Depth

I beleive in the necessity to delve into the depths of things. I am often criticised for doing so, as people think that one brings problems to himself, sometimes it is better to know the "basics" the "norm", "what you have to know", when you are given a job, or an assignment what you hear is "and thats all you need to know!" But why should that be so! Why should our minds be limited to certain boundaries, why is there a fear to ponder over matters, why is there a forbiddance to delve into subjects? Is their a fear of contradiction, or one of uncertainty, are people afraid of mystery, of the unknown?

Confrontation, another aspect, why do many abhor this, while actually being inclined towards it, can we not therefore unite curiosity with knowledge and thought. Should we ponder over every little, and segment every fraction of life that comes our way? That is my aim, to delve, to reach the depths of myteries, and to solve them.

The search to the true light

Most religions promote the thought of "living to gain moral perfection"But inspite of this light, what exactly is moral perfection? How is this obtainable? I have promised to talk about this in another thread before, and i will shortly however not in this particular post.

Humans live their lives aiming to always reach a higher status than that of which they hold themselves to be in, this is quite understandable in folk psychology, as part of the human nature, we are always seeking knowledge, seeking to know the unknown, we are curious about things in life, the persistence in this direction marks as a basis of what we are to build upon, that which will eventually elevate our minds so that we can gain that insight to see beyond that of the norm, so that we can obtain that higher status.

The thoughts that come to our head, are usually a manifestation of our beleifs along with the experiences we have been through, which have made us more aware of certian aspects of life. The things we take to be true are thus perceived in this way too. The true light for every human being is that of which he or she comes across a certain peice of knowledge that is so convincing, making the seeker of this knowledge fill with excitement. The search for truth is often an act humans take up when things in life do not make sense to them, When we are hit hard in life, when we are confused, and find ourselves falling deeper into our web of problems, we try to pick ourselves up through our thoughts and by our hopes, the act of retrieval of the self, is again something which is done through the act of searching for the truth.

The perplexity of thoughts, or simplicity?

Sometimes I feel that what people claim to be perplex or complex, are not actually as they seem to be, Humans have like i previously mentioned, a unique and individual system of thinking, which once understood can infact be rather simple. Although humans do think in a different way, we are all capable of actually thinking in a similar way too.. note similar and identical are two different things, where one can think similarly to another person means that, they are thinking in the same direction, trying to achieve the same goal as they proceed in that direction. I often read articles which from first glance make me think "oh my! how complex" yet upon a second glance, when you focus on the meaning rather than the prolonged terminology packed in the text, you actually begin to feel that the writing is quite simple to understand, it is however our reading techniques which make us think that these articles are fairly hard.

"Philosophy is for the philosopher" is definately something i agree with! When you explain your thoughts in depth, it begins to become easier for you to track your ideas. You yourself know what you are on about, and you have explained it in your own way so it is simple for you to understand, but a person who has not come across your thoughts, will take time to read and contemplate, it might take some time before they get your point specially if you go round and round in circles not getting to the point and then dwindling off...something i do.

Heaven on earth

Those that do not beleive in an after life, hold this world to be their heaven, they go about enjoying their lives to the max because "this is it, this is life" "c'est la vie!!!!" well.. what is heaven on earth really?? what does it mean to you? Is this temporary abode as beleived by many a place to fulfill momentary desires, or is it a place for us to build upon, for the next abode in which our lives will be improved, after having worked for it?

How many of us actualy question the nature of life, and how fair it is to just live your life while having earned nothing for it? Do we have the right to propser with pleasures on no basis? This delves deeply into the aspect of life and death which i have previously discussed here.

Deceit

The cold feeling of deceit. Something we all abhor. What is it? Deceit is basically another word for the common "lie". Deceit is to make a false claim, with the intention of making others beleive it to be true. Any intention to trick one is deception. There are certain types of deception "intentional deception", which are not associated with lying, these could be to physically deceive, for example, if i was to change my sex (an abominable thought, just before i get booed off stage), then that in itself would be a form of deception, because i would be making out to be a male (because i am a female), i would dress like a guy, cut my hair short, grow some facial hair, adjust my voice box, have several operations here and there, i would be deceving the onlooker who would take me for the opposite sex, without realising i am not actually, however this type of deception is not seen to be quite so threatening, as it is linked personally to myself and to no one else. If however my form of "intentional deceit" was to hurt another person, if for example i was to cheat on my beautiful fiance, something i would not ever think of doing, because he is absolutely perfect in every way, and i hope he doesnt read this any time soon, but if i was to deceive him, by forming a relationship with another male, yet claiming to still love him, or to still be his "fiance" when i actually had feelings for another, then this is the sort of deceit which is evil in my eyes. You are intentionally inflicting pain on another. That is wrong.

