changes ad infinitum....
Some people say that the only constant thing in life is change; several events which happened in the past few weeks have got me thinking about the subject of change in people..... and how it could come about:
Some would be pressed into change by other people or by the turn of events or impending circumstances around them... or the desire for change could genuinely come from within.....
Some would change gradually in a slow series of steps..... and some would make a full U-turn in a short period of time....
Some changes would improve one's standings and esteem in the eyes of other people.... or it might make some people uncomfortable; eventually alienating them....
Some would announce the changes one intends to make to the world.... or one might try to do it as discreetly as possible so as to make it unnoticable to other people...
Some would expect a certain 'reward' for the changes one is willing to make.... and some would change solely due to the desire to better oneself....
Some would perceive change as a destination.... and some would perceive it as a journey with no end in sight....
Some would be pressed into change by other people or by the turn of events or impending circumstances around them... or the desire for change could genuinely come from within.....
Some would change gradually in a slow series of steps..... and some would make a full U-turn in a short period of time....
Some changes would improve one's standings and esteem in the eyes of other people.... or it might make some people uncomfortable; eventually alienating them....
Some would announce the changes one intends to make to the world.... or one might try to do it as discreetly as possible so as to make it unnoticable to other people...
Some would expect a certain 'reward' for the changes one is willing to make.... and some would change solely due to the desire to better oneself....
Some would perceive change as a destination.... and some would perceive it as a journey with no end in sight....
I think that change often requires you to move outside your comfort zone.... to push and to strain yourself to see how far you could go... it's a necessary agent for self-improvement...
But, I think ultimately... one could either view those changes as a favor to oneself OR one could view it as a favor to others....
posted by wanaimran at
1:22 AM
3 Comments:
hmm....when you put it that way, it almost sounds like one does not have full and complete control over the changes one makes.... which when you carefully think about it, is true to some extent; but I guess it's a stretch to attribute it to a karmic cycle alone.... I guess this is where the opinions begins to diverge; some attribute this kind of change to a universally governing rule like karma, others see it just as a reflex action to the current circumstances.... but I guess the former has some basis in Islam as well and it's call Qadha' and Qadar, where certain things are pre-determined ever since the beginning of time while other things are still 'subject to change'
whatever it might be called, I admit that it's illuminating to think that all of our 'existence' are somehow intricately and universally linked together and that our individual actions somehow depends and 'controls' other people's actions....
so the question is: to what extent does the concept of free will holds true in our daily lives?
change is in fact a property of this world we are living in...
there are no constants in this world... (except if u want to dispute me by taking into account the physical constants, even though i'll definitely defend myself)
this world is ever-perishing...
every single prticle jumps in and out of existence.. don't they?
nothing is permenent in this world..
On Free-Will
huyyooo.. this is a very difficult philosophical pursuit.. it is not an exageration to say that if u pursue those philosophical questioning on free-will, u'll most probably end up to conclude that it does not exist.. there is no such thing as free-will...
but it does exist.. only that it does not exist in the manner that most people say and mean when the mention the word free-will..
free-will does not mean absolute freedom of being or doing absolutely anything as one wills. instead, it means being and acting and doing in accordance to what we are meant to be and to act and do.
consider this case:
if i so desire that i want to live without having to breathe, and i struggle to achieve that as to demonstrate free-will in taking place, and then i failed. and i conclude that i do not have free will.
so, what was the mistake? is setting such aim to demostrate freedom of will is really an act of freedom? i believe the answer is no, since by doing so, we are restricting ourselves to our self imposed rules that are not meant to be imposed on us. we ourselves are the one who took the freedom away from ourselves, by trying to go against the nature of things..
therefore, free-will means that we free ourselves from the enslavement of arrogance, ignorance etc.. and to align ourselves with the true nature of things.. the fitrah.. and be, do, think, and behave accordingly.
of course, this example is quite an extreme one, but, i can't think of any better way of putting it.. i believe life is full of these instances where we have to decide whether to free ourselves or to unfree ourselves.. only that it happen in a much more subtle manner and in many ways, we usually are veiled from seeing the truth and thus cannot practice our free-will accordingly.
ok.. i guess im going too far..
i never intended this post to be my only take on the subject of free will...
when the right time comes, i will digress more on the subject...
till then, fire away...
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