Fear is this emptiness which is in each one of us, and we try to fill it with innumerable recipes for God, good works, divine knowledge, worldly knowledge, amusement and entertainment, religious or otherwise. But it is always there, this emptiness and fear. In our emptiness, we practise for something which our fear has conceived to be great, and we remain in emptiness. Strip us of all jargon, robes, formulas and holy certainties, and what remains? Dull, aching emptiness and the fear of being nothing. The beauty of life goes by. Can you and I go beyond this seeking, these tortures, these actions of emptiness and fear? If not, we are bound to walk in darkness. In darkness, there is no light of understanding. Light is not at the end of fear and darkness; it is here when you know how to look. To see is the greatest thing.
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
How is the mind to find the truth in fear? First of all, one has to understand that fear is the result of thinking. If you did not think, you would not be afraid, would you? That is, if you did not think about death – I am taking that as an example – you would have no fear of death. It is the idea that you are going to die, it is the idea from seeing others die, the idea of putting it as far away as you can and not thinking about it, that causes fear. That is, thinking about death causes fear. So, is it possible to live without thinking? Not going to sleep, not vegetating, but to see the fact that thinking about death creates the future. Thought creates the future; thought creates the idea of public opinion and what people are going to say, and that public opinion might deprive you of your job. So thinking about the future creates and breeds fear. And thinking about the past – when you were well, when you were happy, when you had comfort, whatever one has had – thinking about that as the past and thinking about the future is fear. So to understand fear, one
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How is the mind to find the truth in fear? First of all, one has to understand that fear is the result of thinking. If you did not think, you would not be afraid, would you? That is, if you did not think about death – I am taking that as an example – you would have no fear of death. It is the idea that you are going to die, it is the idea from seeing others die, the idea of putting it as far away as you can and not thinking about it, that causes fear. That is, thinking about death causes fear. So, is it possible to live without thinking? Not going to sleep, not vegetating, but to see the fact that thinking about death creates the future. Thought creates the future; thought creates the idea of public opinion and what people are going to say, and that public opinion might deprive you of your job. So thinking about the future creates and breeds fear. And thinking about the past – when you were well, when you were happy, when you had comfort, whatever one has had – thinking about that as the past and thinking about the future is fear. So to understand fear, one has to understand the machinery of thought, not how to get rid of fear. As thought breeds fear, you will say, ‘How am I to stop thinking?’ You cannot stop thinking – that would be too idiotic – but if you understood the whole process of the machinery of thinking, you would be able to understand what fear is and be rid of fear.
A historic western U.S. snow drought, worsened by record winter and early-spring heat, is raising concerns about water supplies and wildfire risks in the months ahead.
I find that graphic visually very confusing and hard to read, and the labelling doesn’t make any sense—the middle of the y-axis isn’t 0% of normal, it’s 0% difference from some baseline (which you need a magnifying glass to discover).
Powerful economic groups, at both national and international levels, have shaped and maintained a trade-based system that prioritises profit over human and ecological wellbeing, thereby undermining attempts to move towards trade-free products and services. Advocates, researchers and campaigners who promote systems based on access, cooperation and sufficiency remain relatively powerless compared with these organised interests.
This suggests that attempting to solve social, health and environmental problems within a trade-based framework—by placing responsibility on individual consumers—is, so far, a largely insufficient response to the question: How can we make a difference?
It also indicates that deeper structural change is required: a transition away from trade-driven production and distribution towards systems organised around shared access, sustainability and collective need. Such a transformation would require confronting entrenched economic power, dismantling profit-centred incentives, and challenging the political structures that sustain the current t
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Powerful economic groups, at both national and international levels, have shaped and maintained a trade-based system that prioritises profit over human and ecological wellbeing, thereby undermining attempts to move towards trade-free products and services. Advocates, researchers and campaigners who promote systems based on access, cooperation and sufficiency remain relatively powerless compared with these organised interests.
This suggests that attempting to solve social, health and environmental problems within a trade-based framework—by placing responsibility on individual consumers—is, so far, a largely insufficient response to the question: How can we make a difference?
It also indicates that deeper structural change is required: a transition away from trade-driven production and distribution towards systems organised around shared access, sustainability and collective need. Such a transformation would require confronting entrenched economic power, dismantling profit-centred incentives, and challenging the political structures that sustain the current trade-based society—one which drives many of the problems it claims to solve.
The ideas relevant to actions that are difficult to achieve—such as transitioning away from a trade-based system—depend on the scale and nature of those actions. While individual efforts alone are often insufficient, meaningful progress can be made by developing and participating in collective, trade-free alternatives.
One approach is to collaborate with others to share time, skills and resources, creating local systems based on access rather than exchange. For example, communities can organise food growing, repair networks or shared services that operate without monetary transactions, thereby reducing dependence on trade-based structures. These initiatives demonstrate practical models of provisioning that prioritise sufficiency, cooperation and sustainability over profit.