Maryam

Explaining Envy

Envy can be defined as the desire to possess that which is not owned by you. It is accompanied by a feeling of frustration when the subject u desire is present with somone other than yourself. It is often associated with the comparission of status'. Those who have an interest in material wealth of this fleeting abode we know as "the world" are rather more likely to be subject to envy, and to possess the evil eye. Envy comes from discontentment and lack of gratitude for what one possesses. When we are ill, we are so overwelhmed by our illness, the only thing we wish for is to be healthy again, we dislike the feeling of being powerless, in a prolonged state of illness we may "envy" those who possess good health, similarly, if we are to be captives in a desolate place, fearing our lives, and possessing no power to flee from the clutches of the enemy, the only thing we wish for is to be safe. Safety becomes our objection. Here we while left to think for a while begin to "envy" those who are in a better position than us, those who are free, who are safe. Is everyone subject to this feeling? the answer is NO. I personally beleive that the attribut of enviousness comes from sickness of the heart. I feel that at times, although you may come across a person who is well off, who possesses material things, they are not full, not content enough. I have come across many, who by example have luxurious clothes, and items, yet, the moment they see something that they do not have, which is appealing to them, you follow their eyes, and notice a certain greed is pertained inside them. It is this particular greed which again is associated with envy. Although many would say, no envy and greed are seperate entities, do not confuse them, i would have to say that, albeit yes they are different entities, we can look at them from a semantic view point. If we are to take envy to be the representation of envy itself, then what it would represent would be greed, therefore the relationship between them would be one of containment rather than anything else. (Again this is subject to arguement)

Some may wonder as to the qualia of envy, asking "whats it like?", for those who are unfortunate enough to possess envy, it would rather be a feeling of anger mixed with greed and frustration and the obsessiveness of being possessive. It is desribed to be a feeling which is uncontrollable, one which is evil and commences ill thoughts and nature. Thats my brief explanation of envy.

Truth.. What is it?

The truth is often something that is encouraged throughout cultures and religions, an arabic proverb says "survival is through truth", there are other similar proverbs like "truth is the key to success", what i find interesting is what politicians, scientists, philosophers and other great thinkers in history think of the word "truth". Something i hold a close attachment to, is a saying by Buddha where by he states: "Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true." I take this statement to heart, because i often feel that the word truth is misused and abused by people, people claim to know about the "truth" and impose their claims on others, but how true is their truth? What are the sources they have used to derive that truth? That is the key question. Betrand Russell has a great point when he says: "What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way." This is infact the anthropological view, and i say this quite sadly.

There are two different aspects to truth, or should we say, to diversions, the truth can either be considered "good truth" which brings us joy, and enlightens us, or "bad truth" which brings us grief and saddens us. It is upon this concept that people choose whether or not to speak of the truth. We will now begin to discuss each of these diversions, beginning with "bad truth" because we do want to end this thread in "happily ever after".

Imam Ali (as) Ameer Al-Mumineen, the first holy and blessed successor to the prophet of Allah Muhammad (pbuh) said "The truth left me with no friend". If we were to take this statement and delve upon it, we would find that people often hate to be told the truth, they hate to accept reality and tend to cling to a web of lies, to a web of deceit, just to live the short term life in so-called "happiness" or what is claimed to be so. Benjamin Disraeli said "Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth." When i thought about this quote i remembered the times, when i had heard people say something about me, which i quite disliked hearing, i wanted to shut away the thought, horrified at my realization that it not only existed in my world, but it also was present in the world of thoughts of other people, namely those around me. When the person had acknowledged my reaction, he or she would shy away and apologise, at having "hurt my feelings", however as Disraeli says, it is only apologising for the truth. There are however statements i may disagree with, for example what Galileo says "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." But to what extent is the truth undertandable? Sometimes i find that the missing truth, is always better than the found truth, because what is not there, what you dont know about doesnt hurt you. Sometimes one is better off, not knowing the truth, because certain truths are rather destructive than constructive. Let us take for example a situation where lets say a Muslim cleric, who is known to be pious wakes up one day to be told that he was an illegitimate child! Now imagine what a shock that would be to him, and how it would affect his career. Or another exmaple (no i havent been watching too many mexican films) Lets say this woman works in a large firm, only one day she discovers that her boss in the firm she works for was responsible for her father death, while she had in this time in these years been working under his hands for him, for her fathers brutal murdrer. Would both of these characters in their situations have been better off not knowing the truth? What justice did the truth do for them?

