “No, but I am a friend (philos) of wisdom (sophos)”.

 The most important (and often forgotten) thesis of the Socratic method is that wisdom is true knowledge (which belongs to the eternal and unchanging world of ideas) while ordinary practical knowledge belongs to the perishable and ever-changing world of the senses (the world we perceive with our bodily senses). Wisdom is created with our thoughts. Both our true self and our wisdom exist in the ungchanging world (of ideas).

 Practical knowledge is for survival in the world of the senses, while true knowledge (wisdom) is for overcoming the limitations of the body and mind and thereby awakening the true self’s awareness of itself – What was inscribed above the entrance to the Oracle at Delphi – Know thyself! (i.e. know your true self).

 Both Gautama Siddhartha (often called the Buddha) and Socrates were careful to point out that everything that exists in the world of the senses is constantly changing – it either gets better or worse, but it never stays the same. That is why it is pointless to fight for something in the world of   the senses to remain the same in the future.

 That the Socratic method is about directing attention to the world of ideas (behind the phenomena) instead of focusing on the present in space/time in order to reach eternal wisdom is not understood by many modern people.

 Our Café Socrates meetings aim to teach participants to reach towards the world of ideas in order to become wiser.

 An example of this is the law of gravity, which is an idea that is eternal and unchangeable (at least in space/time of the physical universe), while gravity in the world of the senses changes depending on how high above our planet you are or if you are on other planets or near black holes.

 The great philosopher Povel Ramel expressed this changeability when he wrote: Where do all the beautiful girls and handsome young men go? – Where do all the ugly old women and old men come from?

 

Todde

Are we headed for a serious recession?

 Warren Buffet has proven to be good at seeing where we are headed economically before others. It is this ability that has made him one of the richest people in the world.

 He has recently been careful to sell off assets to prepare for an upcoming deep recession by building up an enormous amount of liquid funds.

 He intends to use these liquid funds when the recession hits and many possible “deals” appear on the market.

 Those of us who do not have the large amounts of capital that he has at disposal will have to be content with preparing for an upcoming recession in other ways. Listening to Warren Buffet’s warnings can be a first step. Buffet believes that the signs speak for themselves.

1) More and more people are starting to save instead of spend.

2) States are investing in weapons and the military instead of infrastructure.

 

 When Donald Trump creates chaos in the financial, international, economic system, he is paving the way for the creation of anxiety and lack of confidence in banks and institutions. Instability breeds recession.

 In China, a property crisis that has been going on for a few years has increasingly begun to create distrust in both the Chinese government and its banking system. China's surplus production of goods (reduced imports to the US) is shaking world markets.

 The Russian economy is facing collapse due to the Ukraine war. 

Lessons to learn from the 1930s

 Very few people have bothered to learn from the 1930s depression about how to survive a recession. Some lessons:

 1) Those who had no liquid assets to fall back on were hit harder.

 2) The failure to acquire financial cushions to fall back on led to runs on the banks when banks restricted cash withdrawals or simply closed down.

 3) When the banking system stopped working, people turned to barter. Therefore, it is advisable to prepare yourself as much as possible by ensuring that you have the opportunity to acquire goods that are desirable for barter.

 4) Having only one source of income is risky. If you have more sources of income, you are less vulnerable. Many people today are dependent on a single source of income (e.g. wage earners).

 5) Those who are thrifty and like to recycle or repair increase their chances of surviving a deep recession. 

Todde

Also check: https://axiom1b.blogspot.com/2025/01/wealth-power-after-reading-book-wealth.html

 PS. Already in the 1980s I began to worry about the rapidly growing international "debt mountain" (credit bubble). Even then it turned out that the international banking system's credits to states were growing rapidly. This "bubble" has since expanded enormously.

 

Life is short! - What is the meaning of living? - Buddhist Wisdom.

 A common misunderstood on Buddhisim is that the word DUKKA translates to Suffering when a more correct translation of DUKKA is disturbance. In the Video below they point out this misunderstood of the word of DUKKA.

 The etymological (original) root word for LIFE is leip- with the meaning To get stuck, To cling. – A common misunderstanding in Buddhism is that the word DUKKA is translated as suffering when a more correct translation of DUKKA is disturbance.

To live in the spiritually high Indo-European culture, where it was realized that disturbances caused consciousness to get stuck in time and locked attention to the DUKKA disturbance. The purpose of Buddhist meditation is to release the attention where it is stuck, so that instead of being “stuck” the individual can allow life to flow without getting stuck. A beautiful thought! A Buddhist thought!

In this video it is pointed out that DUKKA has been incorrectly translated as suffering. -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e14gtu3MhFg

The video is in English and it is possible to have English subtitles printed.

Todde

Also check: https://axiom1b.blogspot.com/2025/01/blog-post.html

 The US's slide on the global shrimp sandwich is heading for a brutal end

 

 According to Peter Schiff, Donald Trump has misunderstood why US factories are being closed and production is being moved abroad. But the crash caused by the tariffs would have happened soon even without Trump, he claims. Through Trump's tariff policy, the US itself has pulled the plug on its debt-financed economic machinery, according to financial profile Peter Schiff.

 But the crash that is now happening is partly a liberation, and sooner or later would have happened anyway, he believes. - The US's slide on the global shrimp sandwich is heading for a brutal end, says Schiff. Peter Schiff describes how the Trump administration's tariff policy, the runaway debt and a growing global dissatisfaction with the dollar are now interacting in a perfect storm - with historically rising gold prices as one of the first effects.

