Understanding the Fear of Control [Article]

One of the problems of this world is that it is so focused upon the search of fulfilment that we find ourselves in the conflict with the flow of the world's direction.

It has often been said that 'Nature is blind' and I am an advocate of such a view. Nature shows no path in her continued determination. She follows a path which she sets.

For most people, life is quite the opposite of Nature's intention. We all decide that we require targets, goals and aims. There is no greater satisfaction than the knowledge that we are 'in control'.

There is one problem.

How 'in control' are we?

Nature often throws obstacles in the path. We cannot expect those obstacles. These are random occurrences. Much of our life is a random occurrence.

Natural disasters.

Financial problems.

Death.

Can we predict these events? Can we expect these events?

No.

We cannot expect to suffer a natural disaster. We cannot predict that we will struggle one month and have a fruitful one the next. Life is not quite so simple as we hope to make it.

Death is one of our greatest fears.

It is because we cannot control it that we fear.

We do not fear what we can control.

Understanding Time and Life [Article]

One of the problems with the concept of life is that it is so broad. What is life to another person is nothing more than an idea. People often attempt to define life according to particular frames. Imagine that a foetus were defined as being life according to the parameters of time. It is a logical solution, providing that time is linear. What if time is relative? The development of a child is defined according to personal characteristics, not time.

We must define our concepts according to characteristics, not the parameters of time. Planets should be defined according to their features, not according to a pre-determined set of regulations which it must meet. The world is defined according to predestination. It is expected that we will meet particular stages in life; birth, adolescence, adulthood, etc. The list continues. What happens, however, when the pre-determined features of life are shed in a different light?

Imagine that a child has the mind of an adult, a child genius. Imagine that a child understands concepts that no adult has done understood. Is the child still defined as a child? What happens if the child then decides to achieve a Bsc? What happens when the child succeeds the adult in tasks which determine the stage between childhood and adulthood? Imagine that a child then decides to take a job, to have a car, to have a house.

Is it wrong that we continue to define the child according to the parameters of time? Time is too restricting. It limits the possibilities. The world should, instead, be defined according to preconceived ideas. For example, a child should be seen as an adult when one acts in such a manner as to be appreciated and understood as an adult.

Maturity is a concept, a misunderstood concept.

The fact that such a concept exists provides us with the chance to change the world. We have the change to determine our lives according to our own parameters. We should not be bound to the definitions of time. We should be bound only by our own limitations. Our life should not be a challenge against time. It should be a challenge against limits. We should continue to fight against the improbable, against the impossible.

This is life. Define it.

Therapies of the Human Mind [Article]

There were times when I once considered writing as a great therapeutic aid. I once considered writing a safe haven which would protect me from the troubles of the world. I was creating a world which was perfect (for me) even if it was flawed. I had no image of perfection and therefore I created an imperfect world. It helped me. It gave me the chance to explore feelings, desires and questions. When I was in despair, I found that the power of poetry and its flowing rhythm would calm my senses and wash me of my pain. When I was enraged with the world, I found that the flow of a novella would bring me joy and happiness. It gave me something I cannot explain, something that is beyond understanding.

For some people, reading is their aid. For others, meditation is the key (although I practise this concept alongside writing). For each person, there is something that aids them when nothing else works. I cannot explain it. It seems that human nature has produced something that we cannot explain but we must all be thankful for. Without the beauty of yoga, people would find themselves in stressful situations without something to fall back on. Without the power of karma, people would act without act. There are so many things in this world that we cannot explain. There are things in this world that are just so...empowering.

To say the least, this post does not have the happiest of ending. I find that writing no longer offers me that aid. It has become nothing more than a chore upon my time. Once, I had very little to do and I required something to occupy my time. Now, I have something to occupy my time. I have a social life. What does that mean for my writing? Now, I feel I am writing out of necessity. In the first few months of my 'new' life, I could handle writing because it was pleasurable. It was a relaxant. It had some effect but it seems that effect is slowly diminishing.

I do not blame the writers themselves, though I am to blame in some respects. In truth, I wish that I could do more. I find that there is no time to resolve those issues which are at the heart of my misery. There are something in this world that are inevitable. Of course, nothing is unchangeable. I do not believe that we are destined to become a certain person, live a certain life, etc. Of course, this is an entirely separate issue and I will raise it elsewhere. What I believe is that our choices affect our life but we only have particular choices. I believe in Karma.

I want to be able to impact the writing process. I want people to return to their former glories. I want people to have that choice, to have a place to write, a place to read, a place to meditate. Everything is slowly diminishing. The world is in a transition period and we are at the pinnacle of it - human beings. We have the choice, here and now, to take it in one direction or the other. That choice is ours to make. We can watch the world slide into disrepair or we can make it a better place. It is your choice.

Understanding the Nature of Thought

One of the problems that all men have is that of the concept of the conscience. We are designed, and indeed programmed, to contemplate the deep meanings of those things which have the greatest importance in our lives. We are taught, throughout our childhood, that the greatest tool man possesses is his mind, the power of the thought. In fact, it was a seventeenth century judge who declared us as being 'reasonable creatures in being'. As far as one can understand the term 'reasonable', this judge was, in fact, referring to the concept of the power of reason, to understand the difference between right and wrong. It was the power of thought that made us reasonable.

Throughout the centuries and more so in recent decades we have come to argue as to what the concept of thought is, how it is that we induce thought and stimulate thought. Are our thoughts all the same? Are our values and attitudes similar to one another, ingrained in us by societal standards? For one sociologist, this was the case. Durkheim stipulated that our thoughts and processes related to a 'collective conscience' which was expressed through a number of different functions within society. For example, our values on the sanctity of life, the value of property and so forth were dictated through a common set of values known as laws, enforced by the function of the judiciary. He argued that our values and beliefs on children and childhood were reinforced through the education system, by a commonly held system of beliefs that was shown through different functions.

According to Durkheim, this collective conscience stimulated the concept of reason and therefore allowed us to create a harmonious society that was indeed based on consensus values. Of course, this does not answer the question 'where does thought come from?', it merely postulates as to what thought is, or at least, a form of thought. For the formation of thought, we must look towards religious scripture. Indeed, the Judeo-Christian religion believes that thought, the knowledge of good and evil, comes not from ourselves but as a gift from God. It is stated in the Bible, more accurately the Old Testament, or the Torah for the Jewish, that thought was a creation of man's curiosity, a desire to be 'better' than perfection. Religious believers hold that evil thoughts come from the devil and that he is to blame for the error of our ways.

For many psychologists, and for the growing number of atheists, this is an inadequate explanation. Scientists continued to be baffled by the neuro-processes of the brain. Psychologists explain that thought is merely a phenomenon of the human body, of the brain. For the far and few who have tried to define thought, there has been little success. What do people truly believe is thought? What do you hold to be 'thought'? Do you hold religious convictions and therefore hold that thought is a gift from God? Are you an atheist and continue to seek an explanation for those small processes which make up the matter of the mind?