Faith, hope, love and us

For some reason, we, as a society seem to consider a man’s belongings to define him. A father is defined by his son, a rich man by his money, and a poor man , by the lack of it. The beliefs that a man has, often define his views on life, and hence how we perceive him. When we take away his possessions, he has nothing to define himself by. That something which would make him, HIM.

If every man were to be robbed, we would have an ocean of people unable to define themselves, and would that bring sorrow or misery, I do not know.

We often let our beliefs philosophize our outlook and hence, we tend to perceive occurrences differently. A lot of people believe in offerings to deities or saints, as a way of making life easier, a hope that there is a force greater than us defining our futures. There isn’t anything wrong with hope, in fact, the last thing we should be robbed of is hope. Evil be the thief who does so. It’s interesting where faith and hope seem to coincide into a symbiosis. A relationship that moves people to adorn stone with garlands, and tie cloth around trees.

When showing me a piece of silk , that she had bought for the marble idol of a god, my mother asked me if he’d like the silk (implying the personified statue), and I couldn’t help but reply that, marble does find silk more comfortable than cotton.
I found the idea funny, but to her , it was the only way she could attempt to make her child’s unseen future less fearful, by giving herself hope.

Humans tend to move towards a solution or an action that gives them greater hope for success. Stopping someone from pursing that action, is denying them hope, and I find that immoral in principle.

Then there is another symbiosis that is very entertaining – hope and love. I know rational people that end up stuffing their pockets with, and dangling from their necks, charms for luck and love. They become conducive to trying anything that gives them hope, because, crushes do have a tryst with desperation. A desperate man is a believer, because hope motivates him to be. If he’s not trying everything , he isn’t doing his best.

I remember this episode on HOUSE M.D, where the patient was a lady, and having informed her husband that she was dying, Dr House sees him praying.

House: I was told you didn’t believe in God.

Husband: I don’t. I promised my wife I do everything I can to fix her, if I don’t pray, then I don’t do everything.

Hide and Seek

She put her face , up against the tree ,
where others could see, promised not to peek.
Fought back her tears -
they had made her seek.

She knew what happened next,
began to count,
clenching her eyes shut,
hoping they would be found.

She tried hard to listen,
strained her ears for any sound.
A giggle perhaps, a muffled whisper,
just to know they were around.

In the silence she heard,
faster, she began to count.
She knew they were gone,
wished they could be found.

They left her alone, against that tree,
hiding, waiting for her to turn around.
For her to seek;
they would never be found.

Strings Attached

They gave him his lines, told him what to say, yet, it was the parts where he never spoke, that got to you. He sees their laughter, their joy, something that was always theirs but never his. He sees how they look at him. They try to hide their faces behind his turned back, but sometimes, that isn’t good enough. Some pity what he’s become, a waste of human resource. Some say they fear for him, because they only see what he could’ve become.

Nobody sees the other as a human being – a body built on and from alchemy and science. They don’t see, why, being mortal, any reason is a reason and just as valid.

He made false promises, for them to leave him alone, but now, he finds himself lonely. Why is it wrong to not know what he wants? Will he ever find purpose in what people so readily hold dear?

The most painful, was being judged by those restricted and lesser minded beings, fitting their frame of beliefs around him, wondering how to judge him. He is, to some of them, one who lost his path. “Why don’t they get that their progress doesn’t make sense to me?” . The one life they hold dear, he finds meaningless. They ridicule his disinterest, but he knows – they’re afraid he’s gone too far. He hates the advice they dispense, when all he’s looking for is empathy and an answer.

Ethics and Morality

What is ethical, is often right. The definition of something that is ‘right’ is that it be most apt for the situation. So what is morally right, is what is most ‘apt’. The problem with this arrangement, is that it breaks down with the question “what is apt and from who’s perspective?”. Since perspectives differ, and one can stand to lose, or win from an outcome – what is the ‘truly’ moral thing to do?

As the Zeitgiest changes and evolves, so does what is moral and right. There are a greater number of people now, who see that discriminating homosexuality is outrageous, than say two decades ago. Eventually it will be “morally right” to treat them as normal individuals, while currently opposing their freedom happens to be “morally right” .
Ethics and morality then , seem to be absolutely relative. Is there a possible reference that people could use (other than the book), to discover absolute and timeless morality?

It makes rational sense, to link morality induced altruism to selfishness. Self preservation and self benifit. There is nothing that is absolutely right or wrong- just measures of apt-ness.

Astounding evidence that morality is relative, is the change in paradigm that accompanies development. Humans are designed to survive. ( like any other organism). We will live with our past, with the greatest errors, and justify them. Any preconceived notion about the ethical nature of an action , is bound to change after the action has been performed. We stand apart and preach righteousness, feel superior, and when we fall, we manage to justify it morally.

Ethic, has the power to make cynics or idealists of people.

People will be kind and considerate, completely giving and altruistic when it doesn’t cost them to be so. On the phone, we extend support, compassion and care, often failing when it comes to the actual act. It costs lesser to be nice on the phone (and hope that the person doesn’t need your support after all), than to actually go do something nice.

Humans are, on the face of it, animals, and are subjects of predictable, pre-constructed behaviour. If realized that all of nature has a primitive driving force of self preservation behind it, human complexity, can be deconstructed to simple acts of selfishness.