Another approach involves forming or joining networks of like-minded individuals to advocate for broader systemic change. This can include lobbying for policies that support commons-based systems, public access to essential services, and the gradual replacement of profit-driven production
... Show more...
The ideas relevant to actions that are difficult to achieve—such as transitioning away from a trade-based system—depend on the scale and nature of those actions. While individual efforts alone are often insufficient, meaningful progress can be made by developing and participating in collective, trade-free alternatives.
One approach is to collaborate with others to share time, skills and resources, creating local systems based on access rather than exchange. For example, communities can organise food growing, repair networks or shared services that operate without monetary transactions, thereby reducing dependence on trade-based structures. These initiatives demonstrate practical models of provisioning that prioritise sufficiency, cooperation and sustainability over profit.
Another approach involves forming or joining networks of like-minded individuals to advocate for broader systemic change. This can include lobbying for policies that support commons-based systems, public access to essential services, and the gradual replacement of profit-driven production with needs-based provisioning. Such collective action can challenge existing economic power structures and influence political decisions at local, national and global levels.
Ultimately, scaling up change requires both grassroots experimentation and coordinated efforts to transform the underlying structures of society. By combining practical alternatives with collective advocacy, it becomes possible to move beyond a trade-based system towards one that better addresses social and environmental challenges.
It is part of human tradition to accept fear. Both the older and younger generations live with fear. Most are not aware that we live in fear. It is only in a mild form of crisis or a shattering incident that we become aware of this abiding fear. It is there. Some are aware of it, others shy away from it. Tradition says to control fear, run away from it, suppress it, analyse it, act upon it or accept it. We have lived with fear for millennia, and we somehow manage to get along with it. It is the nature of tradition to act upon it or run away from it, or sentimentally to accept it and look to an outside agency to resolve it. Religions spring from this fear, and the politician’s compelling urge for power is born out of this fear. Any form of domination over another is the nature of fear. When a man or a woman possesses another, there is fear in the background, and this fear destroys every form of relationship.
A recent #study has revealed that even in the most isolated parts of the #Amazon, bird #populations are collapsing due to #climatechange. Research published in Science Advances found that a 1°C inc…
Thank you Ondine for becoming our new TROM supporter tromsite.com/donate/ - it is so motivating to see new people supporting TROM. Makes you want to put more effort into it, create new things, etc.!
If we get 12 more people to donate 5€ a month we can do these:
We will start a video series for TROM, similar to the books' content. We will bring back TROMnews because the world needs a good news website. We will increase the TROM Files storage space to 20GB for all.
Fear may take different forms: I am afraid of public opinion, I am afraid of falling ill, I am afraid of losing my wife or husband, I am afraid of being nobody, I am afraid of being lonely. Do you know what that word means? Have you ever been lonely? Have you ever felt what it is to be lonely? Probably not, because you are surrounded by your family, you are always thinking about your job, reading a book, listening to the radio, listening to the infinite gossip of the newspapers. So, probably, you never know that strange feeling of being completely isolated. You may have occasional intimations of it, but you have never come into contact with it directly, as you have with pain, with hunger, with sex. But if you do not understand that loneliness which is the cause of fear, then you will not understand fear and be free of it.
I am a subscriber to the ideology that all negative behavior is a manifestation of insecurities. I am of course referring to those with a healthy neurological function. The average person, not the exceptions.
Loneliness is an insecurity based on self-perceived lack of worth. You can be lonely in a room full of your so-called friends and family. You can indeed be all alone and not be lonely at all. Carl Jung spoke extensively on the topic of having a smaller circle and the values of it and how this can intimidate others.
As a student of Functional Human Behavior I have considered many ideologies on what the cause of negative behavior is. In my opinion it is a lack of coping skills. Of course I am addressing issues that do not involve neurological dysfunction.
Do you believe that one must be isolated to be lonely? Do you believe the loneliness is the issue or the symptom of the issue?
Sir, may we look at this together, not as a conclusion, not as an ideology to be accepted or rejected, but as something to be observed directly?
You say that all negative behaviour springs from insecurity, and that loneliness is a form of that insecurity. But the moment we name something—“insecurity”, “lack of coping skills”—have we not already moved away from actually seeing it? The word is not the thing. The explanation is not the fact.
What is important is not whether loneliness is a symptom or a cause, but whether we can look at loneliness without escaping from it.
You ask: must one be isolated to be lonely? Obviously not. One may be surrounded by people, by noise, by relationships, and still feel this deep sense of emptiness. And one may be physically alone and yet not feel lonely at all. So loneliness is not dependent on outward conditions.
Then what is it?
If you observe it in yourself, without judgement, without trying to overcome it, you may see that loneliness is a sense of inner emptiness, a feeling of be
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Sir, may we look at this together, not as a conclusion, not as an ideology to be accepted or rejected, but as something to be observed directly?
You say that all negative behaviour springs from insecurity, and that loneliness is a form of that insecurity. But the moment we name something—“insecurity”, “lack of coping skills”—have we not already moved away from actually seeing it? The word is not the thing. The explanation is not the fact.
