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Background- After the philosophical and ideological foundation of my youth had shattered, I made it my voluntary duty to make this model, ... -
******** "Do not the heavens over-arch us yonder? Does not the earth lie firm beneath? Do not eternal stars rise friendly Lookin...
Sunday, 16 December 2007
The Purpose of Life
Background-
After the philosophical and ideological foundation of my youth had shattered, I made it my voluntary duty to make this model, the Harmony Model of Life, just for my own purpose of understanding life; but now it happened to come to this light. To help or stir; for a smile or sneer... I don’t know... Whatever the case I would n't mind, since it has helped me. Along this path I had to go through some spiritual, at the beginning bitter and at the end enlightening experience, which recently had its resolution in the freedom of my mind, body and spirit.
After this state of existence, I had only to struggle with time to understand, relish and quench my thirst for knowledge. Any knowledge, whose purpose is enlightening and freeing the human species to celebrate its full liberty and perfection at the end, was welcome. I am still at the beginning, though I feel the rest is more or less only a question of time to bring the flower of knowledge to blossom.
Along this state of mind, my object of reference was Ethiopia - my roots- and my personal experience. Fortunate and unfortunate, blunders and maturing, I had always in mind my involvement and social engagement in a movement, which, irrespective of its healthy and noble cause for social justice, obscured by a dogmatic communist ideology, was condemned to pass through a historical period, which had swept a substantial section of the world and has ended in our case with the sacrifice of very dear friends and thousands of the Ethiopian youth with their dreams, intellect and energy.
Though the legacy of the last generation, which has consummated much of its energy through celebrating traditions, contradictions, differences, partisanship and above all violence, has still a firm grasp of the new one, now after almost three decades, I hope that a new generation is coming up with a highly respectful energy for a change, development and an aspiration to be part of the enlightened human movement and determine its own destiny and live in peace. Moreover, hoping that all active political forces uproot and denounce this legacy not only in principle but also in practice, they would step forward to take hold of the right human spirit of today and committe themelves for the harmony of life in the sense of resolving contradictions and differences, giving room for all shades of life to live and work together for a higher purpose. Only beautiful rhetoric for peace and democracy is not sufficient and should not however disguise the reality. In the recent past, for those of us who had the fortune of having the least glimpse of genuine enlightenment and are ready to learn from the dark experience, the reality counter to this spirit had made us sick at heart, with the consequence of becoming passive, leaving it for history to take care of its own course. This was, instinctively my case until the end of 2004.
During the last years, since I stopped my active political engagement, in the course of my “search” (not research) for truth”, at moments when the spirit of the past and lost friends takes hold of me, I was making some notes to generalize my thoughts to have a certain peace of mind and understand life and beyond. I have been engaged with this sometimes at a highly extreme and irrational psychological makeup, so that the best of it may precipitate as a result. I was doing this not only with an emphasis of learning from my past but trying to understand the state of stupidity or initial causes, which made me vulnerable to an ideological dogma, which is capable of exploiting the healthy and noble cause of young people, like I used to be. Remaining true to my mathematics passion of my youth, these notes were always accompanied by a sketch or model, which could generalize my understanding.
In the process of human maturing, there are extreme circumstances, be it intimate life, personal or social experience or a combination of several factors in the surrounding nature, which may bring about a new perception of life and a substantial change in the consciousness of the subject. At the end of year 2004, I was lucky to have this experience, which substantially changed my perspective and made an end to my earlier passive and personal vegetative existence. This experience lead me to a process of enlightenment; Engagement for a process of enlightenment not only for personal knowledge and spiritual development but also to share my strivings at least among friends, who have my esteem and respect.
The candle of enlightenment was of course burning since mankind has stepped into this nature, but with full awareness, may be in my case, I have only discovered it now, when I began to grasp the old people who were writing about it under the light of their candles, long before we have the pleasure of a brighter light today; a brighter light, which sometimes makes us blind. However, since the candle is somehow more beautiful, nostalgic and full of art than our modern light, we still live and like our candle burning and enjoy the silence of mind, which it renders our spirit, in moments of life, when the past, the present and the future refuse to be different.. Exceptional moments of time before we may perhaps experience the pleasure of that Beyond.
