To every purpose, there are good reasons and there are true reasons. In writing a blog, for instance. People seem to have a gazillion of reasons why they are doing it, some monetary, others altruistic. As for me, the good reason is that I wanted to help other people, heal them and inspire them to live better lives. On the other hand, maybe the true reason is this: I write it because I wanted to be heard, I wanted to know – that I am not invisible.
posted by itakeoffthemask.com
Growing old? At 30? Oh no! I used to believe myself to be young looking, someone who is infact a LOT younger than my age. Now why the sudden feeling of growing old? Didn’t I believe myself to be timeless? ageless? Isn’t growing old merely a product of the mind and of the many beliefs we have of aging?
So why am I thankful that I had no internet tonight? First of all, had I had internet, I wouldn’t be writing this article for future posting when I can work “on-line” again. Funny that now that I’m “offline” (to the net), I am “on-line” again to myself. I can now write, read a good book, enjoy the company of my family, and even do some hobby without using my keyboard!Have you noticed it as well? How the internet seem to capture all of us and have us engrossed for countless hours, precious hours we could have spent somewhere else (other than sitting infront of our laptops and being lost in thought!) “Just one more minute” or “just trying to get this code right” we’d say. But after a problem is finished, another one comes up, and then another, and we aren’t able to finish at all. Further to that, the internet works so fast that it forces us to work in the same phase as “it”. IT works so fast presenting to us thought upon thought upon thought until we hardly have the time to even catch our breath. Whew! I’m sure glad I caught mine tonight 🙂
Now let me get this right. I’m not saying that the internet is no good. In fact, it is a very useful tool. So let us keep it at that – a tool. A tool we shouldn’t allow to control us. Instead, we should make it work for us by having enough discipline and self-control to use it the best way and the best time we can. As for nights when you can’t connect, be thankful. You now have a chance to live your life as normal people do. You can now have some experience you’d be able to blog about the next time you’re on-line once again.
What leads us to extreme religious beliefs?
Some people would insist on conviction, others would say they are those who found the right way. Yet what is it that prompts us to find these convictions?
I think that we are most afraid of things that we do not know, and so we try to explain everything, even at the expense of reaching the extreme. People are most uncomfortable with the mysterious that we’d rather side with an absolute statement than suffer the vagueness of matters we can’t resolve.
We don’t like the abstract. And so goes the many beliefs we have now that seems to cast all other things aside-
Beliefs that unless we do this and that, we won’t be saved, and we won’t reach heaven.
Beliefs that since there are many things we can’t explain about God, then there must be no God at all.
Beliefs formed from the wonders we observed in nature, such beliefs that make us worship nature alone.
Beliefs saying that because having desires causes us so much frustration then we should have no desires at all and lose our personal identity altogether.
We cannot connect everything perfectly yet. And though this should not prevent us from seeking out the truth, uncertainties for the moment need not take us to extreme beliefs either. I am lead to belief that this line of thinking was what made Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. They wanted to know everything that they would do everything even if it is not yet time. Must we eat the forbidden fruit also? Can we not be comfortable with the mysterious for the moment and enjoy the wonderful revelations given us one moment at a time?
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery – even if mixed with fear – that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man.” -Albert Einstein
I’ve often heard people saying “I’m truly blessed”, or “God blessed me.”
Does that mean other people weren’t blessed?
If God causes the sun to shine both on the good and the bad, will He withhold His blessings to some and give it only to a few?
Who are we to say that some people are less fortunate than us?
I believe that God pours His blessings upon us all… always.
And maybe, when we say that we are blessed, it is only like saying we have finally found the faith to receive what God is giving us. Finally, we have recognized God’s goodness, and for that, we say that we are blessed!