Ponderable

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Kwanzaa! and So On …

/ inkspeare
Happy Christmas, painted by Johansen Viggo

Image via Wikipedia

A Christmas + Wish

 

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays Everyone

Have a happy, happy one!

Cheer and Joy dance in your heart

Merry Melodies from afar.

 

May this year bring you blessings

Tons of sweet things, bliss, and great things

May your heart be full of joy

And your home of many toys.

 

To your neighbor cheer and greet

Make much merry, full of glee

Thank the Lord for all your blessings

Give to others, enjoy sharing.

 

Start the year in full force

See your dreams take some form

If you are tired take a break

Rest, relax, and start again.

 

Happy Holidays to All!  Blessings to you all and thank you for visiting, reading, and commenting here at Inkspeare.

Is Free Will Influenced by Our Beliefs?

/ inkspeare / 2 Comments

Revisited

The topic of free will has been debated for centuries.  Each doctrine, religion, philosophy, or application has its own particular view of what constitutes free will and the ramifications for the human race, and more singular, for the individual.  For argument’s sake, let us define free will as the capacity given to a human being to choose, by using the process of rational thinking.  Assuming this definition to be generally correct, we enter into an already vague understanding of the concept.  For example, what happens when the thinking is not rational, as in the case of a mentally ill individual, psychopath or brain washed individual?  In this circumstance, does free will exists for that person?  Alternatively, let us think about the religious beliefs of someone.  Most likely, that person makes decisions according to what those beliefs determine as right or wrong.  In this case, is free will dominated by religion?  Let us take the case of the atheist who is not influenced by religion but has a defined set of morals, a sense of right and wrong, good and bad.  Most likely, the atheist will act and choose according to those values.  Does it mean that his/her free will is influenced by morals and not by God or religion?

What happens in the case of a child?  Is that child capable of making sound decisions?  Is free will capped by age?  Is free will something that we develop with age?  The same could be said by cultural limitations, socio-economic conditions, and philosophical and existential beliefs.  For example, let us look at destiny.  Are events in our lives already pre-destined to happen?  If they are, what happens with the capacity to direct your own life by exercising free will?  If the concept of destiny assures the confluence of events, places, and people at one particular moment in your life, how does that affect the free will to choose the events, places, and people in your life?  Astrology is another subject in question.  If you are supposed to be born under certain conditions, according to constellations and planet configuration, and according to your birth sign, there are certain characteristics that you share with others of the same sign – where is free will in that?  And if you belief in reincarnation, that presents a different set of challenges as how many lives you had and how does free will fits in each one of them.  A second chance to choose?

Moreover, how about your own personal family beliefs and teachings?  I bet you that if you were raised thinking that going to a ballroom and dancing was a capital sin – and you were religious about it – you would think twice before stepping foot into one.  And maybe this is all free will is, after all.  The ability to steer our lives, the best we can, according to where we are at a particular time of our lives, with the set of beliefs and morals that we have at that particular moment, and choosing the best we can.  Every decision has a set of consequences, and for every consequence, there is a set of events that will be generated and put into motion.  So maybe, free will has been given to us to keep the ball rolling, to keep this planet going – this human existence – until it is time to go where essence goes (or spirit, or energy, or whatever it is you call it).   Assuming that energy is eternal and that it cannot be destroyed (a scientific fact) but transforms, then in that case, is there a need for free will?

Vulcan Logic vs. The Secret

/ inkspeare / 2 Comments
Vulcan (Star Trek)
Image via Wikipedia

This week I am revisiting some articles I wrote sometime ago.

Revisited – Vulcan Logic vs. The Secret

While watching a Star Trek movie the other day I heard Spock say one of his Vulcan logical statements:  “If you remove the impossible, what remains – even improbable, must then be the truth.”  When you look at the statement it truly makes sense.  This Vulcan philosophy presents a good logical explanation which can be applied to mostly any situation.  In our minds there is always a definition for what we consider impossible to be or to accomplish, and for every person this is different, given their current status, beliefs, cultural background, and financial/social position.  Therefore, everyone defines the impossible in their own way.  This presents a curious question:  what is truth for each one of us?  If we define the impossible in a unique perspective to our present situation, then by the same thinking process we must define truth in the same way.  According to Vulcan philosophy, “what remains must then be the truth” – when we eliminate the impossible – even if it is improbable.  This match of the Vulcan philosophy with our human way of defining the truth according to our own unique experience presents another interesting predicament:  logic vs. faith.

