Two Basic life Philosophies

In the classic As a Man Thinkth, James Allen writes; “From the state of a man’s heart proceed the conditions of his life; his thoughts blossom into deeds and his deeds bear the fruitage of his character and destiny”. We don’t see things are they are, we see them as we are. We don’t see reality as it is, we see it as we see ourselves. We are wearing mental screens through which we filter information from the world around us. We also filter our thoughts. Our destiny is mapped on our minds and hearts, out of which our attitudes and conduct and our deeds spring.  Your perspectives have power because they interpret reality.  How we see ourselves determines our attitudes and behaviours, it also affects our views of others and the world. Your life perspective, your operating paradigms influence how you use your life, the focus of your efforts, the treatment of your neighbour, the value you place on things, and the value you place on love. The way we see life leads to what we do in life. Your life philosophy is everything because it determines everything. It is a person’s life philosophy that determines the thinking minds view of living. It’s the thinking mind’s definition of how life works, the purpose, goals and priorities of life and what is to be expected from life. A person expresses their life philosophy in every thought, word and deed.  Every person has a life paradigm, a philosophic world view. In fact no two are the same. A person’s life philosophy is a mixture of our history, internal scripting, our education, social views, our family views, our conscience, our needs and desires, our self-awareness and our expectations.  But fundamentally we can breakdown all these influences to two basic life philosophies; the philosophy of the world or the philosophy of God. The real choice is between a natural philosophy and a supernatural philosophy. The philosophy of the world today fits into many definitions and terms; secularism, materialism, individualism, hedonism, minimalism, relativism and subjectivism. This really boils down to the philosophy of “I myself and no one else” and they are based on the idea that there is no God or that God is not relevant to today’s world. If my life philosophy is materialistic, my priority is life will be money and things. This is the “I am what I own” philosophy. If my life philosophy is hedonistic, my priority is pleasure and feeling high. This is the” how do I get pleasure from this person or thing?” If my philosophy is minimalism, then my priority is to take short cuts, do the minimum, this is the “What is the least I can get away with?” view of life. If your life view is Individualism, your priority is your own interests, expectations and doing it your way. This is the “What is in it for me?” view of life. The alternative is the philosophy of God; “Love God and love your neighbour”.

Life is an Inside Job

Life is an inside job. God wants us to grow up spiritually and this spirit is inside us not outside us.  We look at the problems and failings in our lives, broken relationships, and failures and we resolve ourselves to tackle them with outside solutions. This outside-in mentality dominates modern man’s thinking. Our view is; the problem is out there, so the solution is out there too. But we get confused and disheartened when outside solutions do not solve our deep rooted problems. But God says the solution is inside and that solution is Him. The purpose of life is not to change the world but change ourselves. Internal conquest precedes external conquest.  Problems will always exist as long as the world will exist. We won’t always exist in this world. When we change, our deeds reflect this change. We change by faith. External deeds and works reflect our internal change by faith. We can’t change ourselves, not real change; it is only God that changes us. We can change ourselves superficially by will power, lose weight by going on a diet, improve our communication and interpersonal skills with techniques, learn a new skill and improve our income, give up an addictive bad habit. Most of these changes are temporary and short lived because they are anchored to a weak foundation. But deep change, change in our souls comes through God, not will power alone. It is more then change, we become a new creation, a new being.  This change is anchored to a stronger foundation. The foundation to change is based on a stronger character then we have now, it is a new character in God. When people seek change from outside they get results based on the weakness of the world. The weakness in other people and external circumstances are transferred into us. We become victims and blame others and circumstances for not solving our problems. This is a childish approach to our lives. Superficial level thinking will not solve deep foundational problems we face in life. Only deep, slow thinking, based on faith in God, and principles of good and right conduct, can we solve these issues. It is paradoxical that we solve these issues by solving ourselves. We need a virtue centred character, focused on God and an internal spiritual driven approach to living.

All of a Person's Choices are Bounded by his Philosophy.

