A religious story is a story with a moral. The nice thing about religion is that you think most of it isn’t literally true—but in some way, it still is.
The story of Adam and Eve
The story of Adam and Eve is about how curiosity is never truly punished. Or perhaps that we, as humans, would rather be punished forever and live in hell than live in a world where someone isn’t allowed to take a bite of a forbidden apple. Fine—then no paradise. That’s the lesson: curiosity is never punished. You’re allowed to know everything you want.
Aside from that, there’s a big element of sexuality in it—but that’s for you to think about yourself.
The story of Buddha
Buddhism is about a man who sits under a tree by himself (he does nothing) and wants to end the suffering of all people in the world. Noble—but it doesn’t get more ego-driven than that, of course. Then, I think, he is shown a gigantic ego “from above,” and even then he still doesn’t get it. That’s the whole joke. You can’t end all the suffering in the world; suffering belongs to the world. There’s nothing wrong with thinking—but just sitting under a tree doesn’t really contribute much, of course.
What’s striking is that many people still live under the illusion that the ego exists and that you must live in a temple wearing an orange robe.
That’s why Buddhism is often called “the devil in disguise,” because it sounds so solid—peaceful, compassionate—but it isn’t, really. Buddhism is extremely judgmental about thoughts. In translation, far too much focus is placed on breathing, which is dangerous. There’s also too much distance between feeling and thought (“observe your feelings without judgment”), which is a bad idea.
That said—even the devil is right sometimes. You do need to accept both good and bad.
The story of Jesus
The story of Jesus is about how much more is possible than we humans tend to believe. You can get much more out of life. Could Jesus really walk on water? No. But certain parts of your body feel like water. It’s already a bit like walking on water. I’m not going to spell it all out, because that takes away the fun—but believe me, there’s a lot to discover.
The fun part
The fun thing about all these stories is that these people really did do these kinds of things, and the moral is a reflection of how they lived. So it’s both a story and something that truly happened.
So don’t be discouraged by what others think this world is—most people don’t even touch one percent of what’s possible.
I recently read a book by someone who gave nutritional advice. The advice itself was solid: don’t eat too much, eat fresh vegetables and fruit, avoid sugar. The author suggested exercising moderately twice a week.
The problem with that kind of advice is that it’s just one single strategy for how you could do things.
It’s much smarter to let what you eat depend on what you’re doing.
For example: when I have a heavy training day, I eat a different breakfast than on a regular office day. Why? Because the way energy is released throughout the morning simply feels different.
On an office day, you want more basic food: a sandwich with cheese, oatmeal. On a heavy training day, you want something heavier—or maybe you eat more after your training.
The point is: you can never just say “eat X and Y and work out this many times per week.” That’s just one way of doing things. In that sense, all those books that say “do it like this” could be thrown away. You can take one strategy from them, sure—but there are thousands of ways to approach your health.
These days, I switch things up a lot more.
If I go swimming, I adapt my breakfast to that.
If I do strength training, I eat differently.
If I’m recovering, I eat something else again.
Maybe sometimes you even want a fasting day.
Don’t get me wrong: some things almost always work. Eating lots of vegetables and fruit is pretty much always a good idea.