soulview

The idea of a soul has been a basic building block for most religions. Humanity began by defining the soul as the part of you that made you act. And then a lot of religions began the claim that the soul is what leaves with you from this world onto the next. And in most western religions, the soul is the part of you that gets to enter heaven, hell, or purgatory.

Back in the 20th century, a doctor in 1906, named Dr. Duncan MacDougal, claimed to have measured four different instances where at the moment of death, the patient lost of few ounces. He published his claims in the new york times and began this debate on whether or not the soul had some physical mass.

But, does it even matter if the soul weighs 21 grams? Does this answer what the idea of soul is? No. I don't like to follow the Aristotle definition of a soul. Which basically says, we can not use matter to define that which does not exist. The only way to define existence is through non-existence, which is the same thing as saying that heaven cannot exist without a hell. But at the end of this thoughtstream, I am left with an unanswerable question. The answer is the question.
So, rather than being crazy, I need to see the soul from another perspective. From most eastern religions, the word "soul" is loosely translated as "subtle mind." They saw it as some sort of form of raw material that did not retain any sort of identity. And at the end of an existence, the soul is then returned to the universe and subsequently returns as a new form.

One of the main differences between eastern and western views of soul, is that the western tradition only blessed humans as capable of having a soul, and the eastern perspective viewed that everything in this world had a soul. I personally believe that the western view of soul is sort of naive. I think it falls under the same pattern of thoughts that once thought the sun and stars revolved around us.

However metaphysical this all may sound, there is a practical scientific metaphor to all of this. Physicist's like to call it the Bose-Einstein Condesate, or also known as the God particle. They call it the God particle because it is supposed to be a field that can not be seen, touched, or measured. Which are consequently a lot of the reason why we can not find scientific evidence for a soul either.

Putting all metaphors aside, the simplest definition of a soul can be that which makes us feel something. As esoteric as that may sound, science has been consistently breaking down the world around us into mathematical symbols to tell us why a certain color or shape would make us feel a certain way. Does the length of a electromagnetic ray actually give us a better to reason to believe a feeling? As far as science has evolved till today, there will be many things in this world that will not have a rational proof but will still exist and temper our existences.

Most modern minds try to make us all believe that our emotional nature is an innate deficit that will prevent us from evolving into something better perhaps something closer to perfect. Is it truly that difficult to see our emotional sides as an evolutionary advantage? Has this world not evolved for over five billion years and we still try to throw away a part of ourselves that helped us get here in the first place?

The soul of an object is the part of it that cannot be touched, measured, or even described, it is the part of the object that can only be experienced. As with many ideals in this world; love, hate, jealousy, we can not truly understand the moment without our first feeling of that specific emotion.

Red makes us feel warmer, cozier, more energetic; blue makes us feel colder, more alone, all consistent with its mathematical pattern. A person's soul is that which you feel when you are with him/her. It is something that cannot be described fully. It is one of those things which you need to experience and feel for yourself. Only though experience can we truly begin to understand that which makes our souls.

Which is why I enjoy the translated "subtle mind" to be a more proper reflection of soul. It is the subtle, more detailed, parts of all us which really start to define who we are. If you look closely enough, the reason in why your first impression may exist is due to these subtle aspects of the moment which we typically choose to forget.

Feeling, it is the reason in which we move through this world. Why not use it, to guide us through this world. Some people describe it as intuition, some people describe it as a 6th sense, but whatever this sense may be, it has always been characterized as a "feeling." If we choose to throw away our feelings, we are throwing away the gateway to our subconscious. And typically, a way in which to better understand ourselves.

To truly understand what soul is, we need to try understand the reasons in why we feel certain emotions. The better that you understand yourself, the easier it becomes to see the soul or essence in someone or something else. To see a soul in something we must be able to see and understand the reasons in why we each have one.

definition of love

The definition of love is the point at which you love something or some idea more than you like yourself. There is no absolute modernistic view of this ideal. This is why love is closely associated with being crazy. The reason why people are willing to die for the chance of love, or in reaction to losing it. If you love something, it is saying that you are willing to die for which you love. This is why Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "If you haven't found something you're are wiling to die for, you have not yet lived." The point at which you truly love something is also the point at which you begin to define the value of your own life.

This interpretation of love is just a different perspective of the reality and shadows of love's power. This is why the more you respect a person, the greater feeling of love is felt. This is why love from family, friends, mentors, idols, feels so much greater than love from someone in which you have no respect for.

