Before I get ahead of myself there is something I feel like I ought to explain. I have a philosophy...it is a work in progress, but I have some ideas that I am interested in expressing.
Let me begin by saying everything I say is not true. Everything I believe is only my own perception. It works for me and makes sense to me, and that may not work for you. Each person has their own beliefs that furthers their own lives towards their own causes. I hope the best for you with your own. I would like to help you towards your own goals. I think I can do this by showing you my perspective, that way it can shed light on your own beliefs, whether they are contrary or similar to mine. I like to think that life, (its cliche but bear with me) is a kind of journey. You meet hundreds, thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of people throughout that journey. I think each person we meet , however brief, helps you in formulating who you are and what you do. Each person helps you along in finding clarity and meaning in your life. I have found the more I open myself up as well as listen and respond to others the more clarity I have. Life becomes less muddled and more clear, and this in turn makes it easier to see and reach whatever goals you set for yourself.
Let me explain in another way. I am one voice of thousands that you have listened to in the past and many thousands more you will listen to in the future. I am a voice among many voices, among parents, friends, acquaintances, strangers, television programs, radio, mp3s, blogs, facebook, memes, and podcasts. We are so inundated with so many different voices, we learn to shut them out, most of them. However, if you take a few minutes to truly listen, maybe an idea or two will rise out of that swarm of voices around you, and help you along in the discovery of your own path. That is what I hope to achieve. I don't mean to give you the idea, but maybe by talking about the things under the surface you will start to think of those things too and formulate your own ideas.
Let me begin by saying everything I say is not true. Everything I believe is only my own perception. It works for me and makes sense to me, and that may not work for you. Each person has their own beliefs that furthers their own lives towards their own causes. I hope the best for you with your own. I would like to help you towards your own goals. I think I can do this by showing you my perspective, that way it can shed light on your own beliefs, whether they are contrary or similar to mine. I like to think that life, (its cliche but bear with me) is a kind of journey. You meet hundreds, thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of people throughout that journey. I think each person we meet , however brief, helps you in formulating who you are and what you do. Each person helps you along in finding clarity and meaning in your life. I have found the more I open myself up as well as listen and respond to others the more clarity I have. Life becomes less muddled and more clear, and this in turn makes it easier to see and reach whatever goals you set for yourself.
Let me explain in another way. I am one voice of thousands that you have listened to in the past and many thousands more you will listen to in the future. I am a voice among many voices, among parents, friends, acquaintances, strangers, television programs, radio, mp3s, blogs, facebook, memes, and podcasts. We are so inundated with so many different voices, we learn to shut them out, most of them. However, if you take a few minutes to truly listen, maybe an idea or two will rise out of that swarm of voices around you, and help you along in the discovery of your own path. That is what I hope to achieve. I don't mean to give you the idea, but maybe by talking about the things under the surface you will start to think of those things too and formulate your own ideas.
One big idea I do NOT believe in is "the truth."
I don’t believe life is black and white, and if truth exists as a definitive, then there are other things that exist that are false. I don't believe anything can falsely exist. Like the Goethe quote says in the Bryant Park subway stop, "The unnatural, that too is natural." If truth exists, we are not smart (or big) enough to perceive it. Nobody is. One of the things that science has taught me is that the universe is incomprehensively big. We are tiny beings on a huge rock which circles around an even bigger star, which is within a solar system of 7 other planets, which is in a galaxy of 200 billion stars, which is in a cluster of 125 billion galaxies making up our seeable universe. We are these impossibly tiny creatures on a rock in a universe whose size we can't even get our head around. How could we ever get a handle on understanding it? I think that if there are truths they are beyond our grasp intellectually. You probably would have to be a galaxy or even a super-cluster to get it all. I look at the world around me, and I’ve listened intently to many of the people who claim to know the truth. Politicians, religious leaders, philosophers, world actors and activists, all of them claim at least some insight into the truth. While I like to study and discuss them, there always is a flaw in their reasoning. Each has a philosophy or message that is based on something that is made up or wrong. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism; they all ask you to suspend your reason to believe them. Science and reason has dispelled most of the fundamentals of these ideologies. I find it hard to believe in a book that is supposedly infallible but says the universe is less than 6,000 years old. Another thing that dissuades me from religion is that each one of the thousands of religions that man has created claims to know the secrets of the universe yet no two of them are the same. Many of them are similar, but not the same. To me that shows that they are all wrong. We are all here on the world with as much sense and understand as the next person. If there were infallible truths to be had, wouldn't at least a few of these religions be the same because they got hold of the same thing?