That Beyond, is here not the subject of my “model” at all. Let us leave this for the silence. Important variables and factors indicating this are included in the Model, since they simply belong to the consistency and correctness of the logic. The “model” , on which I was taking my time, in moments of wanting to give Life a purpose, remembering all our friends and the last generation of the Ethiopian youth, who left us believing in a purpose in their unfortunate way is only this “side” of life. Life, which without any exceptions, the coming generations of Ethiopia should enjoy. My intention with this model is also not to declare this or that “new knowledge” whatsoever, but only making the play as transparent and as general as possible, so that any young man could see through it and opt for nothing but Life; Life, a jewel, a gift of the Absolute, which compares and equals nothing, other than its own defence and purpose. This fact is I think, what the survivors of the last generation, owe this generation. That means, in simple words, the game of the day should only be LIFE, if possible why not with a High purpose of Harmony. But never neither sacrifice nor harassment, be it state or whatever.
After the experience mentioned above and a conscious process of enlightening myself; beginning to work through the sweet jungle of knowledge and completing - my “search for truth”, to present it in this form of model was not difficult. It is logically consistent and I think all-round.. Above-all, I myself believe it is true and correct. If others understand my point, at least in its tenets, is enough. I am of course very aware of the fact that this is “only” on a highly macro-level and can perhaps be dismissed, as a common place and irrelevant by those who are busy threading the strings of our micro solutions. Nonetheless, with all respect for the micro solutions, it is high time that, we should get hold of our macro perspectives too. Moreover, at the micro levels there are abundant materials, works and solutions en mass in the libraries of esteemed humanist forefathers of diverse culture, which all have their rights of existence.
It is true, (like the saying in German “ der Teufel liegt im Detail”/ ) the devil lies in the details - the details are difficult. However, all schools of thoughts can come to terms with each other, allowing room for different solutions with the ultimate purpose of grasping the macro purpose of life. Only the right of existence and preferences for different micro solutions without claiming to be the absolute truth makes life, worthy and beautiful with all its diversity and complexity.
Not any one philosopher, ...... or for that matter not even any contemporary spiritual leader has a right on the absolute truth. Life is somehow like the puzzle, my son is playing, to ultimately make one whole; just with the big difference; if you like, with no limits for its complexity and diversity; but in order not to break down eternally, always ending in an Harmony.
Following is the graphical presentation of the Harmony Model.
(See for Details in other parts of this Blog)
Or the newer blogs like:
http://wheel88h.wordpress.com/
http://0ne88hiq.wordpress.com/
The Harmony Model
Prologue
When I cast a glance in every direction of heaven during a clear night of a nice spring ...; over my head, beyond the horizon, beyond the moon across the bright Venus and into the stars beyond the dark sky, I can’t suppress my astonishment, my respect and veneration for the majestic substance underlying all these. The process of simple and free contemplation observing this wonder ends up with some sort of bliss and gratification that I belong to all this substance as a conscious part of the whole. This was the feeling, with which I was always overwhelmed, one spring after another, while I was spending my holidays in the island of Crete- Greece, which replaced for a decade the roots of my ancestors; Ethiopia, where I was denied the pleasure to inhale its ether or set a foot on. Crete was my strange area, my new space, where I was wandering around up and down hill to shed some tears for my unconscious past; where I was troubled with sorting out my bewildered present; where, after the ideology and the purpose of life I used to have, had shattered, I was left alone by kin and friend, deep in the darkness of my unknown future, with nothing spiritual, confronted by fate to search for my truth, wondering why and for what ultimate purpose my life has taken the insane path it chose. Every time I was attracted during my holidays to Crete –Greece, I was sharing my passion with the dark sky above me, across the hill over the village of Paradiso with its twinkling stars and their twins in the Mediterranean See, to understand, what is behind all this. A mysterious area, as I always felt during my sojourn, where the philosophy of humanity has its cradles and the souls of the mighty philosophers are perhaps still observing us with their accustomed tolerance, while we are still staggering and stuttering in search of our destiny. Isn’t it a miracle that all these bright stars, heavenly and celestial bodies don’t move astray and descend upon us; that the sun doesn’t deny shining one day in the morning, that the moon never misses its path and that they all don’t sprinkle in various directions in bundles of energy from beyond and threaten our beautiful nature. Everything hovering over me, behind me and all over; they all seem to follow and obey their governing laws and take their own course and enjoy their existence. Whence comes then the arrogance to believe that we humans make the exception to entertain a notion, that we don’t obey any laws of which we are unaware? Why should we make the exception just because we are endowed with the special and beautiful nature of mind, called Reason and Logic, which can have its origin in nowhere other than all this substance around us? This is especially true at least for the fortunate, who has a Faith of some sort or other, a source of somewhat and some sort somewhere over there or over here. Whatever the origin, I am not interested in any of the discussion on the so called “Design or Not”, which appears to be the “philosophical-religious” agenda of the day in the west, which in my opinion is only a question of the sovereign individual. My point here is only a belief that there must be a governing natural law for our social reality similar to the non-conscious material reality of nature, on which no one so far doubts and our science is today full of.
