Philosophy
- What I Understood so Far
By
C.P.
Gunasena[1]
I am trying to write
this article without any bias towards any religion, philosophical thinking or
any doctrine. Philosophy has developed to explain things experienced by man
with respect to the nature surround him. Basically, It could be categorized in
to two major streams namely, god given philosophy which explain how to live
harmony with the nature and man made Philosophy. Man made philosophy could be
categorized in to another sub categories namely, which could be use to explain
things that are unexplainable to him and ways and means of sharing natural
resources with other colleges. Today we are gradually realizing that man made
philosophical thinking has its own shortcomings and course present environmental
crisis.
Let us look at
God given philosophy first
Hinduism
God has created
everything and he himself given ways and means to live meaningfully and happily
within this world and pathway to reach him at the end of the life. If we do not
obey him, has given the consequences also.
Example: “Do not cut
trees, because they remove pollution.” (Rig Veda, 6:48:17), “Do not disturb the
sky and do not pollute the atmosphere.” (Yajur Veda,5:43), Destruction of
forests is taken as destruction of the state, and reforestation an act of
rebuilding the state and advancing its welfare. Protection of animals is
considered a sacred duty. (Charak Sanhita)
Christianism
God has created
everything and he himself given ways and means to live meaningfully and happily
within this world and pathway to reach him at the end of the life. If we do not
obey him, has given the consequences also.
Example
: Psalm 96:10-13. The Lord
reigns... Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad, let the seas resound
and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then
all the trees of the forest will sing for joy, they will sing before the Lord
for He comes, He comes to judge the earth. Isaiah 43:20-21. The wild
animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the
desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
Islamism
God has created
everything and he himself given ways and means to live meaningfully and happily
within this world and pathway to reach him at the end of the life. If we do not
obey him, has given the consequences also.
Example:
The Qur’an also recognizes that people take pleasure in
experiencing variety, particularly in their food, while again, warning against
being wasteful: It is He Who has brought into being gardens, the
cultivated and the wild, and date-palms, and fields with produce of all kinds,
and olives and pomegranates, similar (in kind) and variegated. Eat of their
fruit in season, but give (the poor) their due on harvest day. And do not waste,
for God does not love the wasteful.(6:141)
Origin of Life
According to the Buddhist ethics, life has arrived from "Abassara Brahma Lokaya" in a form of light. To day there is a scientific argument which highlights, the life has come from outer space via meteoroids and this has some correlation with Buddhist ethics. Most of other religions believe that life has been created by the god.
Origin of Life
According to the Buddhist ethics, life has arrived from "Abassara Brahma Lokaya" in a form of light. To day there is a scientific argument which highlights, the life has come from outer space via meteoroids and this has some correlation with Buddhist ethics. Most of other religions believe that life has been created by the god.
Curiosity and
ego of the man
In early days of his
evolution, man started to worship Lightning, thunder, large trees, and rocks to
get rid of his sufferings and had a belief something supernatural to him. But
after he invented the fire and tools, things has changed. Then he tied to
question about god philosophy. For that he developed philosophical thinking
to ease his own thinking and work.
Man made Philosophy
As I discussed earlier
his philosophical thinking could be categorized in to two sub streams. Philosophical thinking to explain which are
unexplainable to him and philosophical thinking to explain ways and means of
sharing natural resources with other colleges.
Things that are
unexplainable
With the advancement of
the technological know how and thinking patterns, man wanted to define god, recognize
him, and to see him. Earlier he worship trees and rocks but now he need to cut
and flat those trees and rocks for his own good. Then he developed god as different
personalities like him but with some super natural features. To understand
these concepts of his own creations he developed a philosophical thinking named
as Metaphysical thinking.
Further to this he
wanted to fight with his colleges to get more natural resources to his own
group as a group leader. Then he create a god with arms and weapons who help
them to conquer their own colleges and developed ethics for that and put god in to the war. He rewrote
the philosophy which was given by god to him giving opportunity to kill his own
colleges for his own benefit.
Sharing natural
resources with other colleges
From slavery, to
imperialism, to capitalism to communism to socialism to democracy, man has
developed various philosophical thinking to share resources and manage it sustainably.
