West Lafayette is the city that is home to Purdue University, where I have obtained my bachelors degree and soon, also my Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering. After being away from this place for one year, many things have changed. The people, the number of places to hang out at, the academic systems, the quality of study abroad programs etc. Although the change is not as striking as what you would expect in places like Singapore or Shanghai, it did feel different at the start.
The entries in these few months would be focused on life in West Lafayette as I finish my transition to a life ohne English, and transit back into one without Deutsch...
Samstag, 7. März 2009
Freitag, 28. November 2008
The idea of false generosity
There are many philantropists who think they are generous, but are these people really generous or are they just providing 'false' generosity? In the framework of this discussion, let us define true generosity as kindness in return for nothing, and false generosity as kindness in return for something. I will provide some examples of false generosity below, each more subtle than the previous, to illustrate this concept.
Consider the owner of a rubber tree plantation. He believes that he is being generous by giving work to his laborers. He believes that without him, all these people would have nothing to eat and no work to do. Therefore, he talks down to these laborers, and they are also expected to behave meekly in front of him. He will tolerate no criticism or disobedience; he will make any person who speaks up against him suffer. If the plantation owner has true generosity, he would provide work for the workers, and allow them to have the freedom of speech, action and thought, and use dialogue instead of dictatorial action to educate and resolve conflicts. As a person with the resources to help others with none, wanting anything more than genuinely helping is really an act of false generosity.
Let us move to a second example. A teacher believes he is being kind to his students by offering to teach his students material. Disobedience, disability to perform on the exams, or disinterest in the material results in stringent punishment for the student. In order to deserve the teacher's help, a student has to absolutely obey and almost worship the teacher. Any deviation results in the teacher labeling the student as a bad student. If the teacher were truly generous in sharing his knowledge, he would not conclude that any student does not deserve his instruction. Instead, he would use many different means and methods to reach out to each and every student. In this case, he is really wanting something (obedience, interest) in return for what he gives. It must be emphasized that it is totally acceptable to want something in return for what one can offer; but in that case, the action should be perceived as trade, not generosity.
Finally, the third example considers a man who wants to be generous, and he believes that he can only do so when he is rich. He then commits his effort into acquiring wealth, and eventually he is a wealthy man who donates great amount of money to charitable organizations. However, in his pursue of wealth, he has caused the loss of several thousand jobs, directly or indirectly, with or without his knowledge. He then gives a great portion of his wealth to the organizations that help people without jobs, and believes himself to be generous. One day, while visiting the people that he is helping, several members of the crowd made poor by him recognizes him and says,"So you are the one helping us now? Weren't you the one who took away all our jobs to begin with?" In a way, this is the irony of generosity at its peak, for it is the 'generous' man that caused poverty to begin with. This is also a form of false generosity, because the man wants to be wealthy before he is generous. His generosity is obtained in return for wealth, and is not something that stems from kindness in return for nothing.
I believe that it is very difficult to be a generous man in a big way. In small ways, you can always help a kid, help an old man, or help a pregnant woman without asking for anything in return, because these people are unlikely to hurt you after being helped. It takes an immense love for mankind and a great resolve to want and to be able to help people who has the capacity to harm you after receiving your help, without asking for anything in return.
Therefore, one situation where a person can be truly generous is when he is a member of the oppressed; one who is so oppressed such that anyone he helps has the capacity to hurt him. Another situation on the other spectrum would be a person born into a rich family, who has done nothing or wanted nothing in return for his kindness. This person, however, would eventually be made poor, because of the existence of many greedy and covetous people in this world. (In the framework of Paulo Friere's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, these are the people who want, knowingly or unknowingly, to become oppressors.) So far, the closet example of the second case I can think of is Siddharta Gautama, or Buddha, who was born as a Prince. In his case, he saw that as a member of the royal family, there was no way he could understand 'Truth' in its truest form, and gave up his status as a member of the oppressor group as well as everything else in his life. When he did that, every kind action bestowed upon anyone else became an act of true generosity.
Therefore, until one can really be kind to people who can harm you after receiving your kindness, it is wiser to reflect upon oneself and review if the generosity that you think you are providing is really kindness that stems out of true generosity.
Consider the owner of a rubber tree plantation. He believes that he is being generous by giving work to his laborers. He believes that without him, all these people would have nothing to eat and no work to do. Therefore, he talks down to these laborers, and they are also expected to behave meekly in front of him. He will tolerate no criticism or disobedience; he will make any person who speaks up against him suffer. If the plantation owner has true generosity, he would provide work for the workers, and allow them to have the freedom of speech, action and thought, and use dialogue instead of dictatorial action to educate and resolve conflicts. As a person with the resources to help others with none, wanting anything more than genuinely helping is really an act of false generosity.