Happiness and it's Pursuit

All conversations regarding the nature and meaning of life, and it’s purposefulness , seem to end with the question of happiness.

” I believe life has meaning and purpose, and I help and love, to make others happy. All cynicism can do is to make people desperate and cold. ”

How do you identify with the emotion of happiness without the presence of it’s opposite?Could it be that the level of happiness that we are able to perceive depends solely on the depth of sorrow we have experienced?Could it be that happiness is fleeting, not eternal and infinite, for then it would lose it’s meaning? A crest is defined by a trough. Similarly is happiness defined by its opposite?

It is rightly so, that cynicism has no place in the betterment of life, and whether life be devoid of purpose or otherwise, the search for happiness provides it with pseudo-meaning , enriching life. Perhaps cynics loose the desire for happiness , for their melancholy is now their joy, but the shallowest of pursuits finds a place of great depth in the living.

This pursuit of happiness, manifests, into animals, the contentment from intercourse, food, territory . But, among us, humans, it has driven our lives further, making it, in some ways higher and separate from this arbitrary world.

Falling

He stares out through the open window. The rain blown in, by defiant winds, wetting him with it’s spray. It’s dark, the sun drowned out by the rain, and his hunched frame silhouetted against the dull light through the window.

I’m cold. I’d like a some hot chai to warm myself with. We would go out for chai on rainy afternoons , I miss you. I’d sit out with you on the balcony, the rain was always special to me. Maybe it was because I was inside, with you, I was safe and warm. The world cold outside, drenched with countless tears.

He looks down at his old wrinkled hands.

You've been gone long, your memory , an inheritance.
You would’ve told me to close the windows, because the rain would come in. There’s just me now, I don’t care much about the rain coming in. It reminds me of you.

We’d talk about school, I don’t remember a single exact conversation ; I regret not cherishing our last one. When was the last one? I don’t remember. With every rain, you're always there, waiting. The chai’s getting cold, you tell me.

Now that I’m old and alone, I’ve grown closer to your memories. With the smell of wet mud , I feel sorrow mingled with the sense of awaiting happiness, with no future to be weary of. When I see you again, you’ll be there, with the sound of rain, on a lonely balcony atop the world.

*sigh*

Were you not in my past ? All those faded moments from which I have stolen memories, of you. I cannot be certain if you ever were. I see you now though, you question me, and I you. What can be said of the flame, but that it burns? Did it burn in the past , will it burn in the future, to come? Or, is the flame born every instant, and yet seem to us, to be one that lives forever?
Perhaps you never were. A delusion that I suffer from. But then, who am I without you?

Abstraction

Dictionary: re·al·i·ty

1.The quality or state of being actual or true.
2.The totality of all things possessing actuality, existence, or essence.
3.That which exists objectively and in fact: Your observations do not seem to be about reality.

I’ve had a problem with all three attempts at defining it. When is something true? Is it when you can feel, touch, observe, measure, contemplate and deduce? Is this material life a reality , with the law of conversation of energy an eternal commandment? If it is, the above three definitions automatically makes sense.

And yet, the mind desires a higher order, and a higher meaning. Perhaps, an eternal nothingness, or a life beyond this. How can this life be a reality, when it’s hazy, and each moment gains colour as it goes through your mortal grasp , from the shrouded future into the bleakness of the past? The thinking man defines mortality, as an interruption of the eternal.

What is real, is absolute. If the universe is dynamic, and life temporary, then by pre-definition, life cannot be real. If you believe this world to be unreal, you still cannot stop eating and breathing, for you need to live, and we are bound to this world.
If you believe that being bound to this world by needs, is an extensive definition of reality, its far from a satisfying. Nutrition and sustenance , are needs, which we as animals, fulfill. A need, and therefore its satisfaction, does not warrant a reality. A need is different from a fact. The society, money, relationships, oxygen, are needs, which an animal must become slave to, but it is by no means a reality.

If what is eternal, is real, then death in itself (and what lies beyond) is unreal for it is interrupted by life. We have a paradox, for then, what is reality?

Perhaps an objective approach to reality is impossible. For, if it is objective, it is mechanical and material , and the intellect desires to transcend that.

The universe has formed from and on, physical laws and universal constants, a wholly tangible universe. From it, the birth of predictable structure and order , and hence life. Life led to the birth of this observer, the observer observed , while waiting for his cognitive ability to develop. From the acts of cognition and observation, he gained knowledge.

With knowledge, came the power to discover , to learn, to understand this world and to define it as his reality.

• Knowledge becomes a mere tool, to control the universe.
• This view of reality satisfies only the materialist.
• A subjective view of Reality is impossible.
• Reality exists without an observer.

An observer is required to define reality, for the universe cannot exist without an observer. What he perceives , exists . As Descartes put it, you can only ever be sure of yourself and your doubt. The universe, a reflection of his own cognition. The structure perceived in the universe, is a reflection of the observer’s organized mind/consciousness.

• This view invariably leads to solipsism. Not that I complain.
• The universe doesn’t exist without the observer , and the observer cannot exist without the universe , a tangled hierarchy then.
• Knowledge is a reflection of the observer’s own mind.
• The world is illusionary, the only reality is self awareness.
• Objective reality is impossible.
• Human consciousness transcends science and reason, and hence, to explain it, the invocation of a universal consciousness is required, which is then mirrored in the observer, for the self becomes a reality.