Greetings and peace to all of you passing by here
Thank God it’s Friday –one of the days which I permit myself intakes of caffeine (once I drink a cup of either coffee or tea, I’m likely to continue have more cups for that day). By the way, I read some articles whereby caffeine reduces your immune system (although it does provide other health benefits) across the internet. So, it’s something to be investigated and researched upon.
Coffee + milo = mocha
This was what I got after the experiment a couple of minutes ago as I am typing this. I guess you’re bound to know how weird I am, turning complexity into simplicity.
Let’s get the purpose of today’s entry straight. Right, I’ve been wanting to share loads and loads of things and failure to do so probably result me in imagining conversations between me and people and sometimes either incur anger or a light chuckle upon myself, depending the person whom I imagine to have a dialogue with. These imaginations are terribly irritating that I can hardly concentrate in my prayers, often forgetting God in most parts of the day and subconsciously neglecting my responsibility upon those around me. Right, you’ll never people when they are alone in their room –in fact, you don’t even know who they are even if they’re your friends.
But today’s entry is not about imagination, so pardon me for the digression. Rather, it’s about the mess we live in today.
It was only a week ago that I dropped by the nearest Times bookstore from my home, hoping to purchase a copy of a book which I found in a library (but it costs $50). Strangely, I turned next to me shortly after arriving at the shelf where the book was placed.
And there was another shelf with some of the books about… the Mayan 2012 Prophecy.
I thought I’d brushed the notion that the world would be at end in the year 2012 or sort of that. But it was a return of an old wound within as I flipped those books. There were so many theories in what contributed to the “prophesised” change in the abovementioned year. I’d probably brushed them aside if they had got to do with religious ideologies (and somehow, I came across somewhere that today Mayans do not know anything about the 2012 thingy predicted by their ancestors –yet what I said may be debatable; so please shed me some light, readers).
But as some of these theories involved scientific explanations, I couldn’t help but admitting myself how little the knowledge I had –and have. Praise to God that I am writing all these down so as to remind me that I –I mean, we – don’t have much time in this world as death does not come knocking on the door; it may come whenever God wants it to appear before you and me.
And I hope it’d remind you (and myself) too to use every second of your life wisely –I’m avoiding the word “spend” as it sounds like a parallel word of “waste” (and I’m referring to the verbs, not nouns or adjectives).
If it was the past, I’d have been psychologically disturbed by such theories of people. But today, I’d probably decided to do my utmost best in life. Yet, even those words are subjective as youths probably use them as a reason to accumulate as much happiness as possible. But I wouldn’t put it that way because I always believe there’s a purpose of existence; whoever and wherever you are, you do have a purpose of life. Think logically, do you want your life to be laid to waste? Am I really supposed to think we live as though we’re living eternally whenever we are in the moments of enjoyment without a thought of death? I won’t deny that sometimes we forget how limited our age because sometimes I do and it’s just about a matter of being conscious of who we are (I don’t want to say how difficult to be conscious of ourselves because that may just discourage me, which I don’t wish to instil that upon any of you).
And I am not addressing to anyone specifically. The message is for everyone who passes by here including me.
Talk is cheap; I can see that especially if we’re down with illness or have our wealth taken away. That is when the true obstacle of life comes in; it is then the time to watch if our beliefs are practical than mere talks. This is what philosophy is truly about –not mere debates or criticisms to prove one’s intellectuality.
As for now, I will do my best to live. Because I realise I do have a purpose in life, I need to fulfil it before I leave this world. My cousin Fadhil made a good point the last time we met for workout –it’s sad to die without achieving our goals. I truly want to lead a meaningful life in which I define it as having a good relationship with people especially those around me, not forgetting my personal relationship with my Lord. Because I believe there is God, it is then undeniable that there are ethics to be followed. There is then morality and humanity.
It is because if we – humans coming from different backgrounds, cultures and norms and so on – were to decide our own set of rules and laws, probably all of us could imagine what if everyone has different perception from each other moreover if we all have the power to exercise those rules. Imagine one society perceives cannibalism as immoral whereas and another perceives it as way of life. God knows what will happen if these societies were at each other’s throat.
Because there is God, there could only be the same message for everyone. And probably we cannot deny that what we think is good (if we are slaves to our desires) for us may not necessarily be beneficial to us –even so, the term good is subjective. Yet, we too cannot deny what we think is bad (if we have an instinct in disagreeing with God’s commandments) may not necessarily be less beneficial to us. In fact, because it comes from God everything has a reason for its own actions and thus, hopefully be something helpful to ourselves so long as we obey Him.
