What do you believe in?
"I believe, therefore I am."
Interesting twist to the original Cogito Ergo Sum, I'd say. Partly because it is exhibited in the form of a neat pink-blue cursive on my sister's bathroom door. But mostly because of the association of being with believing - an acknowledgement of one's presence in one's beliefs. Flabbergasted by the wisdom on the door, I found myself wondering "What do I believe in?", and more importantly, "The hell is belief, anyway?"
"If you believe in something, have the guts to say it!", I was once told. And in response, I stared spinelessly-- first at the person who said it, and then at the dry tree in front of me. The truth was, and is, I do not know what I believe in.
I decided to heed to the Buddhists and circle within my infinity. They're crafty, with their whole "minimal damage" theory. The gist is somewhat like this-- affect nothing. I'm not kidding, they're asking you to be a wall. They knew that we're too stupid to tell good from bad, so they asked us to chill. That, and also the fact that if we begin do good, it does not carry the closure of a probable bad. Yeah, I can see how they advocate getting out of the circle of life and "rising above" without believing in an after-life. And no, not through weed.
Belief systems are funny. People spend lives and lifetimes believing in something, only to succumb to their hypocrisies. Does this mean that you live a life standing on thin-ice, or do you readily drown in the quick sand? Then again, if there is nothing you firmly conform to, you really are nobody. Or should I say no-mind? Heh, applaud my wordplay.
I would say I have a lot of organized thoughts, but I would refrain from calling them beliefs. The other day, I had a long discussion with my professor about feminism, atheism and capitalism among other things. "Be careful when you talk of -ism's", he warns us, and I am. The -isms make me uncomfortable. They seem too loaded, distorted and vague. By the end it, I was as exasperated as he was disappointed, and I ended up writing a long email, without being able to press the send button.
I think most things are fixable, including beliefs, until the person is alive. And I mean it in the most "still breathing" sense of the word. If someone decides to take his life, he would have probably been through a million deliberations for a solution. He would have convinced himself to an extent of believing, that jumping off the roof was what he needed to do. He just picks a time, the tallest building and takes the plunge. He is mid-air and his life is flashing past him- his decisions, beliefs and family. The adrenaline gets to his head and he is beginning to enjoy the wind blowing through his hai--arms. He remembers the time he was seven, when his grandpa would fly kites with him on hot summer mornings. He felt like one of those kites, flying freely. And now he just cannot stop thinking about how he is just one foot above the ground, desperately kicking his legs in the air, grasping onto anything; to stop gravity or turn time or just not die.
And then he jerks into consciousness from the terrible dream.
Okay, I'll just tell you what I make of it. We are, all said and nothing done, human beings (in case you couldn't tell). We care about ourselves and a handful of people around us. We carry tiny hopes and walk the face of the earth trying to make something of our lives. At our weakest and strongest, we need the one "something" that can keep us from falling apart.
To me, that something is belief. A sort of super glue that makes me thrive on something bigger than myself, that allows me to frame my perceptions about the life, universe and everything. For some people it comes in the form of love, others through their own experiences and some even through Bob the Builder (Yes, we can!). I guess it is what fundamentally comprises us, and distinguishes us from every other creature- belief.
Although, I wonder what the guy meant when he sang "I believe I can fly". Poetic hobos, I tell you.
Interesting twist to the original Cogito Ergo Sum, I'd say. Partly because it is exhibited in the form of a neat pink-blue cursive on my sister's bathroom door. But mostly because of the association of being with believing - an acknowledgement of one's presence in one's beliefs. Flabbergasted by the wisdom on the door, I found myself wondering "What do I believe in?", and more importantly, "The hell is belief, anyway?"
"If you believe in something, have the guts to say it!", I was once told. And in response, I stared spinelessly-- first at the person who said it, and then at the dry tree in front of me. The truth was, and is, I do not know what I believe in.
I decided to heed to the Buddhists and circle within my infinity. They're crafty, with their whole "minimal damage" theory. The gist is somewhat like this-- affect nothing. I'm not kidding, they're asking you to be a wall. They knew that we're too stupid to tell good from bad, so they asked us to chill. That, and also the fact that if we begin do good, it does not carry the closure of a probable bad. Yeah, I can see how they advocate getting out of the circle of life and "rising above" without believing in an after-life. And no, not through weed.
Belief systems are funny. People spend lives and lifetimes believing in something, only to succumb to their hypocrisies. Does this mean that you live a life standing on thin-ice, or do you readily drown in the quick sand? Then again, if there is nothing you firmly conform to, you really are nobody. Or should I say no-mind? Heh, applaud my wordplay.
I would say I have a lot of organized thoughts, but I would refrain from calling them beliefs. The other day, I had a long discussion with my professor about feminism, atheism and capitalism among other things. "Be careful when you talk of -ism's", he warns us, and I am. The -isms make me uncomfortable. They seem too loaded, distorted and vague. By the end it, I was as exasperated as he was disappointed, and I ended up writing a long email, without being able to press the send button.
I think most things are fixable, including beliefs, until the person is alive. And I mean it in the most "still breathing" sense of the word. If someone decides to take his life, he would have probably been through a million deliberations for a solution. He would have convinced himself to an extent of believing, that jumping off the roof was what he needed to do. He just picks a time, the tallest building and takes the plunge. He is mid-air and his life is flashing past him- his decisions, beliefs and family. The adrenaline gets to his head and he is beginning to enjoy the wind blowing through his hai--arms. He remembers the time he was seven, when his grandpa would fly kites with him on hot summer mornings. He felt like one of those kites, flying freely. And now he just cannot stop thinking about how he is just one foot above the ground, desperately kicking his legs in the air, grasping onto anything; to stop gravity or turn time or just not die.
And then he jerks into consciousness from the terrible dream.
Okay, I'll just tell you what I make of it. We are, all said and nothing done, human beings (in case you couldn't tell). We care about ourselves and a handful of people around us. We carry tiny hopes and walk the face of the earth trying to make something of our lives. At our weakest and strongest, we need the one "something" that can keep us from falling apart.
To me, that something is belief. A sort of super glue that makes me thrive on something bigger than myself, that allows me to frame my perceptions about the life, universe and everything. For some people it comes in the form of love, others through their own experiences and some even through Bob the Builder (Yes, we can!). I guess it is what fundamentally comprises us, and distinguishes us from every other creature- belief.
Although, I wonder what the guy meant when he sang "I believe I can fly". Poetic hobos, I tell you.
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