My personal beleif has to be that we are undergoing a cosmic life of universal deceit, and so i would have to nod in agreement with George Orwell for saying: "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." People do not want to hear it! its simple! Your sister who has taken 2 hours to get dressed does not want to hear "Oh my you look terribly awful!" or "That shade of grey does not suit you" or "Do you actually think you look good wearing that thing? What happened to your mirror", people want to be deceived, they want to feel good, they want to be told that the look good, or are good, because thats what makes them go on, so how bad can it be to sacrifice a little truth to make people happier? Is this morally acceptable, giving that moral perfection enocurages one to be truthful?

Now on the other hand let us take a glimpse at what is considered to be "good truth". I have always been a person who admires the courage of those who come out and tell the truth, coming from a family where most are so blatenet with the truth, it has always been easy for me to speak what i think without hesitation. This however i have found easy to be within my family fold, but not quite so easy towards outsiders. I feel that many people around me lack this courage i speak of, i unfortunately witness it with many people, it is so easy to distinguish those who speak the truth and those who dont, you can look into their eyes, and you can tell. I would never point out that i disbeleive in a person, unless they forced me to, but when i see a person so adamant with the truth, i just let them be, for they are not deceiving no one but themselves.

How can one actually begin to tell the truth is the question? I would say that the easisest method is by being truthful about yourself, openly admitt the problems you have, no body is perfect no body is problem less, we all have faults, being able to openly speak about your faults and admitt them to people, shows that you also have the ability to tell the truth about others, fortunately Virgina Woolf seems to agree when she said: "If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people."Anything that you want to do, has to come from within, in order to have an understanding of life, you must have an understanding of yourself, which is why the three questions in life are: who am i? why am i here? what am i going to do? notice the i, i, i in all the questions, its about you, its about what you are and who you are. How can you expect to relate to other people if you cant even relate to yourself?

Many people who have spoken out about the truth in history have been silenced by death, their bodies have been engulfed by the majority who compromise of institutions holding beleifs or values that they feel are under threat due to this outspokenness of another. "Truth always rests with the minority, and the minority is always stronger than the majority, because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion, while the strength of a majority is illusory, formed by the gangs who have no opinion—and who, therefore, in the next instant (when it is evident that the minority is the stronger) assume its opinion ... while Truth again reverts to a new minority."Soren Kierkegaard. This statement holds great value, for those who aim to speak what they think while not giving a care to being attacked. Such people will always go on to being successful in putting their thought across, even if it means establishing their thoughts after their death. As Noam Chomsky says "It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies." If certian intellectuals did not come out to speak the truth, then they would really not be intellectuals to start off with, in order for one to gain knowledge one must sacrifice, this sacrifice is exposure of hypocrisy, of lies and deceit.

So what is truth? And how have we defined it? is it just a sincere assertment to a certain subject? Truth for me, is something that the heart and the mind simultaneously recognise to be correct, it complies with reality and it sheds light to certain dark areas. It allows you to have the capability of understanding certain things, with truth comes knowledge. With knowledge comes enlightment, consequently the strength of mind.

Finally to finish off a rather long winding post i would like to quote William Sloane Coffin: "The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love."

Maryam

Love...what is it? Part 1

Well... what is it?

What does it mean to you when you hear the word LOVE. I LOVE HIM. SHE LOVES HIM. HE LOVES HER. What is your first reaction? AWW thats cute! Oh really Cool! Right! I see.

Obviously you will say..well why does love have to associated with a male and a female couple, love can be for everyone. Well yes that is true, and i would like to discuss the other types of love soon, however for the time being i would like to discuss the love a male and female would have for each other, when they claim to have "fallen" in love. Fallen in the whim of love? or fallen for a sacrifice for the person whom they love? or what exactly is "fallen"?

I find that people often intrap themselves with the thought of being in "love" with another person, when the feeling they actually have for the person is none other than a "need" for them to be there. Rather than "I love him" it is "I need him". I need to be loved, i want to feel like someone cares about me. I want to feel protected. Those are the thoughts that are unsaid, that are present within each and every individual, but they mistake these feelings of insecurity for "love". I say this, because i personally have previously fallen for these whims, and only when you truly do "fall in love" you begin to be able to differentiate between what is love and what is not love.

