Thursday, August 24, 2006
Why I'm A ChristianThere are a lot questions, wandering of ideas and what if's that are going through a person's mind. Our INTPHIL class made me more intrigued about how our religion is all about. To tell you the truth (honestly),I think I've been a fairly dedicated Christian my entire life. Maybe it was just in our blood that we do and often worship God and our Savior with all passion and mighty faith. I remember when I was small, I used to pray for about 15minutes or so, and I think that it's kind of long especially for a kiddo like me back then. Why that long? I prayed for each and every loved one I have. Yes, enumerating them to God and wishing them all the blessing they could receive from Him. It is also in my childish nature at that time, I prayed for our pet dogs as well. (Pretty crazy huh? Common, I was a kid.. Haha..).
As I've learned, I know that Christianity is centered on Jesus Christ and on all of His teachings. Yes there are skeptics, agnostics and atheists. I'm very sure that I'm not one of any of those groups I mentioned. Even when our class discussed and analyzed that topic (including Nietszche's criticisms on religion and morality). Nietszche, for me, provided the most moving and intriguing cirtiques mainly because he touched a very sensitive matter, Christianity and Morality that is. Many of his works focusing on the said topics included: Beyond Good and Evil, The Gay Science and On the Genealogy of Morals.
To sum all things up, amidst all of the things and concepts the atheists have to offer, it's still up to how strong your faith and stand on Christianity. Yes of course philosophers like Nietszche provided us with wonderful and carefully-thought-of ideas and views. These things, we can use in enchancing and professing our faith, the faith we've installed and carried up to this very moment in our lives.
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"If you want to spare your eyes and your mind, follow the sun from the shadows behind."
Hinampas nung 6:00 PM
A Shadow Lies Beneath MeThere's always the other side right? The side B, the antagonists, the underdogs, the evil twin, the shadow. The shadow concept involves the unconscious mind and is said to be the opposite of the ego. This part of the mind may represent the opposite, meaning one person who is said to be kind has a harsh side somewhere in his mind’s unacknowledged part. There would always be the trigger for this and the way to prevent destructive things from happening is to integrate it well with the conscious part of the mind. I have seen and encountered friends who significantly justify the idea of the shadow. Some people may appear to be harmless but hey, they'd turn out to be the bad guys of the story. I can say that I have something in me that can be referred to as the element of my unconscious mind. I am a very very patient person but sometimes (rarely), a sudden burst of emotion unleashes. Lucky enough, I did handle these kinds of situations in the past. The thing is, we must know or at least have an idea on what triggers these emotions or hidden personalities, as they say. For my part, I think being over-stressed leads me into losing my patience and composure. Most importantly, we also have to learn about handling them when the sudden instance comes up.
The talk I attended (Dr. Leslie's Shadow and Evil in Naruto) gave a lot of pointers regarding philosophical analysis by Carl Gustav Jung and the Naruto analogies that come with it. First of all, I would like to express my satisfaction with how the presentation was delivered. It’s really a very innovative way to discuss certain concepts in the philosophical world through the use of parallelism with the hit anime series, “Naruto”.
In Naruto, certain characters possess a part in them that makes them inadvertently go wild. It was well-explained in the lecture that we must, in a way, be open to other things aside from the ego. In order to do this, we must explore and understand the world of religion and spirituality because human beings’ unconscious are encountered through things or symbols seen in dreams, religion, art and in other things we do in our life especially in relationships. I also learned that there’s this way to balance our unconsciousness with the conscious side, psychotherapy that is. For me, it is very essential for us to take this into consideration for all of us have this hidden “us” within us.
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"I love only myself and fight only for myself." - Gaara
"You aren't even worth killing, foolish little brother."
"If you want to kill me, despise me, hate me, and live in an unsightly way... Run, and cling to life, and then some day, when you have the same eyes as I do, come before me." - Itachi
Hinampas nung 12:35 PM
Gold LeafPeople work together for a more productive and prosperous community. They join hands in working and in praying as well. This is what I realized from the trip we did last Saturday at the Seng Guan Buddhist Temple. It's one heck of a great great experience. I had some ideas about Buddhism and how the people do their worshipping. That trip was my first time, first time I stepped on a temple that Buddhists give most value to.
Buddhists use alot of things during their worship and it seemed as though the process is a bit complicated. Well, I think it's just that I'm not a Buddhist neither a Chinese. Haha. Anyway, I was really amazed on what I saw (how their "masses" or praises were done) because those scenes are the ones I only see on tv. Yay! Strict, the chinese are. The tour guide cautioned us to be extra careful on things around us at the same time explaining the whereabouts of the temple. Remember, tables are not for the feet. Haha, some of my classmates, including me, stepped on a table to get on the platform where Gautama Buddha and others stood. We didn't notice that those were sacred tables until the guide told us so. Hehe, sorry for that.