As humans we tend to have faith, to believe in the impossible or the improbable.  We put our faith in God, The Divine, and even in ourselves.  Atheists will put their faith in themselves or in some cases, science – for the sake of argument.  Most of us are familiar with The Ancient Law of Attraction, made known most recently by Rhonda Byrne and her bestseller “The Secret.”  According to this law, you can attract anything that you desire – positive or negative – to your life.  What you think, believe, speak and focus on, that is what you will attract.  It will materialize into your life because you are sending those vibrations back into the Universe; therefore, the Universe will respond back to you according to the energy sent.  So if you are a negative and fearful person you will encounter negative and unpleasant situations in your life.  The opposite is true if you are a positive person.  In simple words, it means, “what goes around comes around” – you get the idea.  According to the law of attraction EVERYTHING is possible.  This is an opposite view to the Vulcan philosophy and our human nature.  The Vulcan belief recognizes the impossible (we do to), the Secret philosophy or Law of attraction recognizes that anything and everything is possible.

We can do a reconciliation of this huge gap in beliefs by using the element of Faith to build a bridge.  Faith can be defined as the belief and certainty of what has not yet become.  By believing the impossible or the improbable to become true we are refuting Vulcan philosophy and human nature and accepting the law of attraction.  However if our faith is based on a negative perspective, then the impossible becomes reality.

Therefore, Logic, Human Nature, Faith, or Law of Attraction it is all up to you – what we may call Free Will – but that is another article.

To Creed or Not to Creed

/ inkspeare / 2 Comments

What is a creed?  The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as:  “a statement of beliefs or principles.”  The origin is from the Latin credo – “I believe.”   In this fast-changing, high stress, quick-consuming world, the need to reaffirm our beliefs, our truth, is necessary to achieve the goals that we have proposed to ourselves.  Goal setting, planning, ambitions … all that is good, but in order to achieve our target, we must know what we want, why, and marry that to our belief system.  Anytime that there’s a “glitch” between the “wants” and “our truths,” the balance is off, and somehow, we don’t feel quite centered.  The harmony has been altered, and our focus, shifted.  The result is a deviation of our initial intent.  The goals that were set in excitement soon become out of target, far, or simply unattainable.  We lose our steam, our “mojo,” and the path that we were heading towards, soon disappears.  A feeling of discontent and emptiness hovers like a cloud over us, and sometimes, we ask to ourselves:  Why do I feel this way? – What’s wrong with me?  Not knowing the answer, we just accept the feeling of emptiness and we carry it around with us, until it blends in our soul.  I know, I was there once.

To answer the previous questions:  Nothing is wrong with you.  Simply said, “You are out of balance.”  Your “wants” and “your truth,” are not in perfect alignment with your self.  This is why writing your own creed is important.  It serves as a reminder, a beacon, to where you are headed.  This is the destination that you mapped:  your dreams, goals, desires – all those things that make life worth living, and that are personal and different for everyone.  Put your creed in writing; carry it around in your pocket or your wallet.  Read it every day as a reminder of your goals.

Before writing your creed, think of what you believe, who you are in the core, and what you want.  Visualize yourself with your trophy, in balance.  Then, write it down as if it already happened.  It should be no longer than a paragraph, short but very clear to you – so you can easily read it every day.  That is your creed.

What you believe, you become.  “And the word became flesh…”  (John 1:14)

Dreaming Your Reality

/ inkspeare / 4 Comments

Many times, we entertain fantasies of dreams and goals for the future, and we take them as far as we can in our minds.  The sad part is that as soon as we come back to reality, this is where it stops, and we delegate them to the file drawers of our mind, until we decide to fantasize again.  Why do we do this?  Is it because we think that there is no way we can reach our dreams and goals?  Or is it that the daily grinding puts a lid on our dreams?  Is life making it impossible for us to reach our dreams?  Living should be part of attaining those dreams; instead, we act as if by living the daily routine, we are removing ourselves from those same dreams and goals.  We end up adopting an “impossible” way of thinking, and instead, we replace our dreams with fantasizing about them.

The first step to achieve our dreams is to remove the word impossible from our vocabulary, and our minds, and from our belief system.  Let us adopt a different thinking.  What was one impossible becomes probable, then, it becomes possible, until it becomes a reality.  Many inventions have followed this path.  If we adopt this way of thinking, we will reach our dreams, turning them into probabilities, possibilities, and finally into reality.  This doesn’t mean that it will be an easy journey – it is different for every person and each person needs to learn the lessons in the process.  For some, it is faster than for others; it may even take an entire lifetime, for some.

When we give room to self-doubt and self-limiting assumptions, we are saying the word impossible, over and over, and we start to believe it.  Therefore, the next step is to remove the self-doubt and self-limiting assumptions that we entertain daily.

