Welcome
I have been procrastinating from my main and materialistic objectives, certainly. I have no doubt in that. As I am currently waiting for an uploaded video in YouTube to fully load, I thought maybe I should start my next chapter of my journey.
It has been for the past a couple of months since I decided to pour out my thoughts. And as I am typing, I hope that what I intended is consistent up to now. I truly hope I have been sincere in undertaking such a path that I never knew would be full of obstacles especially the misunderstandings of friends moreover some of those I have known for years. In the course of relieving my mind by pouring my thoughts, I was often hindered by a darker voice in me as though tempting me to write so as to gain fame.
Truly, being acknowledged as such a person whom I am not is never been something which I ever want. I do not remember if I ever mentioned that once someone called me a philosopher merely because I was currently reading on philosophies and within me I took that as sort of a mockery. To be known as a philosopher is not my intention of studying philosophy. I do not want to care whatever names or titles people give me. All I want is I. I want to be sincere in my soul-searching for the truth because I will not be spared from death either. And that fact is terrifying when I have come to a realisation that God exists especially when I do not know what I will be heading after my soul leaves the world. Thus, I should not take advantage of His Mercy.
I beg your pardon for the usual digression. I think it is time of me to proceed with what I intended for this entry.
I remember attempting to explain about the allegory of Plato’s cave in my second semester of my first year in polytechnic. Back then, I had no idea what such metaphor really meant –all I could afford in explaining was only describing how the scene seemed like. I only realised what the Greek philosopher Plato meant by such metaphor. And, sighing a light breath, I will resume in explaining what I failed to do so years ago when I was still an ignorant.
There was a cave and in it were prisoners whose bodies, hands, legs and heads were chained to face the cave’s wall. Behind them was a light source, presumably a fire, for objects behind it to be cast on the wall as shadows. Imprisoned since at a very young age, these prisoners had nothing to stare or watch but the moving shadows (since there were people behind the light source carrying the objects for the prisoners to perceive the dark objects over the illuminated wall). Thus, the only reality they recognised was the dark figures on the wall as they could not turn or toss their heads around to see where these shadows came from. Since young, the prisoners had thought and perceived the shadows as real.
However one day, one of the prisoners somehow managed to escape out of the cave and soon first learnt how glaring the sun was as though its rays of light were searing his eyes. Having imprisoned in a cave with a dimly lit light, he had thus never gotten to use his sight to adapt to a brightness of a light more intense than what he had experienced in his childhood. Strolling about, he began to learn of his surroundings through the senses which he never had the chance to use during his imprisonment. After all, his entire body was chained, removing any chance for mobility, not even to turn his head in another direction but forced to face the illuminated wall with shadows passing back and forth before him.
He began to gain mastery over the remaining senses which he had been deprived of since as a child until his escape. He soon learnt that the shadows he perceived as real had not been real but an illusion. For, at the realisation of the world beyond the mere shadows, he finally grasped the understanding what he had observed and experienced. This new experience of his had probably dawned upon him that there were more than what he had seen when he was chained to watch only what laid before him.
With this form of knowledge and understanding, he returned to the cave in compassion towards his fellow prison mates for the state of misery they were in, though they did not perceive themselves as miserable due to lack of knowledge of what laid beyond their world of shadows. He then explained to the remaining prisoners who were still chained and imprisoned of what he had been through, what he had found out and learnt, to convince them that their world is all an illusion and that the real world is something much greater and more interesting. Unfortunately, being brought up to believe the shadows as real and never seen what was beyond their reality, they grew sceptical of him. Despite all those years in the cave but after the experiences in the world than mere shadows, his eyes could no longer be adjusted to the gloom of the cave. He could no longer bring himself up to identify the shadows on the wall after all that he had learnt in the real world. Thus, his failure in identifying the shadows led his claimed knowledge of a greater reality to be believed by the other prisoners as falsehood –probably a bogus. If they could reach their hands on him, they would kill him.
Having said, my understanding of Plato’s cave is regarding people belonging to a society or masses whose beliefs have been instilled upon them since at the very young age and grow up into believing them to be a sense of truth. At one point of time, a person goes on a journey in the quest of understanding the world and learns that there are greater truths beyond his perception of truth, which he has been raised with. Thus having undertaking such a journey, he returns to where he comes from and begins to share with the people. Unfortunately because the people are obsessed with their beliefs, they refuse and reject him. In certain cultures and norms, people may go as far as to persecute such a person who has found a greater truth than what he initially thought it was. Whether such persecution is motivated by a covering of truth so as to confine the people in their delusions or failure in putting themselves in the shoes of the person is unknown –people could be motivated by all sorts of reasons to perform certain actions. God knows what their intentions are.
