Rebirth

Rebirth

Few things in human existence trump the majesty and prestige of birth.  New life is a wondrous gift that can not (or should not) be neither compared to, nor compromised with any other aspect of life. 

The birth of a child is like the pursuit of happiness: we know what to expect, we know how to prepare, but somehow the grandeur of what new life truly is never really fills us until we arrive at that very moment.  With happiness, we first choose to be happy.  We then pursue what makes us happy.  Then one day – although we were expecting it – the grandeur of happiness suddenly fills us up, and simultaneously, shakes us to our very core!  True happiness rejuvenates our existence.  And new life redefines the meaning of life.

Throughout our lives, we make decisions and pursue interests with the sole intent on growing the contentment that is inside of us.  When we do this, we often come to find that one of the most difficult things to do in such a fast pace world is to slow down and take a breath.  More so, when we are able to steal such a moment to ourselves and to breathe a slow and careful breath, it only serves to make us wonder; what really is the meaning of this life? 

Every man has a heart. Inside of every man’s heart is life.  And every life has many purposes.  We have a purpose in our careers; in our social status; in our social welfare and in the lives of the people who live around us.  Every choice we make is made for the reason of defining that purpose.  And each time we are able to distinguish our purpose; we breathe just a little bit easier, and wonder just a little bit less.  We fall into a place of contentment - a place that is not unlike the spectacle of birth or the acquisition of happiness.  We fall into a space that takes our breath away.

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***Essay from the series "The Meaning of Life" produced by The Public Blogger***

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MY PERFECT PERFECT

Signage for perfect

No one's perfect.  But why not try to be?

To be flawed in theory means that we possess characteristics that prevent perfection.  Perfection, theoretically, is to exist without flaw. And, again theoretically, we are all imperfect because we are
human.  Theoretically.  Realistically, however, we are imperfect because we do not strive for perfection.  We don't strive for it because, for the most part, we believe that no person should be or is capable of becoming perfect.

The fact that we are able to recognize our flaws shows that we are aware of our perfect selves. But defining perfection may be a more complicated problem.  Most of us live by some standard of morality - it may be religious, political, spiritual, scientific or some other cosmopolitan view.  Our personal convictions, more often than not, also often matches that of other individuals in our communities.  While community mindedness has it's usefulness in personal development, when it comes to making conscious decisions, it has the potential to become self destructive.  What I may view as perfect, others may beg to differ.  And with so many definitions of standards, morality and perfection to start with, whose ideologies can be trusted?  So in a sense, when we adopt the principal that 'no one is perfect,' what we are really doing, is refusing to give effort.

My perfect, is effort.

Conditioning the mind to believe that it is acceptable to be imperfect is the same as conditioning the mind to believe that perfection is unacceptable.

Why do we like to shy away from perfection? For the most part, fear, shame and the fear of being shamed.  Or in other words...we lack conviction.  Fear causes us to hide our core desires when we are certain that our communities will not accept them. Shame happens when we recognize that our actions were unacceptable - not by someone else's standard, but by our own standards. Generally, anything that is deemed unacceptable is shamed.  We are harsher judges of ourselves than we are of other people.  So the only thing that really keeps us from perfection, is ourselves.

Ironically; the first step in changing anything is changing the way we think about it and admittedly; it is rather daunting to think of changing the way we think of things that we hardly ever think of to start with.  Personally, I like to start with a question.

Question is: What does perfect really mean to you?

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

The mind is everything.

What we think, we become."

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FINDING BALANCE

"…a disposition to behave in the right manner and as a mean between extremes of deficiency and excess, which are vices…" ~ Official definition of Aristotle's theory of virtue

[Musings]

We find that the purpose of desire is to find fulfilment.  

If greed is a vice, then how could pleasure be called a virtue?  

And the sacchariferous climax of fulfillment—however brief, however fleeting—can also be easily mistaken for happiness.  So what is virtue?

There is an absolute power, above that of human existence.  Whether it is a god or anything else; our existence pivots at this median.  

It is a point that we can neither reach nor change because its purpose is balance and therefore,   it must remain constant.  
For the need of pleasure and fulfilment, we cannot judge ourselves...
because we will not know how to find the balance between the virtue and the vice.