Let us move to a second example. A teacher believes he is being kind to his students by offering to teach his students material. Disobedience, disability to perform on the exams, or disinterest in the material results in stringent punishment for the student. In order to deserve the teacher's help, a student has to absolutely obey and almost worship the teacher. Any deviation results in the teacher labeling the student as a bad student. If the teacher were truly generous in sharing his knowledge, he would not conclude that any student does not deserve his instruction. Instead, he would use many different means and methods to reach out to each and every student. In this case, he is really wanting something (obedience, interest) in return for what he gives. It must be emphasized that it is totally acceptable to want something in return for what one can offer; but in that case, the action should be perceived as trade, not generosity.
Finally, the third example considers a man who wants to be generous, and he believes that he can only do so when he is rich. He then commits his effort into acquiring wealth, and eventually he is a wealthy man who donates great amount of money to charitable organizations. However, in his pursue of wealth, he has caused the loss of several thousand jobs, directly or indirectly, with or without his knowledge. He then gives a great portion of his wealth to the organizations that help people without jobs, and believes himself to be generous. One day, while visiting the people that he is helping, several members of the crowd made poor by him recognizes him and says,"So you are the one helping us now? Weren't you the one who took away all our jobs to begin with?" In a way, this is the irony of generosity at its peak, for it is the 'generous' man that caused poverty to begin with. This is also a form of false generosity, because the man wants to be wealthy before he is generous. His generosity is obtained in return for wealth, and is not something that stems from kindness in return for nothing.
I believe that it is very difficult to be a generous man in a big way. In small ways, you can always help a kid, help an old man, or help a pregnant woman without asking for anything in return, because these people are unlikely to hurt you after being helped. It takes an immense love for mankind and a great resolve to want and to be able to help people who has the capacity to harm you after receiving your help, without asking for anything in return.
Therefore, one situation where a person can be truly generous is when he is a member of the oppressed; one who is so oppressed such that anyone he helps has the capacity to hurt him. Another situation on the other spectrum would be a person born into a rich family, who has done nothing or wanted nothing in return for his kindness. This person, however, would eventually be made poor, because of the existence of many greedy and covetous people in this world. (In the framework of Paulo Friere's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, these are the people who want, knowingly or unknowingly, to become oppressors.) So far, the closet example of the second case I can think of is Siddharta Gautama, or Buddha, who was born as a Prince. In his case, he saw that as a member of the royal family, there was no way he could understand 'Truth' in its truest form, and gave up his status as a member of the oppressor group as well as everything else in his life. When he did that, every kind action bestowed upon anyone else became an act of true generosity.
Therefore, until one can really be kind to people who can harm you after receiving your kindness, it is wiser to reflect upon oneself and review if the generosity that you think you are providing is really kindness that stems out of true generosity.
Donnerstag, 27. November 2008
Blasphemy or Truth? - inspired by Final Fantasy X
I had a conversation about Final Fantasy X with a friend of mine today. It was a game that I played about 6 years ago, but nonetheless the intellectually religious argument put forth by the game stuck deep inside me, because I have not figured out how this argument can be countered. Here's how the story goes:
In this game, you find out, eventually, that you are the Dream of a Faeth (Faith), whose duty is to upkeep the order of Yevon (Heaven), the supreme being in this fictional world. This world, like the world we live in, is terrorized by a monster, whose name is Sin. Sin is a terror that destroys everything that it passes through. Although it can be subdued eventually, it returns every ten years, each version more powerful than the previous. The puzzle behind this game is how to defeat Sin once and for all. This objective is finally achieved when you go deep into Sin and destroy its creator, Yevon (Heaven).
Let's rephrase it in the terms that we are more used to in our world: Sin is also something that comes back to wreak havoc for us all the time; in fact, it is even born into us. However, without God, there is no concept of Sin. If you want to get rid of Sin, you have to destroy its creator, God. You can only destroy God, if you have a Dream, motivated by your Faith in God, where Faith itself is an instrument of God used to support His teachings.
The true Christian, upon reading this, does not cry Blasphemy and denounce the above paragraph as teachings of the Devil. Instead, he enlightens me, and the rest of us how this hypothesis can be proven false. So please kindly tell me how this argument can be countered. Before anything else, I would now like to thank my good fortune for being able to live in a civil society where I don't have to be burned on the stake for asking such a question.