In my opinion, not that everything we are being brought up with is false. However, undertaking such a journey is to take a step back and watch and scrutinise our beliefs or what we used to believe so as to reaffirm the things we have been clinging on. Only one with a sincere and earnest heart will be able to discover the truth which he has been searching like one whose memory is lost and trying to remember the events of his life prior to his loss of memory.
Possibly, that is the journey that I am still undertaking so far, though I do not denounce the religion which I have been brought up with since young. Not that I am afraid to do so, which is partially true, but due to the fact that I have once again reaffirmed with myself that there is God. And because I do not know which way or belief is the truth, I will believe and worship Him in the ways that are taught to me until I found a belief which is an absolute truth.
So far, I have arrived to a point where either I have misunderstood people or they misunderstood me –and could be both. I remember the times whereby I spewed bad languages at others due to different in beliefs, not necessarily different religions. Those were the days before I faced a doubt in my own faith especially people belonging to another faith who have claimed to have divine experiences. I do not truly wish to repeat that again since I have already mentioned it before. I remember those days whereby I believed pieces and bits of information from here and there without piecing and connecting them together so as to understand the whole context of the information. This happens whenever I studied Hadiths with my teacher. During those days, I took the lessons for granted and believed all the things what he said, assuming that he knew what he was saying. I do not say he was wrong (I still attend for his lessons) but whatever I have been through has opened my eyes to comprehend the world better instead of just believing what is been fed to me. I do not see the whole picture of information but I will continue trusting my teacher because of his religious background in the aspect of studies which he is teaching. However should I come to discover on my own what certain information means and thus differing from opinions or have been often taken as truth by others, I will be keen to clarify it with the people who are knowledgeable in that field of study.
I remember coming back to my secondary school to share my experiences and how I attained good results in my studies with the students who would be sitting for their major examinations soon. My former Design and Technology teacher, Mr Lim, told me of it which reminded me of a statement by one of Prophet Muhammad’s companions. And somehow I am beginning to see things that way too, which goes, “The more I learn, the more I feel there are knowledge which I do not know”. Those lines are not taken directly or remembered accurately; those lines are what I could comprehend from what my former teacher and the companion said. All praises be upon God for all His guidance. By the way, I feel bad for regarding Mr Lim as my former teacher. I think I will still stick to calling him a teacher even though he no longer teaches me. But it does not change the fact that he has once taught me which I did not know and no doubt that even if I were to possess an amount of knowledge more than him in the field of what he taught me, I would never have done so without him being one of those who gave me the push, not to mention introducing me to such knowledge.
In my search for the truth, I have often been misunderstood. But I couldn’t help but wish to console myself that I was once like them. Thanks to the mercy of God that my way of thinking has improved. However, that is not due to the studies in philosophy. Rather, such ability has been blessed to me as far as I can remember in undertaking the Anthropological Studies in the second-year of my polytechnic. Well, obviously that module does not have anything got to do with theories in philosophy. In addition, I had never encountered any names of philosophers during that time, saved probably Plato, Socrates and Aristotle, those of whom I found the names familiar but never actually knew who they were. I did not know who Rene Descartes was, not to mention a few others such as Immanuel Kant, Isaiah Berlin, Popper, John Locke, Sigmund Freud, Stuart Mill, Hume and others whom either I cannot recall or do not know at all. Of course, I did not know the theories they brought. However the Anthropological Studies module did benefit me in ways of how we studied about others especially their behaviours and possibly used these methods into studying other issues too.
I remember having taking that module; we went to the fast food restaurants in shopping malls, park and boarding the trains so as to observe the behaviours of people in certain places and certain times, not to mention interviewing them. It is because we wanted to extract the most accurate studies of certain issues that we were motivated to think critically. Thus, those who thought I have yet to accept certain things in religions due to the influence of philosophy should not blame on either me or the studies of philosophy itself. In fact, I already asked myself questions which I later found out that there were people who asked those same questions as I did when I stepped into classes in philosophy.
Perhaps I have learnt and should always remind myself never to react according to my instinct when I first receive certain information that differs from my opinions and beliefs. I should constantly remind myself to calm down and think and ponder so as to comprehend this information and at the same time make comparisons, not to mention understanding the purpose of it.
May God allow me to have peace of mind
All praises be upon Him and glory be unto His holy Name
May God guides us all
May God forgives our sins and melt our hearts and cleanse them from stains of filth of ignorance and arrogance
May He make us better people, for we are all His slaves who are in debt to Him
Ameen
I have been procrastinating from my main and materialistic objectives, certainly. I have no doubt in that. As I am currently waiting for an uploaded video in YouTube to fully load, I thought maybe I should start my next chapter of my journey.