You can dream, but you have to be proactive at your dreaming.  To put it simple, you can dream that one day you will win the lottery, but if you never play a ticket, you are self-limiting yourself.  You are not acting on your dream.  What would someone think if you told them a hundred years ago that one day you would send them mail that will take seconds – you would probably use another way of expressing yourself, maybe by saying that you will one day send a letter that will take an instant to arrive.  They would have told you that time traveling is impossible or that you are going nuts; maybe even commit you.  An email makes this impossible possible.

This is just an example to illustrate that your dreams are not impossible; it is up to you to dream them into reality.  When you start working towards your dreams, step by step, little by little, as you make progress, they will start to look more real, more possible.  And don’t forget to send the naysayers an email when you get there.

Finding Your Own Paradigm

/ inkspeare / 4 Comments
Truth!

Image via Wikipedia

The American Heritage Dictionary defines paradigm as:  an example or a model.

We follow paradigms all our lives (voluntary or involuntary), since the time we are born, till the time of our departure.  Standards are set, ideals, models of behavior, social patterns that we follow throughout our lives, sometimes, without questioning their validity.  We accept these models as truth, but sometimes these models fail us.  When this happens, it is time to reevaluate the standards and ideals on which we have put our faith.

Finding your own paradigm, creating your own system, is necessary if you want to accomplish what you have set out to achieve in your life.  Following predetermined systems, other people’s ideas of “what works” – blindly – guarantees many broken dreams, and tons of wasted precious time.

There are set models and standards that have been established to help the better functioning of society.  Our job as responsible individuals is to weigh those systems and take what is useful, apply it to our lives, and improve on it.  By learning to get in touch with our dreams, goals, inner desires, skills, and core beliefs, we give form to our own system – what works for us.

While creating your own system, you can expect to make waves, to raise eyebrows, and to get the unsolicited truth from “the know it all.”  You will have to endure the comments coming from your loved ones (the ones that hurt the most), as they cannot see pass beyond their reality and the label that they have assigned you through the years.  Their opinion is sometimes clouded by the expectations by which they live, and these by the paradigms that they have themselves accepted as true.  Many times, influenced by titles, society labels, and the general belief of the masses, that follow as blind cattle.  So what if you are the only one proud of what you do for a living?  What if it is taking longer for you to hit the “I made it” label?  The growth is slowly, many times, and each person is different.  This is the price to pay for following your truth.  “As you believe so shall become,” we have heard this adage before, simple but true.  The law of attraction says that what we think, believe, and visualize, becomes our reality.   The Bible, and many other uplifting philosophies reinforce the same premise.  Many turned into paradigms, many twisted by society, history, political powers … and so on.

My question to you is whose reality?

 

 

Planning Your New Year – Resolution Solution

/ inkspeare / 2 Comments

The New Year is around the corner, and we start thinking about new goals, plans, starting anew, and the inevitable – all the goals that we set and did not accomplish.  We feel guilty, and at our worst, as failures.  So we take the pen and paper and start all over again, sometimes repeating the same goals – promising ourselves:  “this year for sure …”  I’ve been there.

Setting goals and naming things that we want to accomplish should not be a painful or shameful process.  It should be a guide, a road map of what we want to do and where we want to end up.  But goals should be realistic and measurable.  Just saying: “I want to lose weight” is not enough.  Instead, go thru a series of questions like:  how many pounds, how, when will I schedule the how, and most important – why?  Why do I want to lose the weight?  Your motivator is your best weapon.  If you don’t know your why, most likely, another year will pass, with no results.  This formula should be applied to every goal or project that you plan for the New Year.

Take a planner or your PC and schedule in your goals, daily, weekly, or however you figured out that you will work at them throughout the entire year.  If you have a reminder every day of your goal schedule, then it is likely that you will work at them with more enthusiasm and determination.  Set an automatic reminder in your PC.  The list of goals written on December 31st is not enough – it has to be planned.

Start thinking realistically of the things that you want to accomplish this coming year; make your list, but don’t stop there – map out a schedule to make them real.  At the end of the year, even if some of them did not work out, most will – and you will feel better and more productive.  I find that by doing this, by the end of the year I see that I have crossed out a good part of my list.  Some goals are still there, but I am a few steps closer to them, and I can always continue to work on them.

One thing that I have observed in some people if that they take their goals as written in stone and will not deviate, even when there is a need for some modification.  Many times a goal is missed just because of this, which is ironic.  In addition, goals should be taken as a guide to where we want to be and not as a horse blinder that will prevent us to enjoy the scenery in the process.  It is good to set some goals but it is also good to leave some room for flexibility, change, and modification.

Happy New Year Planning!