We are all endowed with the Mind, which manifests its high vitality with Reason and Logic, when it urges for sublimty and feels itself at its height. History has several times presented us with hundreds of intellects, who were at such extraordinary heights of intellectual position to tear down the curtains of ignorance and show us the governing rules of nature. This is the case, though; the human species may have lived before for a long period without being aware of them. - Theories. Natural science is, as we know, full of these theories and hard facts. I for myself was convinced during my early youth, that there is always a governing Law behind life, until I was overwhelmed by the arrogance of my adulthood. This was just God in a nutshell; God, uncritically accepted, without any qualification and without any trouble of reason. God, delivered through the religion, to which I accidentally belonged. However, especially when I began to understand calculus in my first college years, with all other accompanying higher mathematical theories of series, infinity etc., I begun to be more delighted about all those beautiful facts of higher mathematics, to believe that everything may have a purpose and meaning and can be explained.. A purpose and meaning, which I perhaps as a beginner cannot grasp all at a time but at any rate, would try sometime to find the expertise of at least a section, which is part and parcel of the whole.
That was the youth. The adult abandoned the faith of the youth to replace it with an ideological dogma, until sometime the new politically motivated belief was also again irrevocably shattered. Thereafter, through a process of liberating the mind the adult made Reason and logic the guiding principle until again this gave room for new awareness- Awareness, on the limits of Reason and Logic when they are devoid of Faith. Human life, if it is not supported by faith becomes simple and meaningless vegetation without a purpose. Not simply faith, but Faith so deep and so far as the dark heaven at night; as high and sublime as the intellect of all intellects beyond space and all dimensions, which may grasp a moment in eternity at a timeless and dimensionless moment.
Is there more than a vegetation of life? Yes, there is. I believe life has a purpose!
http://berhane-hilina.blogspot.com/2007/11/purpose-of-l-i-f-e-quintessence-purpose.html
After the philosophical and ideological foundation of my youth had shattered, I made it my voluntary duty to make this model, the Harmony Model of Life, just for my own purpose of understanding life; but now it happened to come to this light. To help or stir; for a smile or sneer... I don’t know... Whatever the case I would n't mind, since it has helped me. Along this path I had to go through some spiritual, at the beginning bitter and at the end enlightening experience, which recently had its resolution in the freedom of my mind, body and spirit.
After this state of existence, I had only to struggle with time to understand, relish and quench my thirst for knowledge. Any knowledge, whose purpose is enlightening and freeing the human species to celebrate its full liberty and perfection at the end, was welcome. I am still at the beginning, though I feel the rest is more or less only a question of time to bring the flower of knowledge to blossom.
Along this state of mind, my object of reference was Ethiopia - my roots- and my personal experience. Fortunate and unfortunate, blunders and maturing, I had always in mind my involvement and social engagement in a movement, which, irrespective of its healthy and noble cause for social justice, obscured by a dogmatic communist ideology, was condemned to pass through a historical period, which had swept a substantial section of the world and has ended in our case with the sacrifice of very dear friends and thousands of the Ethiopian youth with their dreams, intellect and energy.
Though the legacy of the last generation, which has consummated much of its energy through celebrating traditions, contradictions, differences, partisanship and above all violence, has still a firm grasp of the new one, now after almost three decades, I hope that a new generation is coming up with a highly respectful energy for a change, development and an aspiration to be part of the enlightened human movement and determine its own destiny and live in peace. Moreover, hoping that all active political forces uproot and denounce this legacy not only in principle but also in practice, they would step forward to take hold of the right human spirit of today and committe themelves for the harmony of life in the sense of resolving contradictions and differences, giving room for all shades of life to live and work together for a higher purpose. Only beautiful rhetoric for peace and democracy is not sufficient and should not however disguise the reality. In the recent past, for those of us who had the fortune of having the least glimpse of genuine enlightenment and are ready to learn from the dark experience, the reality counter to this spirit had made us sick at heart, with the consequence of becoming passive, leaving it for history to take care of its own course. This was, instinctively my case until the end of 2004.
