Snow

What is it about the snow that makes everything seem so peaceful? It cant be the fact its cold. Maybe it is the fact its delicate. But in actuality it causes tons of accidents every year. Perhaps it is that it is white and white is a relaxing color. But then what is it about the color white? White means purity and innocence. It is a cleansing color. When we want to negotiate during a conflict we wave a white flag. When one gets married the wedding dress is white. So it is just the fact that snow is white that makes us feel at peace as it falls. After all, if the snow was purple would you feel the same about it?

(<-- that's my backyard :))

pon and zi

I LOVE PON AND ZI

Plato

So I was just rereading my philosophy notes from this semester and there is something that has been bothering me and it lies in one of Plato’s theories.

No one wishes to harm themselves
and evil is what is ultimately harmful,
therefore no one does evil intentionally.

Aristotle tried to disprove this by saying there was more then one kind of knowledge. I don’t agree with this either I think Plato was right one he said there was only one type. After much thought I finally think I came up with a solution to why this is wrong. I believe issue is found in the premise, “evil is what is ultimately harmful,” and more specifically the word “ultimately.” I believe if you take this word out and make it: evil is what is harmful then it will fit. Because “what is harmful” encompasses all people and all harm. So acts that only cause some harm but aren’t ultimately harmful will be considered evil.

(Plato, The Apology)

(Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics)

Immortality

Seeing the world change before your eyes, having the opportunity to do everything you ever wanted, learning everything you could possibly learn, gaining money and power, achieving anything and everything not having to worry about death. Sounds nice doesn’t it? These are just a few of the things immortality would bring a person. Well a few of the pleasures.

This brings me to my question, and the basis for this entry. If you could live forever would you want to? On one hand the world would become your playground. On the other, you would be losing everything. All the people you know and love would die eventually and the new friends you made would die too. Everything you became accustomed to would change. You would be very alone in your life. No one would truly understand those things you had seen in the past and how these things make you feel in the present. I personally don’t think I would want to live without the one’s I love around me, those I call family and friends.

The main reason I see for wanting to be immortal, is to escape death. But why do we fear death so much anyway? Is it because it’s the unknown? And if it is how can you fear what you have no knowledge of? This seems absurd to me. Plato said that death was either of two thing. It is like the most peaceful undisturbed night of sleep you ever had. The other option is that when you die your spirit is free from the restricting misleading body and you end up with all the greats of the world. Both of these seem like great options to me, actually they seem better then life; and besides I really like sleep. Therefore, I see no reason to fear death and I wont fear it. I see my fears of falling into an endless pit and being sung happy birthday to at a restaurant as much more reasonable.

(Plato, The Apology)

Anger: A Useless Emotion?

Indignation. Rage. Fury. Wrath. ANGER.

I recently got into an argument with a friend of mine and, as is my nature, I became angry. Somehow he thought it was a good idea to tell me in the midst of this that anger is a useless emotion. Now, that I am looking back on the comment, and am no longer feeling anger, I’m inclined to wonder if he is correct. Is anger a useless emotion?

I think before I attempt to answer this question I should answer the question of: What anger is? Anger, as defined by Webster’s dictionary, is “a strong feeling of displeasure and usually of antagonism.” The second question that arises is: Where does anger come from? From what I know, anger comes largely from stress and frustration. As I researched I found that anger also can come from medical issues. These range from psychological issues such as bi-polar disease; to physical problems like multiple sclerosis and sprains.

I asked my friend why he thought anger was useless. The reason he gave me was because it just triggered other emotions, such as sadness and satisfaction; and that we could feel these without anger. I think that his train of thought on this is quite irrational mainly because we don’t normally choose to feel anger, it just happens. And secondly, anger may trigger other emotions, but it is an emotion in itself.

In fact, I now happen to think anger is a very useful emotion. It fuels us to want to challenge ourselves and those who oppose us, therefore raising our goals and forcing us to be our best. It inspires people to create works of art, especially music. It drives us to fight for what we believe in. The U.S. may have been under British rule today, if the colonists had not been angry and revolted. And finally, it protects us by triggering fight-or-flight. So in contrary to my friend’s belief, it seems that anger is quite useful. It is how you use it that matters.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/features/article3626778.ece

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anger

http://www.angermanagementgroups.com/AngerCanBePositive.html

Why Im Part Buddhist

Not by harming life
Does one become noble.
One is termed noble
For being gentle
To all living things.
- Dhammapada

My whole life I’ve lived in the same house, located on a dead end next to the woods. When I was little the street in front of my house was cracked and messed up. Well after years of calling into the town, my mother finally succeeded in getting them to come out and fix the street. There was also this big, old, beautiful tree growing in front of our house between the curb and the sidewalk. It provided shelter for birds and squirrels. It shaded the grass and various plants from the harsh sun. And most importantly, it added beauty to the world. When the workers evaluated the street they discovered that in order to fix it they would have to tear down the tree. My mother agreed to allow this to happen. I, on the other hand, being a small child around the age of 8, felt for the tree, and actually cried when they tore it down. In Buddhism, there is a principle that states, “all living entities are equal.” In this thought all things should be treated the same; from a flower, to an ant, to a fish, to a dog, to a human being. This is something that as a young child I had no concept of but seemed to believe at heart as my reactions show. I still believe in this principle to this day. When everyone tries to kill the moth in the house, I’m the one who catches it and lets it go.

