Philosophical Musings

I was reading Paulo Coelho's The Pilgrimage recently. It was boring at start, but it gets quite interesting as you turn the pages. He talks of how it's bad to be at peace with your self- something which I found out for myself too. He says you stop chasing your dreams when you feel secure. I know that feeling. You enjoy the moment so much that you feel your dreams can wait. It is only when you are unhappy that you truly chase your dreams. I found that out for myself too. Wisdom comes from within, knowledge without.

Here's an interesting thought experiment: How do you know that any event which you were led to believe happened in the past actually happened? You were not there to witness it. You can't be sure it happened. So, why do you believe in it? Because someone told you it happened, or you read about it somewhere. You accept such tales without question. What if they did not actually happen, what if it was all an elaborate plot to fool you? Theoretically, it could be done. If it was, then your reality is far removed from that which you perceive. Your thoughts are based on your perception of reality. Therefore, they are flawed, and so are your beliefs.

In such a scenario, of what use is knowledge, when it will only serve to strengthen your warped view of reality? Your beliefs could very well be wrong or misguided. In that case, should we attach any importance to our beliefs? Pause for a moment now to think over it before you read on.

Ideas and beliefs keep changing over your lifetime. That's natural. It is a consequence of age or maturity, as we like to call it. That doesn't make a discarded idea any less important. Indeed, warped reality is a positive motivator. I realize that this is an arbitrary claim, but bear with me for a while. Some people set seemingly unrealistic goals for themselves and achieve it too. (Read The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell). In their reality, it is a realistic goal. Realistically, it's unrealistic. Which leads me to conclude that realism is in itself an unrealistic belief, that life is neither black nor white but different shades of grey.

If such is the case, we need to hold on to our beliefs even more strongly, since they enable us to perceive an otherwise unintelligible world. A flawed perception of reality is better than none at all. And when our flawed perception makes sense to us and we achieve something that we deem to be productive, it proves my point. It is better to be wrong and still do right than to flounder.

Consider the following example: A child plays with other children of his age and develops athletic skills. This child grows into a sportsperson, representing his class, then his school, followed by city, district, state and finally his nation in some particular sport. At the start, the child is competitive only with his peer group and tries to become better than similar aged children. Soon, his talents are noticed and as he is encouraged, his talent grows. His range of competition broadens, and he is exposed to others who are equally competitive.

If this child is told, when very young, that he has to compete with all the other kids in the world, he will surely have nightmares about the heavy expectation put on his shoulders, expectations which he is not confident enough of achieving. The child's reality actually changes as he faces different levels of competition, yet we can assuredly say that this is a necessity. In other words, as reality grows, beliefs change. This change is for the better.

Even fantasies are unreal, yet we indulge in them. They are a means of escapism and entertainment. Similarly, we can treat beliefs as a means to an end- the end being what we want to make of our life.

It is said in the Hindu religion that the world is an illusion and the ultimate goal of man is to break free from it and enter the ethereal plane (for lack of a better word) where all life is a spirit; from which we can understand that even living an illusory life is worthwhile. Therefore, I conclude that this question can be left unanswered.