During the last years, since I stopped my active political engagement, in the course of my “search” (not research) for truth”, at moments when the spirit of the past and lost friends takes hold of me, I was making some notes to generalize my thoughts to have a certain peace of mind and understand life and beyond. I have been engaged with this sometimes at a highly extreme and irrational psychological makeup, so that the best of it may precipitate as a result. I was doing this not only with an emphasis of learning from my past but trying to understand the state of stupidity or initial causes, which made me vulnerable to an ideological dogma, which is capable of exploiting the healthy and noble cause of young people, like I used to be. Remaining true to my mathematics passion of my youth, these notes were always accompanied by a sketch or model, which could generalize my understanding.
In the process of human maturing, there are extreme circumstances, be it intimate life, personal or social experience or a combination of several factors in the surrounding nature, which may bring about a new perception of life and a substantial change in the consciousness of the subject. At the end of year 2004, I was lucky to have this experience, which substantially changed my perspective and made an end to my earlier passive and personal vegetative existence. This experience lead me to a process of enlightenment; Engagement for a process of enlightenment not only for personal knowledge and spiritual development but also to share my strivings at least among friends, who have my esteem and respect.
The candle of enlightenment was of course burning since mankind has stepped into this nature, but with full awareness, may be in my case, I have only discovered it now, when I began to grasp the old people who were writing about it under the light of their candles, long before we have the pleasure of a brighter light today; a brighter light, which sometimes makes us blind. However, since the candle is somehow more beautiful, nostalgic and full of art than our modern light, we still live and like our candle burning and enjoy the silence of mind, which it renders our spirit, in moments of life, when the past, the present and the future refuse to be different.. Exceptional moments of time before we may perhaps experience the pleasure of that Beyond.
That Beyond, is here not the subject of my “model” at all. Let us leave this for the silence. Important variables and factors indicating this are included in the Model, since they simply belong to the consistency and correctness of the logic. The “model” , on which I was taking my time, in moments of wanting to give Life a purpose, remembering all our friends and the last generation of the Ethiopian youth, who left us believing in a purpose in their unfortunate way is only this “side” of life. Life, which without any exceptions, the coming generations of Ethiopia should enjoy. My intention with this model is also not to declare this or that “new knowledge” whatsoever, but only making the play as transparent and as general as possible, so that any young man could see through it and opt for nothing but Life; Life, a jewel, a gift of the Absolute, which compares and equals nothing, other than its own defence and purpose. This fact is I think, what the survivors of the last generation, owe this generation. That means, in simple words, the game of the day should only be LIFE, if possible why not with a High purpose of Harmony. But never neither sacrifice nor harassment, be it state or whatever.
After the experience mentioned above and a conscious process of enlightening myself; beginning to work through the sweet jungle of knowledge and completing - my “search for truth”, to present it in this form of model was not difficult. It is logically consistent and I think all-round.. Above-all, I myself believe it is true and correct. If others understand my point, at least in its tenets, is enough. I am of course very aware of the fact that this is “only” on a highly macro-level and can perhaps be dismissed, as a common place and irrelevant by those who are busy threading the strings of our micro solutions. Nonetheless, with all respect for the micro solutions, it is high time that, we should get hold of our macro perspectives too. Moreover, at the micro levels there are abundant materials, works and solutions en mass in the libraries of esteemed humanist forefathers of diverse culture, which all have their rights of existence.
It is true, (like the saying in German “ der Teufel liegt im Detail”/ ) the devil lies in the details - the details are difficult. However, all schools of thoughts can come to terms with each other, allowing room for different solutions with the ultimate purpose of grasping the macro purpose of life. Only the right of existence and preferences for different micro solutions without claiming to be the absolute truth makes life, worthy and beautiful with all its diversity and complexity.
Not any one philosopher, ...... or for that matter not even any contemporary spiritual leader has a right on the absolute truth. Life is somehow like the puzzle, my son is playing, to ultimately make one whole; just with the big difference; if you like, with no limits for its complexity and diversity; but in order not to break down eternally, always ending in an Harmony.
Following is the graphical presentation of the Harmony Model.
