Niat

Developing on from in-vacuo's and AVP's comments on the previous post.

They drew my attention to niat ie intention.

In Islam, the most basic teaching teaches you that everything starts with niat. Niat that everything you do and everything that you are is because of God. I'm not so good at following that part simply because. But I do agree with the practice of niat. I generally believe that I should live life doing good or at the very least to not harm others. Those are, I guess, my general intentions in life. But what if I push it further?

It made me recollect back on my primary-school-agama-classes-days plus all those extracurricular-tuition-imposed-agama-classes where I had to memorise many many doa (prayer) outlining my niat for all things imaginable. It was crazy. There is a doa for when you wake up, before you shower, when you put on clothes, before you eat, before you step out of the house, when you study, at housewarmings and many many more. I resented it! Memory is not exactly the best gift I possess and what more in a foreign language and in meanings that I hardly cherish. Example 1: Doa when you wake up translates to something along the line of 'Thank you God for reawakening me back from my temporary slumber. And to You shall I return.' Geezz, talk about gibberish for a primary school kid right?

But after a degree or so, and a slight tweaking to suit me, it could easily translate to 'I am grateful to be alive today. I may not be tmrw' translation: Carpe Diem my friends ;p

But in all seriousness, I guess what I've discovered and am trying to highlight is that you should continuously be aware of and determine your intentions, in whatever way relevant to you, before setting out on doing something. Intention before action! Imagine what it could mean if I woke up every morning being grateful to be alive and wanting to live the day to the fullest. There will be no Monday-blues or any days blue. I wont get bogged down by the calamities of life and learn to appreciate and be grateful for each day as it comes. I will get things, well the important thing anyway, done much quicker too.

And that is just with practicing 1 intention in the morning. Imagine if I expand further. Leaving the house and embracing the traffic in the morning with the determination to learn more, to achieve more; being grateful for the wonderful food that I intend to enjoy before I eat; a simple housewarming doa with the intention of building a home and not just a house (think of it as wedding vows but for the family); Theres 10,001 niat for 10,001 actions!

You'd think its crazy that so much focus goes into intention and that it'll shave time off action right? Not necessarily so. I think its just a way of re-wiring oneself, to living life and every moment of it with well intentions and to living life purposefully. It will take time to adjust but it is a technique that can be mastered. Haha how would I know. I'll let you know someday soon hopefully. I'm gonna think of 1 simple intention to master first ;) Baby steps :)


^8 Cee

Superiority

In one form or another, most of us, if not all, are striving or are at the very least subject to projections of superiority.

Types of superiority ranges from religion (thinking that one religion is better than the other), to wealth (associating oneself to a similar elite class), to education (studying hard to prove oneself smarter and capable than others or as a platform to bring oneself further than others) to etiquette (behavior and well manners are closely linked to upbringing) and a whole lot more.

Striving to superiority is, in one's eyes and society's eyes, a determination to be better and to achieve more. This is all good and stuff but at the same time, striving to be better divides people as it inidrectly/directly belittles them. Whether you realise it or not, by telling yourself that you want to be better, you are saying that you are, and many people who are at your similar stage 0, not good enough. And once you've progressed to stage 1, you think that you are better off now than before and others who are at stage 0, are lacking behind.

As you progress more and more in life, the gap may keep on increasing up to a stage where everyone who is not with you becomes part of 'them' and it becomes a separation between 'us' and 'them'. Of course one way of narrowing it is to help others progress. But it is fatal to assume that others view/desire progress the way you do.

I guess my question is, how do you progress without a projection of superiority?How do you not divide it into an Us vs Them thing? And if need be, how do you reduce superiority but at the same time remain relevant?

Respect for all is an answer. Respect will make life a lot more peaceful but it is not the answer to bring us closer. Or am I missing the point? Is division natural and inevitable after all?

^8 Cee

Newton's Law

I had lunch with an ex-mathematician-physicist turned banker today.

And it went something along the lines of....
'So you know the famous Newton's Law right?'

'Err...yea?'
Crap its basic Physics. Please don't embarrass myself.
'Something along the lines of nothing new gets created nor is destroyed?'

Clearly unconvinced. He iterated all 3 laws.
(i) Object in a state of stillness stays that way unless force acts upon it. Similarly, something in motion remains in motion unless a force acts upon it. If an object is moving, one reason that it slows is because friction is acting upon it. Friction is force in this case.
(ii) Force can be defined as F=ma; where m is mass and a is acceleration.
(iii) For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Ah-ha! I think I got point 3 right! right?! Errr....
Anyway, the whole point is that Force, in totality, always remains constant.

So I ate and pondered and a whole slow 5 mins of thinking later, I was like, 'so what you're saying is force always remains the same in the universe? but if thats the case then the universe cannot be destroyed right and would continuously exist indefinitely since the force cannot be destroyed or lost?'

And as if he saw that question coming, he answered with no hesitation and not even to pause to think, 'True, total force remains constant, but mass and acceleration could change. There are many possible speculated ending to the universe - eg the universe continues to expand at an accelerating rate and lose mass or that it could contract and increase mass and lose out on acceleration. See, that way, force is not loss. It may be the end of us and the universe that we know, but not the destruction per say of the universe.'

Interesting.

It makes you think that you know, we, the physical and non-physical self will exist in one form or another for an indefinite period of time. Its like saying that our body is the mass and our thoughts and actions the force or acceleration. If you believe in freewill then perhaps your thoughts and actions are equivalent to the 'individual force' causing change to your static self and to the static things around you. But see, theoretically, every inch of us from the tangible to the intangible are all just part of 1 entity, the total force.


^8 Cee