DNA Coded

Most of us have suffered from some form of death. Whether this is the death of a family member, a friend, or a beloved pet. Those of us who haven’t should consider themselves very lucky. We all know how the loss feels. The pain, the sorrow, the empty spot in your heart. It leaves a mark on the person experiencing it, one that will never fade. This is why when we know someone going throw the same thing, we feel deeply for them and feel their pain. The experience links us to them. We then feel the need to do whatever we can to comfort them and help them, do good for them. This is what sympathy is. It seems then that the only criteria needed to evoke sympathy is having experienced a like incident. At all other times it is lying dormant and waiting; and at times it takes form as empathy. If it is always present in us the conclusion I have come to draw is that we are born with it. It is coded into our DNA along with eye color and gender.

Why Sympathy?

As I started to research the topic of sympathy I soon realized there was very little information on it and the causes behind it. I started to wonder if there is no information on it because the reason behind it is evident. It is human nature to feel sympathy. I believe we are born with the emotion of sympathy, it is coded into our DNA. Determined to find some source that agreed with my theory, or had any theory at all I kept searching. I finally came across this site eruptingmind.com, that did just that.

It also told that if we did have the ability to sympathize the world would fall. This backs up my thought that sympathy is much stronger then empathy. Empathy is just the capability to understand what another person is going through. Whereas, Sympathy evokes feelings of sorrow and pity and literally puts you in their shoes. As erupting mind said, “sympathy is like having an invisible link with someone, which allows you to feel what they are feeling and experience what they are experiencing.

I feel as though I should add a disclaimer to this piece. Although sympathy is a valuable emotion and is the cause behind a lot of the good done in the world, it can be misleading. Even the most wicked people in the world feel sympathy. Hitler for instance, felt sympathy for his fellow Germans. This does not make his actions, however, right by any means. One must be careful of how much sympathy they feel and who its directed to.

http://www.eruptingmind.com/what-is-empathy/

Sympathy

Sympatí a, sympathie, sympatia, sympati, zrozumienie, samkennd, sümpaatia, sympatie, szánakozás, sumpatheia, sumpathēs, symposia, saosećanje, sự đồng cảm, sympathy. The word sympathy can be translated in every language known to man. I believe this is because it is human nature to show sympathy. “But what is sympathy?” one may ask. Webster’s dictionary defines sympathy as “the act or capacity of entering into or sharing the feelings or interests of another; the feeling or mental state brought about by such sensitivity” I’ve also seen it defined as “understanding between people; common feeling.” Sympathy comes originally from the Latin words Sun Pathos, which translated means with feeling, and isn’t it with feeling that we do all do good?

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sympathy

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-sympathy.html

Good: Vice or Virtue?

I’d like to assert that all acts of virtue or good are acts of incontinence in disguise. I however, am not capable of making such and assertion because there is one specific incident in which good is truly a virtue. This I will address later though.

It is fully possible for us to view the acts of others as good without knowing the underlying reasons they do them. The example I most clearly have in my mind is that of celebrities. When they do good they receive media attention. If they are doing good for this reason it is out of selfishness. The general population is always impressed when the young do good. However, a lot of the young only do good because it looks impressive on a college transcript. I myself am guilty of having done this in the past and I’m sure some of you reading this are as well.

Selfishness is not the only thing that leads to acts of good. The other is fear. What I am thinking about here specifically is religious fear. The fear of what will happen to one after one dies if you one is not good in life, pushes people to be good. Also, the fear of karma. One would not want the bad they do to come back to them.

The last example of good done out of bad, is good done out of guilt. When a person has done something horrid in their lives the guilt is likely to way heavily on them. So in order to make themselves feel better and relieve some of this guilt they may commit acts of good.

I am in no way saying that these acts of good should be stopped because the reasons behind them were not all good. They are, after all, still benefiting other people. All I set out to do was point out the reasons behind them.

The people who do good and have absolutely nothing to gain are the one’s I want to take a closer look at. I truly believe there is no reason behind the good they do other then it is habit, as opening the door for someone has become habit for me. They are the truly virtuous. The roots of their virtue come from doing repeated acts of continence. The main reason I think people do acts of good or continence for other people is out of sympathy. We look at other people and realize we are all human and all have the same needs and wants and desires and when someone else does not have the opportunity to have them we sympathize with them and want to help. Through this constant helping we become virtuous.

For this entry i drew a great amount of inspiration from Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.

When the Sun Dies

Im straying from the sceduled assignment at hand with this post but i figured it couldnt hurt any. I wrote this poem some years ago and it acually reminded me of the topic of good and even moreso the evil in the world. So here it is:

When the Sun Dies

The moon giggles when children play
The stars laugh all our worries away
The clouds breath in our eternal hope
The sun smiles when lovers elope
When we are angry, the moon looks on in dismay
When we scream and yell, all the stars go away
When we hurt the clouds cry
When we kill…
that’s when the sun dies

Phenomenon of Good

War, Murder, Tragedy, Death, Corruption. These words are what we hear constantly in the media of today’s society. It makes turning on the evening news a depressing experience and warps one’s view on the world. It makes it seem as if the is no good or kindness occurring. I know this is untrue.

As we approach Christmas we witness a change occurring. We start hearing positive stories about the kindness of people in the media. This makes me wonder: Why Now? Is it just that we need to think positively about ourselves to enjoy our holidays? Is it that we are feeling more religious and are afraid of what may happen to us after death if we are not kind in life? If it’s neither, of these why do we not hear about the good in the world all year round? Why does it get put on the back burner? Is the cause for good really evil?

For once, I’d like to hear a story of those small kind acts done on a daily basis. They are the acts that are truly good. I want to hear about the person who gives the homeless person change without even thinking about it twice. I want to hear about the person who comforts their friend in a time of need. I want to hear about the person who holds the door for someone else. After all, don’t small acts of good lead to larger ones?