In this game, you find out, eventually, that you are the Dream of a Faeth (Faith), whose duty is to upkeep the order of Yevon (Heaven), the supreme being in this fictional world. This world, like the world we live in, is terrorized by a monster, whose name is Sin. Sin is a terror that destroys everything that it passes through. Although it can be subdued eventually, it returns every ten years, each version more powerful than the previous. The puzzle behind this game is how to defeat Sin once and for all. This objective is finally achieved when you go deep into Sin and destroy its creator, Yevon (Heaven).
Let's rephrase it in the terms that we are more used to in our world: Sin is also something that comes back to wreak havoc for us all the time; in fact, it is even born into us. However, without God, there is no concept of Sin. If you want to get rid of Sin, you have to destroy its creator, God. You can only destroy God, if you have a Dream, motivated by your Faith in God, where Faith itself is an instrument of God used to support His teachings.
The true Christian, upon reading this, does not cry Blasphemy and denounce the above paragraph as teachings of the Devil. Instead, he enlightens me, and the rest of us how this hypothesis can be proven false. So please kindly tell me how this argument can be countered. Before anything else, I would now like to thank my good fortune for being able to live in a civil society where I don't have to be burned on the stake for asking such a question.
Dienstag, 25. November 2008
Human Beings, not Human Havings
In life you will encounter people who are jealous of you, which i think is stupid, because it turns out most of the time they are just jealous of things you don't have. For instance, a lot of people may think that you are smart or gifted, but they don't know that you're really only good at a few things, because you don't talk about stuff you're not good at.
I believe it is human nature for people to look at a few things about you and then believe that you have everything they don't have. In fact, they don't see what you don't have. They only see what they don't have that you have. But you know what? Life is not about having; it's about being. That's why we're called human beings, not human havings.
I believe it is human nature for people to look at a few things about you and then believe that you have everything they don't have. In fact, they don't see what you don't have. They only see what they don't have that you have. But you know what? Life is not about having; it's about being. That's why we're called human beings, not human havings.
Dealing with Hatred and Anger
I am writing this entry because I have experienced extreme hatred and anger recently, for a man I continue to totally condemn. In my entire life I have not felt so disgusted and disgusting, and I really hated the state of having had these evil, snarling, murderous thoughts in my head that comes with such overwhelming emotions. After a torturous many hours, and after using all the discipline, education and restrain I've ever learned theoretically and practically in my life, I think I have overcome most of these negative feelings and I no longer feel any of these anymore. However, it does not mean that I do not condemn this person, or that I have any respect for this person as a human being. For, if you do not behave like one, you will not be respected like one. Of course, and I promise this: If you change yourself, you will win back the respect you deserve.
So here is what I learned this time:
The moment someone gets hurt, whether by unkind action or unkind words, many, many negative emotions like hatred and anger start pouring out from the injury, just like how blood can spew when an artery is ruptured. Some people suppress these emotions, and continue to live on in a debt of hatred and anger. Some people abuse these emotions, and use it against the person or thing who hurt them. In the first case, negative emotions like anger and hatred incur debt like loans from a bank. When you decide to pay back, you will end up feeling angrier and more hateful than before. In the second case, by fighting fire with fire, you will stir up more anger and hatred in the party who hurt you originally. More than likely, it will result in a vicious cycle of hurt.
So what is the right way to deal with these emotions?
I believe that we must learn to treat this 'hurt' like how we would treat a wound. First, recognize that you are hurt. If you don't recognize that you are hurt, you would not pause in your tracks and only be concerned about continuing to take action. This would aggravate the injury.
Once you've taken a step back, focus on stopping the blood flow; i.e. start preventing more anger and hatred from coming out of you. One does so by remaining indignant in the face of the aggressor. Indignance is one's silent resilience in preserving his own dignity. By not doing what the aggressor is doing to you, you have already prevented more bloodshed. Following that, go far, far away from the source of the harm. To the best extent possible, get out of range of this person; refuse to listen to anything about him, refuse to discuss about him, refuse to indulge in hateful thoughts about him. Focus on stopping the blood flow.
Next, treat the wound. Go to people who love you. Tell them you are hurt. Let them give you words of comfort. And as they comfort you, ask yourself what you did to initiate the wrath of the aggressor. Ask yourself what you can do in the future in order not to incur such wrath again - and walk the talk; keep your promise to be a better person. You cannot control if the other person would do harm to you again, but you can continue to improve yourself to be a better person.
Finally, learn to forgive but not forget. Forgive the aggressor because he has not been enlightened or educated; but do not forget his capacity to do hurt onto you. Never give him the chance to hurt you like that again. Pray, regardless whether you have a religion or not, that one day he will become a better man, worthy of everyone's respect.