Buddhism is about the teachings of the awakened ones and regarded as a practical philosophy based on the lessons of Gautama Buddha. Buddhism is about the reality or truth and that’s why it is been referred to as the awakening of people to the realm of truth. I also learned more about the concept of Nirvana, which is the truth, the extinguishment of desire (wikipedia). Furthermore, the followers (Buddhists) should act in a way of complete detachment or life without desires and people in the Nirvana are excluded from the birth and rebirth stages of Buddhism. I was struck by the concept that the Nirvana is neither good nor bad, it is just plain reality. The Nirvana for them is just like our heaven, the eternal life that is. That leads me to another thing I picked up in the trip, which is the concept of reincarnation. I am familiar with this idea and from what I knew; this means that before a person’s current life, he or she was an exact opposite entity of what he or she is now. Lastly, the idea of karma was discussed and it enhanced my understanding of it. They say that every action incurred by an individual is topped up with either a good or bad karma depending on the action done. It led me to thinking of how Filipinos often use and attach karma with the negative. Buddhists value goodness and at the same time face the reality that there is the “other side.”
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Statues of Buddha and the rest did not appear to be golden at first until the chinese community joined hands in buying golden leaves to cover the statues and the wall behind their altars.
How wonderful.
Any person who has become awakened from the "sleep of ignorance" by directly realizing the true nature of reality is called a Buddha.
Hinampas nung 8:45 AM
Saturday, August 05, 2006
LimboUncertainty. What's ahead of me? What's in store for me? I hope to find the answers to those and I'd be very glad to hear the positives.
Tuesday
What a week. Tuesday was good and the night was better. We played
paluan. (Yung game na nakapatong ung isang kamay mo sa kamay ng katabi mo tapos ung isang kamay mo pinapatungan ng isang kamay nung isa mo pang katabi. Gets? Tapos paluan. 'Pag nagmintis ka, papaluin ka sa braso, using the magical two-finger bash. Hehe.) Happy day!
Thursday
Usual day. When dusk came (
mga oras na nakakatamad umuwi kasi trapik at alang masakyan na maluwag), we stayed at agno for a while. I was with few of my berks, je, mike and prits. Life seemed boring and gloomy, though at times exciting, while we watched lasallians strut their way along agno. Tuesday night reminded us something, have fun, that is. Again, we went up EGI (geric's place). To cut this story short, we played
paluan again, having the "caterpillar-like" marks on our forearms. Haha. That was 10pm and I decided not to go home. So what does it suggest? Haha. Fun!
Friday
Arrived home at around 8am (from EGI). Slept up to 12 I think. As I was taking my lunch, I was suddenly headed to G4 to wander around with carla and chinee. Haha. I needed to get back to DLSU for a thesis session and after a looong walking spree, we made our way back to Taft. Thanks again geric. I owe u alot. Slept at around 0445 and woke up just in time for my class at around 0730.
Saturday
GAMEDES time! And yes, I need to raise my participation in class a notch higher. I had fun considering I barely had 3 hours of sleep.
We won! Woohoo! (A DOTA tournament semis, GAMEDES thing)
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Tumahimik bigla ah. Haha. Marami pa'ng kailangan gawin. Ngunit pa'no?
Hinampas nung 10:20 PM
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Happy Happy Days?
Missed blogging. Anyway, off to another entry. It's been a rough week, task-wise. Too many school things to worry about, personal matters to lament on and some other cute stuff. Cute?
Haha, ewan, gusto ko lang sabihin yung word na cute.Thanks Mr. Rain. Thanks for giving me an uber bad flu. It did cost me a GAMEDES class and a trip with my LITERA1 groupmates to the breakwater. Awww, soo sad. Well, at least I'm back and breathing fine again.
Poetry Recital. I think I botched it up a bit. Haha. Nevertheless, a wonderful yet tiring day.
Hey, I've got a shobe! Baet nun, haha.
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"Existence precedes essence."I'm neutral on this. For me, the value of existing in this world is to be of use or help to the society; not a force to reckon with that will only pull down the growth of human excellence. But then again, their point is that we should be of existence in this cute little world of ours, and that's the important thing. What am I saying? I just think that the statement needs further explanation, regarding the essence of existence!
Haha, ang labo ba?Ingat.. Maulan ngayon.. Magdala lagi ng payong..
Hinampas nung 11:30 PM