You are What You Read

/ inkspeare / 7 Comments

How many times have you heard the adage “You are what you eat?”  The same can be said about reading.  You are what you read.  Whatever you feed your brain, that is the connection that you are promoting.  The connections that form in the brain are the result of the stimuli that we receive.  So, if we feed the brain garbage, we better beware, because that is the connection that we are forming.  Despite all our medical and scientific advances, much of how the brain works is still a mystery.  But we know for sure that the brain is making connections as we learn and receive more stimuli.

So when Rene Descartes – the philosopher – said, “I think therefore I am,” we can say that he was not only referring to the cognitive and thinking process, but for sake of this argument, of the possibility of becoming in the sense of what we feed our brains.  How does a college student become a physician?  By learning, reading, and studying to be one.  He becomes the information that he studied.

The possibilities are infinite.  By feeding our brain the right kind of information we become.  Take your goals into consideration.  For example, do you want to be in a better financial position?  Then, start feeding your brain the kind of information that will take you there.

We also read for entertainment. It relaxes us, and takes us to another world.  When is time to come back to reality the reading material that we choose to advance ourselves, is as important as the air we breathe.  Many of us use reading as an escape to reality, or a tool for learning, but it can be much more.  Reading can be a positive power of suggestion, a tool to make you achieve your potential.

So, next time you pick up that book (or magazine, or whatever) – are you feeding your brain a healthy diet?

Poetry – To an American Soldier

/ inkspeare / 2 Comments

American Soldiers .. US military: 2 US soldier...As the Holiday Season approaches, I find myself thinking about all the families that will not be able to spend this time with their loved ones who are serving their country or who have died doing so.  It bothers me that the holidays are more about commercialism, frenzy shopping, than about true recognition of all the good, valuable, and great things that our soldiers, veterans, and first responders have done throughout the years, and continue doing.  Yes, no one likes war, and maybe I am a silly dreamer thinking that one day, war will not exist anymore; however, the reality is that war has been fought since the beginning of times.  And yes, without commerce the economy of a country goes dead; however, there is a time under the sun for everything.  One line from an old holiday movie stuck with me – “We give them our sons, and they bring us back their stuff.” (A Christmas Visitor).  Powerful words, and that is how many families feel during this time.

I had written this poem sometime ago, and as I prepare myself to receive the Holiday Season and give thanks for all the blessings in my life – which are many, I want to honor all those who served our country and who serve today.  So here is this humble poem as my gift to you, but knowing that you deserve so much more from me and everyone else.

 

To an American Soldier

 

I have the sand for a bed

The night sky for a lullaby

Days become long

Night becomes day.

 

Heart loves the nation

Mind thinks of home

Body stays focus

Soul knows the most.

 

Of family and friends,

Of holidays home,

Of freedom and price

My dreams have become.

 

When everything quiets

Images go flying

The Patriot loves Country,

The man loves a family.

 

The heart aches for Country,

Family and friends,

The soul screams for Freedom,

A price here to pay.

Success – When it is Not About Me

/ inkspeare
dollar,symbol,money,shadow,3d,render

Image via Wikipedia

This morning, I had a conversation with my sister about how successful some entrepreneurs become, and how financially rewarded they became.  Some examples seemed too simple to have landed in success.  When I looked at the simplicity of their plan and at the product/service, if  I had not known that their ventures were successful, I would have thought that there was no way that would work.  There was only one thing in common among these people – their venture met a need, filled a void, in a different way.  These people were helping other people with their product and they were making a difference with it.  One of the examples my sister talked about was of a woman who gave a pedicure/manicure to a pregnant friend who couldn’t go out to get it and certainly could not do it herself.  The result was that from helping that friend a lightbulb went on and she started her business, helping women in the same situation as her friend.

For many people, the first issue in mind when starting a venture is to make it financially, to make money at it and see results.  The more I look at other examples, the more I see a pattern – you have to want to help people first, and the success and the money will come as a result.  If you start thinking about getting money first, and helping people later, it just doesn’t seem to work.  This applies to any example, product or service.  It is understandable that people go into business to make money, but it seems that it is all in the approach, on how they approach the venture – the more worried about money, the farther from success.  On the contrary, the happier they are offering their services/product genuinely helping in that way the clients who need that product/service, the more successful they become.

By observing many of those examples, one has to conclude that success is not about me, on the contrary, it is about someone else.  And maybe, that is the only lesson we have to learn to become successful in our craft.  Once you have gone thru self-discovery, found your niche, heard your call … or whatever you want to call it, money should become second to helping your clients.  When you think about it, nobody wants to be seen as a dollar sign.  It seems to be more about being a genuine entrepreneur than being in business for yourself.