So here is what I learned this time:
The moment someone gets hurt, whether by unkind action or unkind words, many, many negative emotions like hatred and anger start pouring out from the injury, just like how blood can spew when an artery is ruptured. Some people suppress these emotions, and continue to live on in a debt of hatred and anger. Some people abuse these emotions, and use it against the person or thing who hurt them. In the first case, negative emotions like anger and hatred incur debt like loans from a bank. When you decide to pay back, you will end up feeling angrier and more hateful than before. In the second case, by fighting fire with fire, you will stir up more anger and hatred in the party who hurt you originally. More than likely, it will result in a vicious cycle of hurt.
So what is the right way to deal with these emotions?
I believe that we must learn to treat this 'hurt' like how we would treat a wound. First, recognize that you are hurt. If you don't recognize that you are hurt, you would not pause in your tracks and only be concerned about continuing to take action. This would aggravate the injury.
Once you've taken a step back, focus on stopping the blood flow; i.e. start preventing more anger and hatred from coming out of you. One does so by remaining indignant in the face of the aggressor. Indignance is one's silent resilience in preserving his own dignity. By not doing what the aggressor is doing to you, you have already prevented more bloodshed. Following that, go far, far away from the source of the harm. To the best extent possible, get out of range of this person; refuse to listen to anything about him, refuse to discuss about him, refuse to indulge in hateful thoughts about him. Focus on stopping the blood flow.
Next, treat the wound. Go to people who love you. Tell them you are hurt. Let them give you words of comfort. And as they comfort you, ask yourself what you did to initiate the wrath of the aggressor. Ask yourself what you can do in the future in order not to incur such wrath again - and walk the talk; keep your promise to be a better person. You cannot control if the other person would do harm to you again, but you can continue to improve yourself to be a better person.
Finally, learn to forgive but not forget. Forgive the aggressor because he has not been enlightened or educated; but do not forget his capacity to do hurt onto you. Never give him the chance to hurt you like that again. Pray, regardless whether you have a religion or not, that one day he will become a better man, worthy of everyone's respect.
Sonntag, 2. November 2008
Satisfaction...
Hmm I have my own 'code' to measure my own level of satisfaction. I assume you can read pseudocode, so here it is...
for things I want = 1: no. of things I want
If particular thing I want is there
It's good. I'm satisfied.
end
else if particular thing I want is not there,
Ask myself if I can still do anything about it...
If I can do something about it...
do it.
If I cannot...
Then there's also no point to feel dissatisfied.
end
end
end
If I could have had done something about it, but I didn't...
It's my own fault. My punishment is dissatisfaction.
Learn lesson: Remember to do it next time.
end
end
Some insights here:
1. The outcome of this program is how many things you are satisfied with and how many things you are dissatisfied with. It turns out that you can only be dissatisfied with things that are of the past, that you could have had done something about but you didn't. So remember not to include these historical stuff of the past into the 'things that you want'.
2. The more things you want, the longer this program runs (look at the for loop). If life is simple, this 'program' runs fast, and you get your answer about satisfaction very quickly too. It is important to get this satisfaction quickly so that you can keep on living your life and help other people and walk out of the 'I-gen' syndrome. i.e. asking things about 'what I want, what I need, who am I' etc.
3. I purposely put down all the 'ends' there because one important thing to do is to say to yourself 'end of story' and not dwell on stuff that you cannot solve or stuff that is already resolved. Otherwise you just spend time dwelling on things whereas you could have used the time to do something to make yourself satisfied.
4. As a caution, we should take note that there's only a limited time to get whatever you want. If you want too many things, you would often get into the situation where the 'particular thing I want is not there', which has two 'if loops'... i.e. longer time to run the program. Therefore, you will realize how satisfied you are more quickly if you focus on the things that you already have.
5. Limitations: This program does not predict satisfaction in the future because the future is something that we don't know about.
6. Summary and conclusion: A program was written to determine one's satisfaction. Including things that have passed, which you cannot change, will tend to lead to dissatisfaction; the more things you want, the longer the program runs; the program also does not predict satisfaction in the future.
for things I want = 1: no. of things I want
If particular thing I want is there
It's good. I'm satisfied.
end
else if particular thing I want is not there,
Ask myself if I can still do anything about it...
If I can do something about it...
do it.
If I cannot...
Then there's also no point to feel dissatisfied.
end
end
end
If I could have had done something about it, but I didn't...
It's my own fault. My punishment is dissatisfaction.
Learn lesson: Remember to do it next time.
end
end
Some insights here:
1. The outcome of this program is how many things you are satisfied with and how many things you are dissatisfied with. It turns out that you can only be dissatisfied with things that are of the past, that you could have had done something about but you didn't. So remember not to include these historical stuff of the past into the 'things that you want'.