It has been for the past a couple of months since I decided to pour out my thoughts. And as I am typing, I hope that what I intended is consistent up to now. I truly hope I have been sincere in undertaking such a path that I never knew would be full of obstacles especially the misunderstandings of friends moreover some of those I have known for years. In the course of relieving my mind by pouring my thoughts, I was often hindered by a darker voice in me as though tempting me to write so as to gain fame.
Truly, being acknowledged as such a person whom I am not is never been something which I ever want. I do not remember if I ever mentioned that once someone called me a philosopher merely because I was currently reading on philosophies and within me I took that as sort of a mockery. To be known as a philosopher is not my intention of studying philosophy. I do not want to care whatever names or titles people give me. All I want is I. I want to be sincere in my soul-searching for the truth because I will not be spared from death either. And that fact is terrifying when I have come to a realisation that God exists especially when I do not know what I will be heading after my soul leaves the world. Thus, I should not take advantage of His Mercy.
I beg your pardon for the usual digression. I think it is time of me to proceed with what I intended for this entry.
I remember attempting to explain about the allegory of Plato’s cave in my second semester of my first year in polytechnic. Back then, I had no idea what such metaphor really meant –all I could afford in explaining was only describing how the scene seemed like. I only realised what the Greek philosopher Plato meant by such metaphor. And, sighing a light breath, I will resume in explaining what I failed to do so years ago when I was still an ignorant.
There was a cave and in it were prisoners whose bodies, hands, legs and heads were chained to face the cave’s wall. Behind them was a light source, presumably a fire, for objects behind it to be cast on the wall as shadows. Imprisoned since at a very young age, these prisoners had nothing to stare or watch but the moving shadows (since there were people behind the light source carrying the objects for the prisoners to perceive the dark objects over the illuminated wall). Thus, the only reality they recognised was the dark figures on the wall as they could not turn or toss their heads around to see where these shadows came from. Since young, the prisoners had thought and perceived the shadows as real.
However one day, one of the prisoners somehow managed to escape out of the cave and soon first learnt how glaring the sun was as though its rays of light were searing his eyes. Having imprisoned in a cave with a dimly lit light, he had thus never gotten to use his sight to adapt to a brightness of a light more intense than what he had experienced in his childhood. Strolling about, he began to learn of his surroundings through the senses which he never had the chance to use during his imprisonment. After all, his entire body was chained, removing any chance for mobility, not even to turn his head in another direction but forced to face the illuminated wall with shadows passing back and forth before him.
He began to gain mastery over the remaining senses which he had been deprived of since as a child until his escape. He soon learnt that the shadows he perceived as real had not been real but an illusion. For, at the realisation of the world beyond the mere shadows, he finally grasped the understanding what he had observed and experienced. This new experience of his had probably dawned upon him that there were more than what he had seen when he was chained to watch only what laid before him.
With this form of knowledge and understanding, he returned to the cave in compassion towards his fellow prison mates for the state of misery they were in, though they did not perceive themselves as miserable due to lack of knowledge of what laid beyond their world of shadows. He then explained to the remaining prisoners who were still chained and imprisoned of what he had been through, what he had found out and learnt, to convince them that their world is all an illusion and that the real world is something much greater and more interesting. Unfortunately, being brought up to believe the shadows as real and never seen what was beyond their reality, they grew sceptical of him. Despite all those years in the cave but after the experiences in the world than mere shadows, his eyes could no longer be adjusted to the gloom of the cave. He could no longer bring himself up to identify the shadows on the wall after all that he had learnt in the real world. Thus, his failure in identifying the shadows led his claimed knowledge of a greater reality to be believed by the other prisoners as falsehood –probably a bogus. If they could reach their hands on him, they would kill him.
Having said, my understanding of Plato’s cave is regarding people belonging to a society or masses whose beliefs have been instilled upon them since at the very young age and grow up into believing them to be a sense of truth. At one point of time, a person goes on a journey in the quest of understanding the world and learns that there are greater truths beyond his perception of truth, which he has been raised with. Thus having undertaking such a journey, he returns to where he comes from and begins to share with the people. Unfortunately because the people are obsessed with their beliefs, they refuse and reject him. In certain cultures and norms, people may go as far as to persecute such a person who has found a greater truth than what he initially thought it was. Whether such persecution is motivated by a covering of truth so as to confine the people in their delusions or failure in putting themselves in the shoes of the person is unknown –people could be motivated by all sorts of reasons to perform certain actions. God knows what their intentions are.
