Everyday living, and the enormous amount of family, work, money and other related stresses that we all go through on the wheel of daily grind, to the countless and seemingly endless times when we honestly feel that life isn’t worth living anymore, we sink helplessly into depression.
While most of us can still yoke a bare existence in zombie-like conditions to numb ourselves to the harsh realities of life, some of us will entertain thoughts of suicide.
But more often than not, when we’re at the apex of depression, where we are at our lowest ebb in life and there seem to be no other way out except to “end it all”, and a friend or stranger comes along who desperately needs emotional support, or even just a friendly ear, somehow, somewhere deep within us, wells up a spring of fresh water.
For that moment, however brief, we drop all thoughts of depression and swiftly move into help provide whatever we could to help him/her out. It’s an irony, if you consider it since we are actuality in no position of capacity to offer aid.
But see, that’s just it. We all come with a charitable heart, endowed by our Creator. This heart sits at the very centre of our being and although at many times over in our lives we have either compartmentalized it, swept it under the carpet or simply chose to whitewash it away as a means to harden ourselves up to face the “realities of life”, it still resides within, regardless.
Hence, there are and will be many times when it wells up periodically, whether it is masked as institutionalized charity giving, weekend big brother/big sister programmes or even just dropping off a few coins to the beggar along the street, it is there… no denying it.
Yes, there are countless times also when we choose to be monsters, speaking and acting against charity, against humanity, against any form of goodness on the pretext that it is a sign of weakness or fallacy in today’s world, we all harbour that God-given element within us. We are created as such.
See, even at the lowest ebb of our being, when relationships falter, a loved one passes on or even being so enormously debt-ridden, we will still have “a little time left” to help out that friend or stranger who is reaching out for a little help. We do it because charity, humanity and goodness give us opportunities to exercise our purpose in life.
See, our true purpose in life is not to make the Forbes 100 World’s Most Powerful or Richest list, or to live a life of bare existence from paycheck to paycheck until we reach the grave at three scores and ten, but it is towards our fellow human beings.
It is the only thing separating us from animals, that while do not have aspirations to be the most powerful or gain the largest amount of wealth, neither possess conscientious need for that purpose of again… charity, humanity and all that is good.
Maybe it’s high time we dedicate ourselves to our real purpose instead of all that we’ve been after all this while…
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Truthfulness
Admittedly, this is another highly insightful and penetrating thought that I’ve to credit my dear brother once again. He’s been an avid supporter of my blog and even complimented me on how it has been getting deeper each time, something that he had taken his whole life to understand. Now, that really meant the whole world to me since he’s about one of the very, very few people whom I truly admire in this world.
What he pointed out can best be simplified in one sentence – “For truth to be truth, it has first got to be free”. Now, I know it may seem like a very simple thing but believe me it’s reality can be truly overwhelming.
Yes, applied to a macro perspective, we can readily see it in the lifelong fight for democracies and such where freedom is fought for in exchange for truth. But here, I would like to bring it closer to home. That is, to ourselves and how we often than not, in while seeking for truth in our lives, refuse to let freedom rule first. As a result, we gag truth with such elements ranging from “love” and “respect”, to “responsibilities”.
Don’t recognize it? How about the times when we’ve allowed for jealousy to have free reign when it’s honestly not about loving someone, but rather possessing someone? Or about the times when we’ve made another person obligate themselves to us because we cannot stand to lose? We label them conveniently and sometimes unconscientious as “love”, “respect” and “responsibilities”.
See, we have refused to allow others to be free to make choices that are truthful, both to ourselves and them. There is a whole lot of truth with author Richard Bach’s words when he wrote “When you love someone set them free. If they come back they are yours; if they don’t they never were.”
If we are truly serious about being truthful in our lives, regardless of how much it may hurt, we have to let freedom reign first and foremost. This means no catches, no strings attached and no conditions. Freedom is truth. And if we truly respect others as persons and not possessions, then we have to make a conscientious choice to be truthful and to have that truth based on absolute freedom.
Without freedom, there is no truth.
What he pointed out can best be simplified in one sentence – “For truth to be truth, it has first got to be free”. Now, I know it may seem like a very simple thing but believe me it’s reality can be truly overwhelming.
Yes, applied to a macro perspective, we can readily see it in the lifelong fight for democracies and such where freedom is fought for in exchange for truth. But here, I would like to bring it closer to home. That is, to ourselves and how we often than not, in while seeking for truth in our lives, refuse to let freedom rule first. As a result, we gag truth with such elements ranging from “love” and “respect”, to “responsibilities”.