I can go into detail if you would like about why I chose not believe in religions, but it would be very long and take away from what I am trying to say. Anyway, I do respect them because although I dont believe in their core messages, religions tend to help the people who most need it and help guide people in a relatively healthy way of life.
So, instead of truth, I believe in perception. I may not believe in Christianity or Judaism or Buddhism or Socrates, but I don't think you're wrong to do so. It is simply my own perspective and my own reason that disagrees, which is one man's perspective and reasoning among 7 billion. I think that everybody has their own unique perception of reality. We all see the world a slightly different way. As we grow older we learn from others and take their insights into our own and broaden our own perception. When we are born we barely have any understanding of ourselves and our surroundings, all we know are reflexes like breathing and sucking. As we get a little older we begin to understand how to interact with the outside world, picking up objects, falling, things that teach us how we will associate ourselves with the physical world for the rest of our lives. Eventually through the years we learn complex social behaviors, explain our feelings coherently, and think abstractly about our world and how it should be. These are not things that we know instinctively, they are things that we learn by broadening our own perceptions through socialization. Therefore it stands to reason that the more we broaden our perception, the more we understand. That is why I think its important to listen to others to understand their perceptive, so that I can continue to broaden mine and develop a more universal understanding.
I can go into detail if you would like about why I chose not believe in religions, but it would be very long and take away from what I am trying to say. Anyway, I do respect them because although I dont believe in their core messages, religions tend to help the people who most need it and help guide people in a relatively healthy way of life.
So, instead of truth, I believe in perception. I may not believe in Christianity or Judaism or Buddhism or Socrates, but I don't think you're wrong to do so. It is simply my own perspective and my own reason that disagrees, which is one man's perspective and reasoning among 7 billion. I think that everybody has their own unique perception of reality. We all see the world a slightly different way. As we grow older we learn from others and take their insights into our own and broaden our own perception. When we are born we barely have any understanding of ourselves and our surroundings, all we know are reflexes like breathing and sucking. As we get a little older we begin to understand how to interact with the outside world, picking up objects, falling, things that teach us how we will associate ourselves with the physical world for the rest of our lives. Eventually through the years we learn complex social behaviors, explain our feelings coherently, and think abstractly about our world and how it should be. These are not things that we know instinctively, they are things that we learn by broadening our own perceptions through socialization. Therefore it stands to reason that the more we broaden our perception, the more we understand. That is why I think its important to listen to others to understand their perceptive, so that I can continue to broaden mine and develop a more universal understanding.
This brings me to another point that I would like to make. There is a difference between wise and smart. A wise man never states anything as fact that he is unsure of, it is something that he has dwelt on for years. And although he has dwelt on that fact for years, he is always willing to discuss it, and if you can refute it then he will return to the drawing board to see where his thinking went wrong. A smart man however, knows a lot, he is educated and can state what he knows in a leveled and coherent manner. However, because of his gift of intelligence he grows an ego. This ego is a cancer on his perception. It limits and narrows him. He sees his part clearly and vibrantly and he loves himself for his abilities. However, there are parts that are ignored, that are fuzzy and not so vibrant because those abilities are not within his unique capabilities. The smart man perpetually puts himself in a corner, only seeing a portion of what he is capable of understanding. His ego handicaps him.
Well, I am getting tired now. I fear that if I continue now, I will begin to unravel and make little sense. So for the sake of clarity I will stop now and if I can get my meandering thoughts together I will continue again soon.
Next up! – Find out what the hell I am talking about!
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