I speak to many girls of a younger age than myself, you must of calculated this but i am exactly 19 years 7 months and 1 day old. Sadly enough i happen to know that. It might be a young age for some to come out, and speak like one has experienced so much, having climbed everest, and sailed to the far east, But i feel that a person with the ability to think beyond the norm, on a daily basis, should be given the worth to be heard out (accompany that with a smile). The girls i speak to, are mostly involved with males, well its not something suprising from ages 15 to 19, its very normal in fact, but in this age range, is someone really able to "love" or understand the meaning of love? Most of these girls, are overly flattered by the slightest comment. Let us understand why. I will continue this shortly as i have to go for now.

The bigger you inside you!

Hi,

Today i met a person, who i quite admire at the moment. I met a girl, who i felt was so strong as a personality, a girl who could withstand so much pain, yet still be able to stand up on her feet. Not many people you come across are like this, many people give up easily when they see that they are unable to achieve what it is they desire. What actually encouraged me to dedicate this post to her, is that i felt such personalities should be shared with others. It is not everyday that you see a person so willing to sacrifice everything they own for another person, even if that person is the one they love the most in the world. There is always this selfishness people own, which caters for a persons well being firstly before anyone else. I am not against love, and i never have been, but i have always been a skeptic as to how great is love? Ive often thought that people claim they love a person because they feel a need to be around them as oppose to them "loving" that person because they are so infatuated by a person that the person becomes everything to them and that is what love is. I dont want to discuss love in this thread because it is not my intention, but i hae to remind myself to do this in another thread shortly, but what exactly is love? and how great is it? I will answer this soon. My subject of interest however at this point is the phenomenal feeling that encompasses one throughout their life, that makes them the point of suffering, while making others gain from this suffering, and taking nothing in return for this. We are all so overwhelmed with our problems as they strike us, and we feel that our problems are often the greatest, they are so incomparable with other peoples problems, we feel so down, so lost in our thoughts, some of us even give up or give in to certain intoxicants, if its drugs, alcohol, or any other factor that "supposedly" drives one away from their problems, and allows them to periodically "forget". Some of us even become suicidal, we feel that our lives are not worth living any longer. How many of us are able to keep the pain in our hearts, while smiling at the world and what it gives us, and helping others, and continuing to sacrifice our happiness and our well being for theirs?

A few hours ago, i was thinking to myself, each person is unique in their thinking, in their actions, to some extent. This is obviously subject to arguement, however, each mind is processed at an individual pace, in a unique direction. We may come across the same thoughts, but do we perceive them equally the same in our hearts? the tongue is not subject of interest to me, its merely a peice of flesh and i see that the words uttered mostly by people are nothing but routine words that they feel they "must" or "have to" say in order to make sure "everything is orite". Not many people are willing to admitt that they albeit beleive in the same thing, but from this particular angle and not from this angle. Its like in school, when we were in primary, we had "story time", the teacher would sit on a chair, and all of us children around her on the carpet, she would read a book to us, and we would listen, she might say "In the deep green forest, where the trees where shading the path, a sound could be heard from a distance" Now if we were to take this extract (which i must add i completely made up), then as we begin to imagine, we will all picture this in our own way, i may imagine the shade of the green to be very dark, someone else may imagine a lighter shade, i may imagine the path to be made up of brown mud, while someone else may imagine it to be a stone path, or a brick path..etc. The point i am trying to get at, is that no matter to what extent we try and think alike it never will be the identical to the thought of another person.

Going back to the original reason i began to type this, when a problem is retold to you as an individual, you may begin to feel some sympathy at a persons pain, while they unfold their miseries, when the person has finished retelling what to them, is probably the greatest misery of their life, they in turn await your reaction, hoping that you may soothe them with your words, easing their hearts and marking some releif on their face for a shortwhile. They hope to see signs which tell them, that you can feel what they are experiencing. When you begin to speak though, no matter how sympathetic you may sound, the opposite person will feel that there is still a disconnection. Nobody can actually understand what it is that you go through. They be-little you in their own way, while aiming to help you. I usually get the feeling that when there is this lack of understanding that people have for each other, the person is often looked down upon. I however have always understood that, each person is a bigger person inside, they experience a lot, and because it is hard to put feelings into words at times, we are unable to put our message across to others, but we are not small, just because our problems are not like theirs. No. We are bigger, because we have survived it!