This is most certainly one of the more perplexing questions of our time. It is a perennial one having been with us, I would think, since time immemorial. Socrates (470-399 BC), for example, tells us (to paraphrase) that “to know your self is the beginning of all wisdom.” (1) We are shocked when we realize that we have consciousness and exist in the world.
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Are you a pilgrim?
Are you a pilgrim of the self? All thoughtful people are faced with a plethora of questions in life. Why am I here, what is my mission, and what will happen when I die are but a few of the more pressing ones. When I awaken into consciousness at 20 or so, I am immediately struck with the fact that I am alive — me! I have awareness.
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I want to live in the light
History, metaphorically, has been colored by the goodness of light. There is arguably a moral overtone in past events. (1) We would rather have a bright and sun-filled day than one infused with gloom and overcast. Many religious people believe that we will eventually be summoned into the light. (2) Why is luminescence so important to all of us? On a simple level, it gives energy to our earth and encourages growth — flourishing in all living things.
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Let us go to the country
We take a short walk in an urban park and are quickly spirited away to another time and another place — an era, only imagined, that possesses a surfeit of flora and fauna. Nature in all her beauty beckons. There is something compelling about the bugs, the birds, and the bees — a sprig of grass and the rustling of trees. In the beginning, the natural environment was the park that mankind came to. This longing to be reconnected is deeply embedded in each of us.
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We are all the same
Thomas Hardy, (1) famously, tells us that we are much more similar than we are different. (2) The acknowledgment of this fact has to be the only way in which we will achieve peace and harmony on Earth. However if I believe that human beings are kindred, I am also forced to question what kind of evil occurs inside of me. What would allow my actions of violence to co-exist alongside my desire for love? Yet this reality has been true throughout our history.
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Thoughtfulness
Is it truly important to be a thoughtful person? This is a question that I often ask myself. We seemingly live in an era that has witnessed the overwhelming character of electronic media supplanting our necessity to think independently. And, as much as I may criticize this, people seem happy and contented. They chortle to themselves and giggle as they exchange texts and images on their phones. Is this such a bad thing? Perhaps not, but wait!
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Where is the love we need?
As we commence another school year, we are filled with a sense of freshness — a feeling of hope. Everyone wishes the very best of good fortune to our students and their teachers. We must ask: what is the underlying emotion that drives us all? It has to be a sense of love — for our community, for each other, and for the self.
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Joy
When was the last time you had a great day — experienced some joy? It was a long time ago, wasn’t it? Why you may ask. The reason is that a deathly pallor of pain has come to be considered the normal human experience, life is suffering, isn’t it? We only have to follow the daily news reports to believe this to be true. But wait: what if I changed this paradigm? What if I described reality as a crusade – a voyage of the self to fulfillment and, ultimately, the beckoning nirvana? Then the events of the journey, both bad and good, would be accepted wouldn’t they because they would further the goals of the odyssey. My suggestion is that we adopt the latter scenario not the former.
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All creatures big and small
Our biosphere is filled with life — from the reviled and peripatetic cockroach, on land, to the admired and peaceful blue whale, at sea. We have, however, still not achieved accommodation with Gaia, with Mother Earth. Homo sapiens, continue to thoughtlessly plunder and decimate our natural systems. The consequences of this disharmony are becoming more and more evident. At present, the earth is in the throes of a sickness of sorts — inundated with physical, psychological, and spiritual crises.
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To be brave
We are all told that we should be brave in life. We know, however, that in a world filled with anger and violence, physically, is it not often the most prudent move. What is this concern for bravery that we so often hear about? Well, it, of course, has a very long pedigree.
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