In my opinion, not that everything we are being brought up with is false. However, undertaking such a journey is to take a step back and watch and scrutinise our beliefs or what we used to believe so as to reaffirm the things we have been clinging on. Only one with a sincere and earnest heart will be able to discover the truth which he has been searching like one whose memory is lost and trying to remember the events of his life prior to his loss of memory.
Possibly, that is the journey that I am still undertaking so far, though I do not denounce the religion which I have been brought up with since young. Not that I am afraid to do so, which is partially true, but due to the fact that I have once again reaffirmed with myself that there is God. And because I do not know which way or belief is the truth, I will believe and worship Him in the ways that are taught to me until I found a belief which is an absolute truth.
So far, I have arrived to a point where either I have misunderstood people or they misunderstood me –and could be both. I remember the times whereby I spewed bad languages at others due to different in beliefs, not necessarily different religions. Those were the days before I faced a doubt in my own faith especially people belonging to another faith who have claimed to have divine experiences. I do not truly wish to repeat that again since I have already mentioned it before. I remember those days whereby I believed pieces and bits of information from here and there without piecing and connecting them together so as to understand the whole context of the information. This happens whenever I studied Hadiths with my teacher. During those days, I took the lessons for granted and believed all the things what he said, assuming that he knew what he was saying. I do not say he was wrong (I still attend for his lessons) but whatever I have been through has opened my eyes to comprehend the world better instead of just believing what is been fed to me. I do not see the whole picture of information but I will continue trusting my teacher because of his religious background in the aspect of studies which he is teaching. However should I come to discover on my own what certain information means and thus differing from opinions or have been often taken as truth by others, I will be keen to clarify it with the people who are knowledgeable in that field of study.
I remember coming back to my secondary school to share my experiences and how I attained good results in my studies with the students who would be sitting for their major examinations soon. My former Design and Technology teacher, Mr Lim, told me of it which reminded me of a statement by one of Prophet Muhammad’s companions. And somehow I am beginning to see things that way too, which goes, “The more I learn, the more I feel there are knowledge which I do not know”. Those lines are not taken directly or remembered accurately; those lines are what I could comprehend from what my former teacher and the companion said. All praises be upon God for all His guidance. By the way, I feel bad for regarding Mr Lim as my former teacher. I think I will still stick to calling him a teacher even though he no longer teaches me. But it does not change the fact that he has once taught me which I did not know and no doubt that even if I were to possess an amount of knowledge more than him in the field of what he taught me, I would never have done so without him being one of those who gave me the push, not to mention introducing me to such knowledge.
In my search for the truth, I have often been misunderstood. But I couldn’t help but wish to console myself that I was once like them. Thanks to the mercy of God that my way of thinking has improved. However, that is not due to the studies in philosophy. Rather, such ability has been blessed to me as far as I can remember in undertaking the Anthropological Studies in the second-year of my polytechnic. Well, obviously that module does not have anything got to do with theories in philosophy. In addition, I had never encountered any names of philosophers during that time, saved probably Plato, Socrates and Aristotle, those of whom I found the names familiar but never actually knew who they were. I did not know who Rene Descartes was, not to mention a few others such as Immanuel Kant, Isaiah Berlin, Popper, John Locke, Sigmund Freud, Stuart Mill, Hume and others whom either I cannot recall or do not know at all. Of course, I did not know the theories they brought. However the Anthropological Studies module did benefit me in ways of how we studied about others especially their behaviours and possibly used these methods into studying other issues too.
I remember having taking that module; we went to the fast food restaurants in shopping malls, park and boarding the trains so as to observe the behaviours of people in certain places and certain times, not to mention interviewing them. It is because we wanted to extract the most accurate studies of certain issues that we were motivated to think critically. Thus, those who thought I have yet to accept certain things in religions due to the influence of philosophy should not blame on either me or the studies of philosophy itself. In fact, I already asked myself questions which I later found out that there were people who asked those same questions as I did when I stepped into classes in philosophy.
Perhaps I have learnt and should always remind myself never to react according to my instinct when I first receive certain information that differs from my opinions and beliefs. I should constantly remind myself to calm down and think and ponder so as to comprehend this information and at the same time make comparisons, not to mention understanding the purpose of it.
May God allow me to have peace of mind
All praises be upon Him and glory be unto His holy Name
May God guides us all
May God forgives our sins and melt our hearts and cleanse them from stains of filth of ignorance and arrogance
May He make us better people, for we are all His slaves who are in debt to Him
Ameen
And yes, probably another special treat;
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