Every civilisation has a philosophy. Civilisations are made of people and the thinking man is a philosophic man. A philosophy directs the way of man’s thinking and correspondingly his life. All of a person’s choices are bounded by his philosophy.  Man asks big questions because man seeks big answers. The two biggest questions are; what is reality? And who am I in that reality? Answer those two questions and everything else will follow, as day follows night. We are unique in the universe. No other living thing seeks the big answers. We are self aware of our existence in reality. Man ultimately wants to understand reality and his place in it. He understands that he needs to understand reality because that is where his very existence resides. Modern western civilisation is different from all previous. It is different because it is dangerous. It is dangerous because it has radically changed man’s thinking from slow to fast. Man’s thinking has been changed by technology. The spirit of man has been replaced by the spirit of the machine. In the name of progress everything has been reduced to appearance, technique and process. The new philosophy is based on the idea that “Man can conquer all through technology and scientific know-how”. The focus has changed from reforming man to reforming reality. Man has put aside character, wisdom and discipline in favour of technology and technique. Man has always primarily sought knowledge about himself and his role in existence. This was one of the thinking mind’s ultimate goals. But the modern civilisation extols knowledge of technology over all other knowledge. Man for the first time in history is no longer at the apex of his own thinking. The philosophy of technology says that reality can be reduced to the visible, that which can be deduced and proven by the scientific method. The opposite of this philosophy is that there is something beyond the visible that cannot just be deduced by science. This is the philosophy of supernatural. This philosophy says that there is a God. So modern man is faced with two philosophies of reality. There is no God; therefore anything goes, obey thyself, be the God of nature. Second there is a God; there is objective right and wrong, therefore obey God, be part of nature. But man is not happy with the new philosophy because technology is taking the place of controlling himself. Control thyself has been replaced by obey thyself. His passions and appetites, his pride and ambitions have been unleashed. The thinking mind is getting weaker. It is getting weaker because man has no more self control. The philosophic choice is stark

Personal Virtue can Change the World

If we want to improve our personal lives, our families, our relationships, our communities, the organisations we are members, our work places, our countries we must acquire virtue and live virtuous lives. Nothing, absolutely nothing else changes the world except personal virtue. There is no other mechanism in the human dimension that accomplishes this task. All improvements, changes for the better or good are founded on virtue. Like nature abhors a vacuum, a habit abhors a vacuum in the human character. If we are not filled with good habits we will be filled with bad habits. From ancient times man has identified a number of fundamental qualities that express excellence in his character. They are so foundational as to be called inherent principles or laws in the human dimension.  Knowledge of the four foundational virtues Justice, Wisdom, Courage and Discipline can be found in Greek philosophy, scripture and the thinking minds reasoning.  These four good qualities are foundational, for upon them rests the structure of character effectiveness and excellence. All other virtues are built on these four cornerstones. There is an internal battle between our good habits and our bad habits. The weaker our good habits the stronger our weak habits. Weakness in one area builds strength in the other area and visa versa. All growth in the human dimension is sequential and phased. There is a correct order of stages from weakness to strength, from under development to developed, from start to finish, from foundation to roof, from crawling to walking, from sowing to harvest. All of creation follows a phased, ordered and sequential development process. It is God’s way. It is creation’s way. It is the human dimension’s way. We develop our good habits and character in this way. There are no short cuts. Bad habits are easy and soft; easy to develop and soft to apply. Bad habits are as easy to acquire as water running down a hill. Good habits are tough and hard; tough to develop and hard to apply. Good habits are as tough to acquire as pushing a large boulder up a steep hill.