Somehow, I feel it is easier said than done; an action speaks louder than words. That is why I said; talk is cheap. Moreover, I believe some of you are already wondering what exactly we are supposed to believe in since there are too many religions, philosophical theories and beliefs out there. Well, I am not in the position to tell you what’s right and ought to be –it’s because I am finding it myself. The notion of death and what lies beyond it bugs me a lot.
But what I can share with you is; because there are loads of faiths and beliefs, there’s no doubt some of these contradict with each other. Certainly, how can you believe in one belief that encourages you to do some acts and another which discourages those same acts? It is like you believe in monotheism and polytheism; you said there is only one god and yet at the same time, you believe there are many gods; so if you said there is one supreme god with many lesser gods under him… that sounds like polytheism to me. Yet, if you believe in monotheism at the same time, what are you exactly talking or having faith about, owing the fact god tells you to worship only him and not enjoin partners with him? Monotheistic religions exist –you need to know that. They are right before our very eyes –Judaism, Christianity and Islam (and probably some other faiths such as Baha’i faith and others that I do not know of). Those of you who are exposed to such religions will understand how wrathful God, as described in their holy scriptures, would be should we call some other things as gods.
You may correct me if I’m wrong. I hope I do shed some light with the given example. My point is not about what you should believe in especially the contrast between monotheism and polytheism. Rather, I am hoping that we do not own any contradiction in our lives or otherwise we may end up believing in anything. And I don’t think we should cease searching for what we ought to believe. I am brought up with Islam. But as a human, I should take a step back and watch what I believe in so as to validate whether what I have believed all along is truth. Once again, the definition of truth is subjective, depending exactly what aspect we’re talking about here. I don’t want to go into detail about that because I guess this entry is nearly lengthy as the ones before.
See how messed-up the world is? At the end of the day, I guess we are down with two choices; first, to neglect all sorts of doubts as though they never exist and believe whatever we want to believe; second, to reflect and ponder over our beliefs and doubts that we have and strive to find an answer.
Well, if I am as assured with what I believe as how Morpheus is in the film The Matrix, I’d probably be glad to say; “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”
Unfortunately, I am still learning and moreover, the beast residing within me is yet to be fully constrained and chained. Until then, I am not the right person to give advice but suggestions. Yet again, talk is cheap –doing the talk is expensive.
Thank God it’s Friday –one of the days which I permit myself intakes of caffeine (once I drink a cup of either coffee or tea, I’m likely to continue have more cups for that day). By the way, I read some articles whereby caffeine reduces your immune system (although it does provide other health benefits) across the internet. So, it’s something to be investigated and researched upon.
Coffee + milo = mocha
This was what I got after the experiment a couple of minutes ago as I am typing this. I guess you’re bound to know how weird I am, turning complexity into simplicity.
Let’s get the purpose of today’s entry straight. Right, I’ve been wanting to share loads and loads of things and failure to do so probably result me in imagining conversations between me and people and sometimes either incur anger or a light chuckle upon myself, depending the person whom I imagine to have a dialogue with. These imaginations are terribly irritating that I can hardly concentrate in my prayers, often forgetting God in most parts of the day and subconsciously neglecting my responsibility upon those around me. Right, you’ll never people when they are alone in their room –in fact, you don’t even know who they are even if they’re your friends.
But today’s entry is not about imagination, so pardon me for the digression. Rather, it’s about the mess we live in today.
It was only a week ago that I dropped by the nearest Times bookstore from my home, hoping to purchase a copy of a book which I found in a library (but it costs $50). Strangely, I turned next to me shortly after arriving at the shelf where the book was placed.
And there was another shelf with some of the books about… the Mayan 2012 Prophecy.
I thought I’d brushed the notion that the world would be at end in the year 2012 or sort of that. But it was a return of an old wound within as I flipped those books. There were so many theories in what contributed to the “prophesised” change in the abovementioned year. I’d probably brushed them aside if they had got to do with religious ideologies (and somehow, I came across somewhere that today Mayans do not know anything about the 2012 thingy predicted by their ancestors –yet what I said may be debatable; so please shed me some light, readers).
But as some of these theories involved scientific explanations, I couldn’t help but admitting myself how little the knowledge I had –and have. Praise to God that I am writing all these down so as to remind me that I –I mean, we – don’t have much time in this world as death does not come knocking on the door; it may come whenever God wants it to appear before you and me.
And I hope it’d remind you (and myself) too to use every second of your life wisely –I’m avoiding the word “spend” as it sounds like a parallel word of “waste” (and I’m referring to the verbs, not nouns or adjectives).