Don’t recognize it? How about the times when we’ve allowed for jealousy to have free reign when it’s honestly not about loving someone, but rather possessing someone? Or about the times when we’ve made another person obligate themselves to us because we cannot stand to lose? We label them conveniently and sometimes unconscientious as “love”, “respect” and “responsibilities”.
See, we have refused to allow others to be free to make choices that are truthful, both to ourselves and them. There is a whole lot of truth with author Richard Bach’s words when he wrote “When you love someone set them free. If they come back they are yours; if they don’t they never were.”
If we are truly serious about being truthful in our lives, regardless of how much it may hurt, we have to let freedom reign first and foremost. This means no catches, no strings attached and no conditions. Freedom is truth. And if we truly respect others as persons and not possessions, then we have to make a conscientious choice to be truthful and to have that truth based on absolute freedom.
Without freedom, there is no truth.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Freewill
Freewill. Yes, I know that we all agree to a great length on what it means and even would vouch tooth and nail to defend it. But here, I would like to offer something that’s going to piss a lot of so called proponents of this thing we call freewill.
Let’s set the record right first. I believe freewill to be the single most significant inherent right of each individual, that’s God-given and one that should not and cannot be alienated from every individual. This is the absolute freedom to make choices and be wholly accountable for one’s own actions.
Having said this, I find it a great contradiction in terms when the very people that champion its rights seek to destroy the very fabric that makes up freewill.
I’m talking about the suppression of freewill through ways and means that may not seem as visually dramatic or straightforward as say the imprisonment and torture of opposition by some military junta in some ruthless despot-ruled nation.
What I’m talking about is the “need” by some to lord over the lives of others either through the umbrella of religion, philosophy or morality or even emotionally.
How many times over and again do we hear of how threats, both veiled and otherwise are used from the pulpit to “safeguard the morality of the people” where hailstorms and the brimstones of hell await those that do not adhere? Emotionally-wise, how many times have we come across emotional blackmail, both that are “morally right” and that which is done at the namesake of maintaining family unity.
Bringing this onto a ground level perspective – parents that harbour and place life-long responsibility toward children to be filial to them as their parents had done to them before, husbands and wives that place tremendous emotional conditions for each other to conform as how society sees marriage and family and friends to each other to collapse on as emotional crutches. In all cases, there is always a catch, a leash to tie another person down to be subservient to us.
How we’d like to term it, whenever we seek to control another person’s freewill, whether intentionally or otherwise, whether outwardly or inwardly, whether harshly or softly… we have taken to playing God over another… something of pure travesty since God himself even refused to do that since it is the most precious of all gifts given to each and every individual. This is the gift that separates humans from all other living beings.
And therefore, no measure of so called “morality” and “for the goodness of”, whether disguised or otherwise makes it right to seek such conformity, such subservience… neither religion, philosophy, morality or emotions, collectively or as individuals.
Now, do we all really understand freewill? Perhaps not as much as we should.
Let’s set the record right first. I believe freewill to be the single most significant inherent right of each individual, that’s God-given and one that should not and cannot be alienated from every individual. This is the absolute freedom to make choices and be wholly accountable for one’s own actions.
Having said this, I find it a great contradiction in terms when the very people that champion its rights seek to destroy the very fabric that makes up freewill.
I’m talking about the suppression of freewill through ways and means that may not seem as visually dramatic or straightforward as say the imprisonment and torture of opposition by some military junta in some ruthless despot-ruled nation.
What I’m talking about is the “need” by some to lord over the lives of others either through the umbrella of religion, philosophy or morality or even emotionally.
How many times over and again do we hear of how threats, both veiled and otherwise are used from the pulpit to “safeguard the morality of the people” where hailstorms and the brimstones of hell await those that do not adhere? Emotionally-wise, how many times have we come across emotional blackmail, both that are “morally right” and that which is done at the namesake of maintaining family unity.
Bringing this onto a ground level perspective – parents that harbour and place life-long responsibility toward children to be filial to them as their parents had done to them before, husbands and wives that place tremendous emotional conditions for each other to conform as how society sees marriage and family and friends to each other to collapse on as emotional crutches. In all cases, there is always a catch, a leash to tie another person down to be subservient to us.
How we’d like to term it, whenever we seek to control another person’s freewill, whether intentionally or otherwise, whether outwardly or inwardly, whether harshly or softly… we have taken to playing God over another… something of pure travesty since God himself even refused to do that since it is the most precious of all gifts given to each and every individual. This is the gift that separates humans from all other living beings.
And therefore, no measure of so called “morality” and “for the goodness of”, whether disguised or otherwise makes it right to seek such conformity, such subservience… neither religion, philosophy, morality or emotions, collectively or as individuals.
Now, do we all really understand freewill? Perhaps not as much as we should.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Kindness
Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.
Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin A.K.A. "George Sand" (1804 - 1876)
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