Virtue and Habits Defined

Virtue can be defined by any number of terms; right living, correct conduct, excellence, effectiveness, goodness, pure and true behaviour, moral excellence, a right and good disposition. Classical thinkers have defined virtue to mean the power to accomplish a specific and purposeful end; a quality, a character trait, a strength, an aspect, a force to produce a certain effect. At a fundamental level virtue is a good habit. Our characters are composed of habits, good and bad, strong and week, soft and hard. Virtues are habits that are good, strong and hard. Habits are a function of judgement (knowing what to do), knowledge (knowing how to do it), desire (wanting to do it) and discipline (control of one self to do it). We are creatures of our habits. Habits give us structure or framework for living like the body for life. Living is complex. Habits are the internalised, routines, operating scripts for handling this complexity. Virtue is a good habit but it is also more. We can gain a clearer understanding of virtue by it’s purpose and effect; the fruit of faith is virtuous works. The many effects of the virtuous life include; the most powerful means to influence others and the world (for virtues speak louder to the world then any other human endowment), finding happiness and being blessed, and living effectiveness. Personal effectiveness follows personal virtue, like day follows the rising dawn sun.  The ultimate purpose of the virtuous life is to be like God because Christ was perfectly virtuous. Being virtuous is man’s response to the stimulus of Faith. Virtue is a gift from God but it is also a responsibility, it must be worked on, cultivated and developed. We are not born with fully formed virtuous characters, but must grow in strength of one. Like an athlete we are born with certain level of capacities and endowments, but also like an athlete we must practice to realise the full potential of these gifts. A man born with the talents to run a 4 minute mile will never accomplish the feat if he lives his life on a sofa watching TV. Talents, endowments and gifts are meaningless if not expressed and developed.

The Call to Discipline

The call to Christianity is the call to discipline. A spiritual life is a disciplined life. All success and happiness in life is directly proportional to the level of discipline applied from within. Discipline is the ability or internal disposition to control oneself and focus our thoughts, words, actions and behaviours towards a desired good end. To have discipline is to have power over one’s mind, emotions, feelings and passions. A lack of discipline is reflected in unbridled appetites and passions having control over us. Discipline is a foundation of strength of character. When we admire heroic people and extraordinary accomplishments and deeds, we are really admiring, maybe without realising it, their discipline. We really recognise and value in their character the power and command they have over themselves. They are not subject or controlled by an undisciplined inner self. Victory over the inner self must precede victory in the outer world. Private victory comes before public victory. The two cannot be separated. It is impossible to have untamed passions inside our selves and direct our actions toward a worthy goal outside of ourselves. Our passions will subvert our actions.  Anything worthwhile accomplished in this world is achieved by applying some level of discipline. The greater the inner discipline, the greater our effect on our lives and the world. We could say we either control or be controlled. Being spiritual is about being in control. Discipline is not about living a stifled or restrictive lifestyle. Discipline develops and refines the lesser you, the lower you, the potential you, into the true you. Discipline is the tool to realise the true you, the true self. The true you is the person you were created to be. Today’s culture completely rejects the philosophy of discipline because it preaches the opposite, the philosophy of instant gratification. We are scripted by today’s focus on the social image to do whatever it takes to feel pleasure and fell good now, whatever the consequences. Society convinces us that the consequences are worth it just for the “no strings attached” instant pleasures and gratification. Take short cuts, take without paying, borrow not save, have it today we pay the consequences tomorrow, wealth without work, pleasure without pain, living together before marriage, the “fruit without the commitment” is the mantra. This philosophy defines love as self love, self pleasure and self focused; the philosophy of discipline defines love as self denial, self sacrifice and other focused.  But the effects of this lack of discipline are evident at all stratums of society; addiction, broken relationships, divorce, aggression, crime, disease, debt, stress, health problems and unhappiness. Man has a thinking mind and free will. He can think, reason, question and pursue a purpose and is free to act towards that end. That is his uniqueness, power and ultimately his greatest responsibility. But to control and direct his thinking mind and will he requires an operating system much the same as a computer. That operating system is discipline.

Fast Thinking

This is the age of thinking too fast. When we think too fast we can only skim across the surface of life. There is no time for depth. We are forced to think fast because modern economics, work, technology, media and culture are in a hurry. They are in a hurry to change, to progress, this is essential to their survival. But thinking fast brings major problems. Thinking fast is shallow thinking. In this era of constant and rapid change, shallow thinking has lead us to the pandemic of modern civilisation; anxiety. It seems that we have become disconnected with ourselves, lost touch with the important, in the name of progress. The individual soul is dying as a relevant factor in relation to contemporary life. Shallow thinking is immature thinking, forever emotionally and spiritually stunted. The manifestations of this immature thinking are endemic in today’s society; violence, drug use, suicide, psychological disorders such as anorexia, neurosis and panic. The solution to fast thinking is discipline.