To live in a world without human connection, is to live an empty and meaningless life. Both Karen Armstrong, and Robert Thurman, highlight the necessity of human contact throughout their essays. In his text “Wisdom,” Robert Thurman shows us the path to discover the selflessness of what we believe is our true and actual self. He claims that no matter how hard one might try to find themselves, they will only find a rigid, fixated self. But when we finally accept our selflessness and turn away from our egos, we can become compassionate and experience the void, which he defines as a free and boundless self. Additionally, Karen Armstrong debates that the universe is driven by concepts such as “Being,” and “Brahman,” which both represent the ultimate …show more content…
It is the idea that once we strip ourselves from our ego or the idea of a real and fixated self, one may reach nirvana, which again, cannot be seen, but only experienced. However, here it is important to note a striking difference between Armstrong’s Being and Thurman’s Void: Being relates to an unseen force while void refers to a lifestyle and a mental state. More specifically, Thurman focuses on the idea of self-knowledge. For instance, Thurman claims that “because the only thing that’s frightened by the word ‘selflessness’ is the artificially constructed, unreal, and unrealistic self” (Thurman 441). This artificial self isn’t real, because it doesn’t really exist. Rather, it’s a manmade concept that we hold onto so tightly because we feel it necessary. Here it is necessary to point out why so many are frightened by the idea of acknowledging one 's selflessness: they fear becoming nothing. But “realizing your selflessness does not mean that you become a nobody, it means that you become a type of somebody who is a viable, useful somebody, not a rigid, fixated, I’m-the-center-of-the-universe, isolated-from-others somebody” (Thurman, 443). In other words, realizing your selflessness does not mean that you disappear or become nothing, because that is quite impossible. It’s quite the opposite actually. Once we realize our …show more content…
Not only is human connection vital to live a happy and joyful life, but it is necessary to create a legacy, and thus live on through others. But in order to do this, one must first overcome their ego and their sense of self. Once all of the “I” thoughts are gone, one can relate, but fully understand, the higher powers as well as other human beings around us. However, it is important to accept that we may never fully understand the driving force of this universe. While it can be experienced, and we can briefly get an idea of what it is, it is impossible to define these concepts in words, because we don’t have a language that transcends what we can understand. And though many recognize that these concepts could never be fully understood by the human brain, determined minds continue to ask questions that will never have an answer, “pushing their minds to the limits of what we can know” (Armstrong,
In The Heart of Understanding, Thich Nhat Hanh’s uses simple but powerful words and real world examples to illustrate the profound Buddhist philosophy from the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra, an important representative of Mahayana Buddhist literature. The Mahayana school of Buddhist teachings emphasizes the doctrine of Sunyata- emptiness. The doctrine of emptiness, one of the most important Mahayana innovations, focuses on the relational aspect of existence. Thich Nhat Hanh coins and introduces a new word- interbeing to explain the state of emptiness. This idea of interbeing not only illustrates emptiness well but also provides understanding of other fundamental Buddhist ideas such as No-Self, impermanence and non-duality.
The most important contributions made by Howard Thurman include him becoming the first black dean of a university chapel in America. He was hired for the role at Boston University in 1953-1965.He later began an interdenominational congregation in San Francisco. This is a large contribution because he had people of all ethnicities in the church. He changed the way people in America viewed Christianity.
ABSTRACT: Since human knowledge is relative, human beings consciously (or often unconsciously) dismiss the relative by creating the absolute. The absolute thus created is the psuedoabsolute which, by virtue of its human origins, is relative. However, it functions in both the practical and theoretical life of homo sapien as a genuine absolute. Hence, the psuedoabsolute is relatively absolutized by the human person. The psuedoabsolute is a dialectical unity of the absolute and relative and, as a "third reality," plays a great role in the spiritual life of humankind.
Joshua Nealy, a prominent medical school graduate, died last night from complications of losing his dream of becoming a practicing physician. He was 39 years-old. Soft-spoken and borderline obsessive, Joshua never looked the part of a “professional”, but, in the final days of his life, he revealed an unknown side of his psyche. This hidden quasi-Jungian persona surfaced during the last three years of pursuit of his long reputed dream profession, a position, which he spent nearly 10 years attaining. Sadly, the protracted search ended this past March 18th in complete and utter failure. Although in certain defeat, the courageous Nealy secretly clung to the belief that life is merely a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences. It’s not a tapestry of events that culminate in an exquisite, sublime plan. Asked about the loss of her dear friend, Emily, the girlfriend turned fiancé and dPT expert of Berkshire County, described Joshua as a changed man in the last years of his life. "Things were worse for him; not following his dream left him mostly lifeless, uninspired," Sammons noted. Ultimately, Joshua concluded that if we are to live life in harmony with the universe, we must all possess the powerful ability to change ourselves and the world around us; the choice to make ours from nothingness.