 - I thought it would take an external dollar crisis to get everything rolling. But we did it to ourselves. We burst our own bubble, says Schiff in the interview. The price of gold has risen by almost 700 dollars since the beginning of the year and on Monday morning approached the record level of 3,400 dollars per ounce (just over 1,000 Swedish kronor per gram).

 And yet there is still almost no one buying, except for the central banks, says Schiff. According to him, these central banks have been quietly reducing their dollar exposure for a long time and replacing it with physical gold – in anticipation of a new monetary paradigm. – They are preparing for a world where the dollar is no longer the reserve currency.

What do you replace it with? The obvious answer is gold. But despite the strong goldrally, Schiff recommends small savers to wait to buy physical gold.
rally. Instead, he highlights mining companies as extremely undervalued. – Gold stocks are undervalued at a historic level. Central banks do not buy shares in mining companies – they buy the gold that the companies mine. And the mining companies' costs, especially oil, have never been so low in relation to gold. Their profits will explode

 At the same time, it is the trade war between the US and China that is driving market unrest. This week, Donald Trump imposed 145 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, to which China quickly responded with its own tariffs of 125 percent. Beijing calls the US actions "economic blackmail". Peter Schiff is merciless in his criticism of the tariffs – and believes that Trump has completely misunderstood how the world economy works. – He looked at our large trade deficits and thought it was because foreigners were cheating us. But no one is cheating us. In fact, the trade deficits are because we have borrowed too much, and lived beyond our means for decades.

 The US overconsumption, financed by foreign loans and asset sales in the form of newly created dollars, has long been possible thanks to the willingness of other countries to keep the US afloat by accepting the dollar as a reserve currency regardless of how many dollars the US creates, according to Schiff.

 When Trump now tries to “break the dependence” that he believes China has on the US, it has the opposite effect. – We are the ones who are dependent – ​​not China. It is easy to replace one customer base with another. Anyone can consume. The hard part is producing. And we have left the production to others. “The party is over” Schiff believes that the real crisis is about confidence in the US currency – and the ability to continue to borrow without consequences. With a national debt that has exceeded 34 trillion dollars, there is no way back. – We have lived at the expense of the world. We have had low interest rates, low inflation and higher stock prices thanks to foreign capital.

But if we now try to cut that bond – then the party will be over. At the same time, the dollar, US government bonds and the stock market are falling – three assets that traditionally tend to move in different directions. Schiff sees this as an ominous sign.

The classic "flight to safety" pattern is breaking down. Investors are starting to understand that there is no longer a safe haven in the US. For Schiff, the fact that gold is rising so sharply is proof that reality has caught up with a system that has long rested on artificial respiration.

 He quotes himself from a recent post on X: "US dollars, bonds and stocks are being killed. The US's slide on the global shrimp sandwich is heading for a brutal end." And this is how he summarizes the developments in the Kitco interview:

We will be forced to stop living beyond our means. That means higher interest rates, higher prices, lower stock market values ​​– and a greatly reduced standard of living. With a sarcastic twinkle, Schiff says that the United States has now been "liberated" from its standard of living.

– I warned years ago that Trump was threatening to strip us of our prosperity. Now it's happening. And this is just the beginning, says Schiff.

Also check:

https://axiom1b.blogspot.com/2025/01/wealth-power-after-reading-book-wealth.html

and listen to what a man from China has to say about us in the western world:

Kinesisk influencer förklarar "vad som är fel med västvärlden" | Fria Tider

 

Before Birth After Death

 

 The Buddhas answer to these questions should interest every individual human being.

 Why do some souls choose darkness before being born into human form?

 Check this link to learn about the buddhist answers.

https://www.google.com/search?q=awakening+wisdom+Why+before+death+some+souls+choose+darkness&oq=awakening+wisdom+Why+before+death+some+souls+choose+darkness&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRifBTIHCAIQIRifBdIBCTY1NDEzajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:34ce15c1,vid:q0SXRry2Xm8,st:0

Todde 

Also check:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=efe80ebf88ba2062&sxsrf=AHTn8zoYYKvlKN7SjLo0IqHPm5QCNx3llA:1741125297485&q=Buddhist+blog+if+you+are+not+your+thoughts,+who%27s+thinking+then?&spell=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwixrvaWtfGLAxXVCRAIHWukAN0QBSgAegQICBAB&biw=1440&bih=747&dpr=1#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:c854ef07,vid:HrKTGrj4YHo,st:0 

 The False Self – The True Self.

 I have in previous lives devoted myself to various philosophies - Among others Buddhism.

 So when I found this Video on the Internet I became a little happy. What a wonderful description of the importance of learning to see the difference between the “false self” (human nature) and the “true self” (Consciousness/Awareness – the Observer). So now I want to share this idea package with everyone who logs on to my blog.

Watch: https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=there+is+no+%22you%22+%28and+you+don%c2%b4t+even+realize+it%29&mid=C920673F750105D8268AC920673F750105D8268A&mcid=640398D716BB4071BFDF48C4C774538A&FORM=VIRE

 

Todde 

 Also check: https://axiom1b.blogspot.com/2025/02/what-is-nothing-from-philosophical.html

 And: https://axiom1b.blogspot.com/2025/03/buddhisms-answer-to-question-if-you-are.html