2. The more things you want, the longer this program runs (look at the for loop). If life is simple, this 'program' runs fast, and you get your answer about satisfaction very quickly too. It is important to get this satisfaction quickly so that you can keep on living your life and help other people and walk out of the 'I-gen' syndrome. i.e. asking things about 'what I want, what I need, who am I' etc.
3. I purposely put down all the 'ends' there because one important thing to do is to say to yourself 'end of story' and not dwell on stuff that you cannot solve or stuff that is already resolved. Otherwise you just spend time dwelling on things whereas you could have used the time to do something to make yourself satisfied.
4. As a caution, we should take note that there's only a limited time to get whatever you want. If you want too many things, you would often get into the situation where the 'particular thing I want is not there', which has two 'if loops'... i.e. longer time to run the program. Therefore, you will realize how satisfied you are more quickly if you focus on the things that you already have.
5. Limitations: This program does not predict satisfaction in the future because the future is something that we don't know about.
6. Summary and conclusion: A program was written to determine one's satisfaction. Including things that have passed, which you cannot change, will tend to lead to dissatisfaction; the more things you want, the longer the program runs; the program also does not predict satisfaction in the future.
Mittwoch, 29. Oktober 2008
We have to walk, but should we navigate or not?
In life you have to walk. One can always have a dream path to walk in - e.g. the forest, the plains, the hills, the desert or the beach. However, many people are not born in the place they want to walk in. So what can you do?
1. Be a navigator
e.g. You may be born in the forest, but you really want to be at the beach. Therefore, you need to navigate your next moves. The first step is to try to get out of the forest. After that, you want to be well equipped for life at the beach. Then you want to make friends at the beach. And so on. And so eventually you reach the beach and settle down there. And this is really how we reach our goals. The only thing is, sometimes what you think is your goal turns out to be not really what you want after all...; either way, this is the route of people who plan pretty hard for life to get to where they want.
2. Do no navigate
A friend of mine had another perspective to this. Basically, you don't have to plan so hard. If you keep on walking in the forest, you may get out of it one day. Maybe you get out to the hills, maybe you reach the desert, but not the beach; But who knows? You just keep on walking and whatever you see or do or feel will be different and unique to you. Or maybe you'll just stay in the forest for the whole life. What you see and do and feel will still be different and unique to you. The forest is big enough to captivate you for your whole life. So why try so hard to move to a different environment instead of enjoying what you have right now since it'd be unique anyway?
So I guess it's good to learn to enjoy what you have, whether it's good or bad. If you're a poor man, be happy being poor - you don't have the worries of rich people i.e. you don't have to spend a lot of time protecting your wealth. If one day you strike it rich - great - now you don't have the poor man's problems but be prepared to lose sleep over your new problems. If you have no girlfriend, don't be jealous of your friends who have one, or several. They don't have the luxury of your freedom of choice and accountability to solely yourself. If you find a girlfriend, leave your single life behind and be happy dealing with the issues of two people being together.
Oder???
1. Be a navigator
e.g. You may be born in the forest, but you really want to be at the beach. Therefore, you need to navigate your next moves. The first step is to try to get out of the forest. After that, you want to be well equipped for life at the beach. Then you want to make friends at the beach. And so on. And so eventually you reach the beach and settle down there. And this is really how we reach our goals. The only thing is, sometimes what you think is your goal turns out to be not really what you want after all...; either way, this is the route of people who plan pretty hard for life to get to where they want.
2. Do no navigate
A friend of mine had another perspective to this. Basically, you don't have to plan so hard. If you keep on walking in the forest, you may get out of it one day. Maybe you get out to the hills, maybe you reach the desert, but not the beach; But who knows? You just keep on walking and whatever you see or do or feel will be different and unique to you. Or maybe you'll just stay in the forest for the whole life. What you see and do and feel will still be different and unique to you. The forest is big enough to captivate you for your whole life. So why try so hard to move to a different environment instead of enjoying what you have right now since it'd be unique anyway?
So I guess it's good to learn to enjoy what you have, whether it's good or bad. If you're a poor man, be happy being poor - you don't have the worries of rich people i.e. you don't have to spend a lot of time protecting your wealth. If one day you strike it rich - great - now you don't have the poor man's problems but be prepared to lose sleep over your new problems. If you have no girlfriend, don't be jealous of your friends who have one, or several. They don't have the luxury of your freedom of choice and accountability to solely yourself. If you find a girlfriend, leave your single life behind and be happy dealing with the issues of two people being together.
Oder???
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