By analysing the free verse novel The Simple Gift by Steven Herrick, the song Numb by Linkin Park and the film The Matrix, it has been shown that some individuals deliberately separate themselves from having affinities with other individuals because for them to belong they would first have to alter their personality, a person’s life choices can encumber or support them in forming associations with other people and a person’s evaluation of how much they belong is defined by their perceived popularity or social status amongst other citizens. The composers of the novel, song and film have effectively shown that humans by nature crave to have connections with other individuals in order to have a sense of self value.
The problem at hand, which is how to unify the dueling concepts of “Being” and “Becoming”, can be examined on an external level (reality) and an internal level (individuals). In answering this question, I will first explain how our reality ca be both, and then extend this reason to how we, as individuals, can exist the
Susan Wolf, born in 1952, is widely considered one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th and 21st century. One of Wolf’s most renowned works is The meanings of Lives, which drew a lot of attention in the philosophical world for a number of questions that arose from it. Arguably her most widely debated and questioned assertion in The meanings of Lives is “If you care about yourself you’re living as if you’re the center of the universe, which is false.” This however I don’t not believe to be true. Every human being, no matter how successful or unsuccessful, has the right to care for them sleeves and not believe they are the center of the universe while doing so.
The role of relationship you have with other people often has direct influence on the individual choices and belief in the life. In the short story “on the rainy river”, the author Tim O’Brien inform us about his experiences and how his interacted with a single person had effected his life so could understand himself. It is hard for anyone to be dependent on just his believes and own personal experience, when there are so many people with different belief to influence you choices and have the right choices for you self. Occasionally taking experience and knowledge of other people to help you understand and build from them your own identity and choices in life.
Most of Horney’s theories came from clinical experiences. With her vivid experience, she able to describes virtually and contribute to practitioners in a wide knowledge especially in neurotic personality. Horney’s comprehensive descriptions of neurotic personalities provide an excellent framework for understanding unhealthy people. In that extent, there is no other personality theorist has written so well about neuroses (Psychology, 2016).
My own personal commentary shall emphasize the ultimate truth about emptiness is realizing all is empty, even the knowledge and practices that allow us to realize it. In this way, Buddhism turns in on itself, negating the existence of its own essence. I also pay special attention to the training of the bodhisattva, who has gained superior insight, and therefore practices the perfection of wisdom in a particular way.
When an individual reaches this conclusion, they are able to encompass a new form of human nature called “Übermensch”, “an ideal aim of spiritual development more than a biological goal” (Solomon, 103). This is the person who has continued to strive to overcome himself and, in doing so, has been set free from the chains of all convictions.
For millennia, human beings have pondered the existence of supreme beings. The origin of this all-too-human yearning for such divine entities stems in part from our desire to grasp the truth of the cosmos we inhabit. One part of this universe physically surrounds us and, at the end of our lives, consumes us entirely, and so we return from whence we came. Yet there is another, arguably more eternal, part of the cosmos that, in some ways, is separable from the transient, material world we so easily perceive, but that, in other ways, is inextricably linked to it by unexplored, divinable forces. The argument of Aristotle’s Metaphysics is not that this worldview is provable or disprovable; the mere fact we are able to reason about abstract objects without having to perceive them is evidence enough of this order.
Since the beginning of humankind, there has been a need for God, a longing for significance in the world, a desire for meaning. In a world full of injustices, where every day one must face hardships and carry burdens, must worry and fear; there has been a desperate search for peace, hope, and the promise that life is worthwhile. The need for something greater to exist has been a part of man since his creation, and is still present now. This is evident throughout the entire world. All people everywhere, those living and those already dead, have at some time felt the overwhelming feeling that there is something else out there. For some, that may just have been a passing curiosity, a question wondered in the grogginess before sleep. But for others, it has
Since human kind gained the ability of reflection we have questioned our purpose of existence. What makes a human, human? Four philosophers, representing four areas of Philosophy, attempt to answer this question. First is the Dutchman Soren Kierkegaard and his book Sickness unto Death, who is considered the “Father of Existentialism”. Prevalent through all of Kierkegaard’s work was his constant goal to move people closer to God and thus closer to discovering their authentic self. Therefore, our relationship with God is what makes us human. Next is Jeremy Rifkin and his book The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in A World in Crisis who believes that humanity is defined by our ability to empathize with other humans whether
The real world of our universe one can present as consisting of the totality of the interconnected (through the known fundamental interactions) units of the nature, for example, photons, atoms, molecules, cells, living organisms, men, stars, galaxies and ets. Their materiality is shown, for example, in the outwards activity (the power), in which the units of nature come forward as integrated formations in the relation of other units of nature; their spirituality, enlightened through the materiality, in the form (in order of the growth of the spirituality) of the inside activity (that is of the spontaneous transitions into their different states), in the form of the senseorganized unity ( regulated by any laws), of the soul, and of the spirit. Different units of nature have different degrees of the spirituality, which are shown in the spontaneity, statisticality, selforganization, freedom of the will and so on, therefore one can say about corresponding spiritual aspects of any units of nature.