What is important is not whether loneliness is a symptom or a cause, but whether we can look at loneliness without escaping from it.
You ask: must one be isolated to be lonely? Obviously not. One may be surrounded by people, by noise, by relationships, and still feel this deep sense of emptiness. And one may be physically alone and yet not feel lonely at all. So loneliness is not dependent on outward conditions.
Then what is it?
If you observe it in yourself, without judgement, without trying to overcome it, you may see that loneliness is a sense of inner emptiness, a feeling of being nothing, of not being connected. And immediately the mind tries to escape—from that feeling—through relationships, beliefs, activities, knowledge, even explanations such as “it is insecurity” or “lack of coping”.
Those escapes may be clever, even intellectual, but they do not end loneliness.
So is loneliness the problem, or is the problem the movement of escape from what is?
If you do not escape—if you remain with that feeling, without naming it, without trying to fill it—then something entirely different takes place. Then you are not separate from loneliness; you are that loneliness. And in that observation, without division, there is a transformation.
Not through effort, not through coping, not through analysis—but through direct perception.
So perhaps the question is not what causes loneliness, nor how to manage it, but whether the mind can look at it without running away.
EDIT: I decided to delete the fundraiser. I do not want to ask money for this. I will buy it myself so to not put any pressure on me for making any videos or pressure on anyone else to donate. It is ok.
For the past 1-2 years I have been massively struggling in terms of "what to do". I want to DO, I want to say a lot of things like I've been saying for the past decade via videos and books, but I want to have a different approach to things. I would like to find the positive, scientific, smart approach.
We have so much shit in our world: wars, inequality, stupid people, AI slop, consumerism, it is fucking overwhelming. And it is so tempting to get angry at
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EDIT: I decided to delete the fundraiser. I do not want to ask money for this. I will buy it myself so to not put any pressure on me for making any videos or pressure on anyone else to donate. It is ok.
For the past 1-2 years I have been massively struggling in terms of "what to do". I want to DO, I want to say a lot of things like I've been saying for the past decade via videos and books, but I want to have a different approach to things. I would like to find the positive, scientific, smart approach.
We have so much shit in our world: wars, inequality, stupid people, AI slop, consumerism, it is fucking overwhelming. And it is so tempting to get angry at all of this and shout angrily at the world. And this is what I felt like doing. But maybe I can approach things from a more positive perspective. Something different!
Anyway, besides managing our TROM projects I would like to create more content and I am playing around with video.
Listen, most of the time you do not need a special equipment to start something. You wanna run? You do not need running shoes! You wanna make videos, make them with what you have! The content matters.
BUT.
My camera is my Pixel 6a and in low light (inside the motorhome where I plan to shoot) it is potato quality. I tried and tried and I do not like it at all. Plus I cannot see the screen when recording so I do not know when the phone stops recording, which it does very often due to overheating. So I gave up filming a bunch of times.
Anyway, it is a pain for me to record. To give it a try...
Sold my kayak and want to buy something with the money.
My family gifted me an inflatable kayak a few years ago. But lately we did not use it much and since we live in a motorhome we cannot take it with us. I managed to sell it for 180€ and I was thinking to convert that into getting something for me that can be useful. To regift the gift.
So then I found this really great camera: Osmo Pocket 3.
The camera.
I was not aware of this camera format up until a few weeks ago. I watched so many reviews. Basically it is a great camera that films super well in low light. It is small and so easy to use. Has a lot of accessories and features that can make the recording so easy. Like it can track you, has an amazing lavmic, it is so small and can even be connected with the computer and used as a webcam.
Anyway, I really like this camera and I think it can help me give it a try at making videos.
The camera is 2 years old and I am buying it second hand. But it is still expensive for me. It costs around 300€ without the lavmic and a few accessories. I have the kayak money and if I get any support here I could buy it. I will buy it eventually regardless, but I was thinking to make this campaign in case anyone wants to help.
Unfortunately the donations I get from TROM are barely enough to keep me afloat, else I would not ask for this.
I am also not going to promise I will make some videos for TROM like I have planned, but something I will make with this camera for TROM.
Huge post.
That's all. If anyone can help thank you a lot and I much appreciate you. I am trying to keep myself sane and the TROM projects relevant.
In the meantime I am working on stuff for TROM and when I get the money to get the camera, I will get it and try to make some videos.
Bye.
This entry was edited (Sunday, March 29, 2026, 11:07 PM)
Benjamin Knispel
in reply to Benjamin Knispel • • •Kreutz comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) qickly approaching perihelion in the field of view of the of the CCOR-1 coronograph.
This movie is missing 3 hours early morning UTC, when there entire field of view is white in the original movie.
#Kreutz #Comet #CometMAPS #CCOR1 #MAPS
Benjamin Knispel
in reply to Benjamin Knispel • • •Two fresh images from SOHO, where the comet is now in both the LASCO C3 and C2 fields.
#Kreutz #Comet #CometMAPS #SOHO #LASCO #MAPS