In order to discuss these issues man has developed other branches of
philosophy. Epistemological thinking was developed to study about vast
knowledge gathered by his own colleges form various parts of the world where he
was able to spread his own community with in the planet. Furthermore, he developed the axiological
thinking to explain the way and means of sharing resources identified as
politics, developed ethics to follow to govern his followers, and added aesthetic
values when using those natural resources.
Now he is working his
own philosophies without considering the god asked to do for his own survival.
He developed scientific method of understanding to explain the natural
phenomena happening around him. According to the god philosophy life is created
on this planet and he was not satisfied with it and developed evolution theory
to explain how life was evolved in this planet. But he is still trying to
figure out what is reality behind this. He is investigating whether life has
arrived from outer space and trying to communicate with outer space to find any
other life forms.
Catastrophe
He was able to increase
the life span and was able to live more comfortably and healthy. After
conquering the outer space he came to know that it is mightier than he thought.
Then he invented the latest highest speed which is greater than light. In
future he will develop space ships to travel outer space with this speed and
another technological revolution will happened.
With all these
technological advancement and the knowledge in hand, he is now experiencing the
consequences of the so called scientific development. Nature is trying to regain
balance which is lost due to anthropogenic activities. He identifies this as a
crisis situation and trying to find solutions. Now day by day he is realizing
the cause of this crisis situation where man made philosophy has no solution to rebalanced it.
New
Philosophical thinking
Now he is trying to
develop new philosophical thinking to address to this crisis situation. He
develops new protocols to act globally as a one community to save the planet.
It is very funny to say that protocol has been given by the god earlier and he is
trying to rewrite it again with his own words. Now he is going as a common man
and trying to share natural resource as a global citizen which has been asked
by the god from him very much earlier prior to this catastrophe.
God given and Man made religions
Hinduism, Christianism
and Islamism have god given philosophical thinking. Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism,
etc. are man made religions. Except Buddhism, other religions explain how to
live harmony with the environment and achieve higher spiritual states other
than Nirvana.
Endless
suffering
God has asked to live
as what he said and come to him where you can get the eternal life. What I feel
about this eternal life is that if there is any life form in that eternal state,
that should not be made up of body like ours or materials like ours. Because,
we are getting older day by day, time to time getting sick and our body
confirmation is degenerating where god has not given any solution to this
problem. Therefore, there must be any
other life form with different kind of material for the eternal life which will
not degenerate and which I could not explain with my knowledge. Please bear
with me for this issue.
Buddhism and man
Buddhism is a man made
philosophy where Load Buddha has born as a man. He has developed his own path
to somewhere identify him as Nirvana where anybody could achieve it by Skanda
Prarinirvan. In this situation you get rid of any form of physical body after
death. Then you will be able to eliminate all kind of sufferings due to degeneration
of physical body and fluctuations of mental status. Furthermore, he has
explained the way of living harmony with the environment.
Example:
In
Karaniya metta sutra, Buddha has preached to extend our compassion to all
living beings both born and unborn. It is as follows. “Whatever breathing
creatures here may be, No matter whether they are frail or firm, Or middle-sized,
or be they short or small, Or whether they are dwelling far or near, Existing
or yet seeking exist, May beings all be of a blissful heart. "
My Conclusion
Man is doing research
and formulating global protocols to find what is correct, while forgetting what
he has been asked to do by the God. Therefore, man has to find again what he
has been asked to do by the God and technological advancement must direct
accordingly. To achieve this Man could use any religious philosophical thinking
to find his own path to the god or collectively as a global man to achieve sustainable development of the planet . If somebody willing to get rid of all sufferings and
getting different forms of physical body forms as man or any other animal after
the death, he has to follow Buddhism within this birth. If he is going to have
a birth as an animal in his next birth he has to wait till he comes again as a
man where animals could not reshape their mind to achieve what Load Buddha
said.
I take this opportunity
to show my gratitude to our Philosophy teacher Prof. K.D.N. Weerasinghe,
who teach us how to think rationally without bias to any philosophy.