If it was the past, I’d have been psychologically disturbed by such theories of people. But today, I’d probably decided to do my utmost best in life. Yet, even those words are subjective as youths probably use them as a reason to accumulate as much happiness as possible. But I wouldn’t put it that way because I always believe there’s a purpose of existence; whoever and wherever you are, you do have a purpose of life. Think logically, do you want your life to be laid to waste? Am I really supposed to think we live as though we’re living eternally whenever we are in the moments of enjoyment without a thought of death? I won’t deny that sometimes we forget how limited our age because sometimes I do and it’s just about a matter of being conscious of who we are (I don’t want to say how difficult to be conscious of ourselves because that may just discourage me, which I don’t wish to instil that upon any of you).
And I am not addressing to anyone specifically. The message is for everyone who passes by here including me.
Talk is cheap; I can see that especially if we’re down with illness or have our wealth taken away. That is when the true obstacle of life comes in; it is then the time to watch if our beliefs are practical than mere talks. This is what philosophy is truly about –not mere debates or criticisms to prove one’s intellectuality.
As for now, I will do my best to live. Because I realise I do have a purpose in life, I need to fulfil it before I leave this world. My cousin Fadhil made a good point the last time we met for workout –it’s sad to die without achieving our goals. I truly want to lead a meaningful life in which I define it as having a good relationship with people especially those around me, not forgetting my personal relationship with my Lord. Because I believe there is God, it is then undeniable that there are ethics to be followed. There is then morality and humanity.
It is because if we – humans coming from different backgrounds, cultures and norms and so on – were to decide our own set of rules and laws, probably all of us could imagine what if everyone has different perception from each other moreover if we all have the power to exercise those rules. Imagine one society perceives cannibalism as immoral whereas and another perceives it as way of life. God knows what will happen if these societies were at each other’s throat.
Because there is God, there could only be the same message for everyone. And probably we cannot deny that what we think is good (if we are slaves to our desires) for us may not necessarily be beneficial to us –even so, the term good is subjective. Yet, we too cannot deny what we think is bad (if we have an instinct in disagreeing with God’s commandments) may not necessarily be less beneficial to us. In fact, because it comes from God everything has a reason for its own actions and thus, hopefully be something helpful to ourselves so long as we obey Him.
Somehow, I feel it is easier said than done; an action speaks louder than words. That is why I said; talk is cheap. Moreover, I believe some of you are already wondering what exactly we are supposed to believe in since there are too many religions, philosophical theories and beliefs out there. Well, I am not in the position to tell you what’s right and ought to be –it’s because I am finding it myself. The notion of death and what lies beyond it bugs me a lot.
But what I can share with you is; because there are loads of faiths and beliefs, there’s no doubt some of these contradict with each other. Certainly, how can you believe in one belief that encourages you to do some acts and another which discourages those same acts? It is like you believe in monotheism and polytheism; you said there is only one god and yet at the same time, you believe there are many gods; so if you said there is one supreme god with many lesser gods under him… that sounds like polytheism to me. Yet, if you believe in monotheism at the same time, what are you exactly talking or having faith about, owing the fact god tells you to worship only him and not enjoin partners with him? Monotheistic religions exist –you need to know that. They are right before our very eyes –Judaism, Christianity and Islam (and probably some other faiths such as Baha’i faith and others that I do not know of). Those of you who are exposed to such religions will understand how wrathful God, as described in their holy scriptures, would be should we call some other things as gods.
You may correct me if I’m wrong. I hope I do shed some light with the given example. My point is not about what you should believe in especially the contrast between monotheism and polytheism. Rather, I am hoping that we do not own any contradiction in our lives or otherwise we may end up believing in anything. And I don’t think we should cease searching for what we ought to believe. I am brought up with Islam. But as a human, I should take a step back and watch what I believe in so as to validate whether what I have believed all along is truth. Once again, the definition of truth is subjective, depending exactly what aspect we’re talking about here. I don’t want to go into detail about that because I guess this entry is nearly lengthy as the ones before.
See how messed-up the world is? At the end of the day, I guess we are down with two choices; first, to neglect all sorts of doubts as though they never exist and believe whatever we want to believe; second, to reflect and ponder over our beliefs and doubts that we have and strive to find an answer.
Well, if I am as assured with what I believe as how Morpheus is in the film The Matrix, I’d probably be glad to say; “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”
Unfortunately, I am still learning and moreover, the beast residing within me is yet to be fully constrained and chained. Until then, I am not the right person to give advice but suggestions. Yet again, talk is cheap –doing the talk is expensive.
Oh dear... I forgot to change the number of the chapter in the image for two entries -"Chapter 8" for two entries when this one is already Chapter 10! My bad...
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