(See for Details in other parts of this Blog)
Or the newer blogs like:
http://wheel88h.wordpress.com/
http://0ne88hiq.wordpress.com/
The Harmony Model
Prologue
When I cast a glance in every direction of heaven during a clear night of a nice spring ...; over my head, beyond the horizon, beyond the moon across the bright Venus and into the stars beyond the dark sky, I can’t suppress my astonishment, my respect and veneration for the majestic substance underlying all these. The process of simple and free contemplation observing this wonder ends up with some sort of bliss and gratification that I belong to all this substance as a conscious part of the whole. This was the feeling, with which I was always overwhelmed, one spring after another, while I was spending my holidays in the island of Crete- Greece, which replaced for a decade the roots of my ancestors; Ethiopia, where I was denied the pleasure to inhale its ether or set a foot on. Crete was my strange area, my new space, where I was wandering around up and down hill to shed some tears for my unconscious past; where I was troubled with sorting out my bewildered present; where, after the ideology and the purpose of life I used to have, had shattered, I was left alone by kin and friend, deep in the darkness of my unknown future, with nothing spiritual, confronted by fate to search for my truth, wondering why and for what ultimate purpose my life has taken the insane path it chose. Every time I was attracted during my holidays to Crete –Greece, I was sharing my passion with the dark sky above me, across the hill over the village of Paradiso with its twinkling stars and their twins in the Mediterranean See, to understand, what is behind all this. A mysterious area, as I always felt during my sojourn, where the philosophy of humanity has its cradles and the souls of the mighty philosophers are perhaps still observing us with their accustomed tolerance, while we are still staggering and stuttering in search of our destiny. Isn’t it a miracle that all these bright stars, heavenly and celestial bodies don’t move astray and descend upon us; that the sun doesn’t deny shining one day in the morning, that the moon never misses its path and that they all don’t sprinkle in various directions in bundles of energy from beyond and threaten our beautiful nature. Everything hovering over me, behind me and all over; they all seem to follow and obey their governing laws and take their own course and enjoy their existence. Whence comes then the arrogance to believe that we humans make the exception to entertain a notion, that we don’t obey any laws of which we are unaware? Why should we make the exception just because we are endowed with the special and beautiful nature of mind, called Reason and Logic, which can have its origin in nowhere other than all this substance around us? This is especially true at least for the fortunate, who has a Faith of some sort or other, a source of somewhat and some sort somewhere over there or over here. Whatever the origin, I am not interested in any of the discussion on the so called “Design or Not”, which appears to be the “philosophical-religious” agenda of the day in the west, which in my opinion is only a question of the sovereign individual. My point here is only a belief that there must be a governing natural law for our social reality similar to the non-conscious material reality of nature, on which no one so far doubts and our science is today full of.
We are all endowed with the Mind, which manifests its high vitality with Reason and Logic, when it urges for sublimty and feels itself at its height. History has several times presented us with hundreds of intellects, who were at such extraordinary heights of intellectual position to tear down the curtains of ignorance and show us the governing rules of nature. This is the case, though; the human species may have lived before for a long period without being aware of them. - Theories. Natural science is, as we know, full of these theories and hard facts. I for myself was convinced during my early youth, that there is always a governing Law behind life, until I was overwhelmed by the arrogance of my adulthood. This was just God in a nutshell; God, uncritically accepted, without any qualification and without any trouble of reason. God, delivered through the religion, to which I accidentally belonged. However, especially when I began to understand calculus in my first college years, with all other accompanying higher mathematical theories of series, infinity etc., I begun to be more delighted about all those beautiful facts of higher mathematics, to believe that everything may have a purpose and meaning and can be explained.. A purpose and meaning, which I perhaps as a beginner cannot grasp all at a time but at any rate, would try sometime to find the expertise of at least a section, which is part and parcel of the whole.
That was the youth. The adult abandoned the faith of the youth to replace it with an ideological dogma, until sometime the new politically motivated belief was also again irrevocably shattered. Thereafter, through a process of liberating the mind the adult made Reason and logic the guiding principle until again this gave room for new awareness- Awareness, on the limits of Reason and Logic when they are devoid of Faith. Human life, if it is not supported by faith becomes simple and meaningless vegetation without a purpose. Not simply faith, but Faith so deep and so far as the dark heaven at night; as high and sublime as the intellect of all intellects beyond space and all dimensions, which may grasp a moment in eternity at a timeless and dimensionless moment.
Is there more than a vegetation of life? Yes, there is. I believe life has a purpose!
http://berhane-hilina.blogspot.com/2007/11/purpose-of-l-i-f-e-quintessence-purpose.html