The classic rage of a jealous lover: for example, can be more clearly seen in this perspective. Truly saying that you are in love with someone, is also saying that you are willing to die for this person because it is also saying that you like that person more than you like yourself. This is why it will always be difficult to say those three words. The classic rage of a jealous lover will than more likely allow circumstances and reality of the moment to include death. The reaction of some people losing that instance of love will make them more prone to killing themselves or the other person because the value of "love" is more than the value of their own life.

The karma of love makes it justly more capable of producing moments that breed life, but as with all things, love will balance itself out allowing the removal of life. It is the same justification that people use for the nuclear bomb. With the ability to destroy more life, its ability to promote peace is also enhanced.

But the true allure of love lies in its ability to give meaning to a life. Because all people are in the pursuit of a continual state of happiness, the key perspective in attaining that state of happiness is the ability to give meaning to your own life. An old greek philosopher once said, "the value of a man's life is the amount of love his friends have for him." So then love also has the power to define a life, to give it happiness, and to give it meaning. This is why Johanne Von Goethe once said, "That we are shaped and molded by what we love."

But eternally as a pessimist, I must ask, "how do we know what true love is? Is it love even if it is justified by a lie?"

"Yet they out at the same time to have accounted for error also: for it is more intimately connected with animal existence and the soul continues longer in the state of error." Aristotle, On the Soul.

"All human life is sunk deep in untruth." Friederish Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human.

Does the lie really matter if you are able to feel that notion of love? Does the rationale for the artist make the emotion produced in reaction to the art any less real? And with all time, if anyone says, "I love you," it does not necessarily make it true yesterday or tomorrow. The point of love is not why you love, but only that you are capable of it. This is a key aspect of being human.

nepalese cab driver

Interesting story: I get into a cab to go home last night and I meet the first nepalese cab driver I have ever seen in this world. We started talking and I find out that he's been in this country for three years. He tells me that he works a full time job during the week but decided to take the day off because it was so nice out. And I asked, how he could be taking his day off if he is driving me home. He explains that driving a cab in boston is his second job because he needs to support his kids. However, he did also explain that driving a cab around boston during the day is just a nice way of getting out and enjoying himself.

With his day off, he decides to drive a cab for twelve hours but realistically he has to pay for his own gas, a sixty dollar fee to his cab company, with few people taking cabs on wednesdays. So by the end of the night he ends up only making fifty dollars. 50 dollars / 12 hours = 4.166 dollars an hr. He made me feel like an ungrateful bastard. It turns out that I was.

We start talking about asian immigrants and about how hard it is for some people to adapt to america. He says that they always forget how to enjoy themselves. He says if he sees a beautiful women, he will tell her that she is a beautiful women. He asks what is the harm in the telling the truth. If he is only making 4 dollars an hour, he might as well enjoy himself. He says that in this country, a man can work as hard as he needs to become successful. He says at home this is not possible, but people who live in this country will always take this freedom for granted.

We talk about how enjoying yourself in this country or your last may be different, but you have to find out how to make yourself happy. Since the actual feeling of happiness is the same in this country as it is in your childhood. You need to adapt and that is what most people forget how to do.

He just reminded me. Happiness is not an emotion, it is a perspective to the moment. And whose perspective is right? An ungrateful ivy league grad bored of his nine am reality or, an immigrant nepalese man driving a cab on his day off? To him, he found a wife, a Tibetian girl, whose father helped them immigrate into this country. To him, he has already won his lottery, but he does wonder why other people can't see that they've won this lottery as well.

Some days it feels as though I'm drifting through purgatory, and last night made me wake up, if only for a moment. Is either perspective more justified? Is either thought process less rational? No. they are the same, but it does feel better to smile.

stems vs pandora

This entire issue about stem cells is not that different than any other technological advancement. This issue is only going to press further with the death of Ronald Reagan with a legacy pushed through the eyes and words of Nancy Reagan. It's pretty amazing that this debate about life is currently making its inroads through 2 first ladies.

Ex-first lady, Mrs. Reagan, lost the love of her life and was forced to watch Alzheimer's take the "great communicator's" spirit away before taking away his physical self. Current first lady, Mrs. Bush, has also lost a loved one, her father, to this debilitating condition of Alzheimer's, but she believes the moral obligations of the church and her faith make stem cell research a "sin." But this assumption is based on what she knows the requirements for life are.

However, the Bush administration is being battered by the scientific community. The Union of Concerned Scientists, comprised of 60 scientists and 20 Nobel laureates, has issued a 37 page paper saying that the Bush administration has no respect for science. So the question comes down to... is this entire stem cell issue more moral or more scientific?

The way that I look at this issue.. is no different than the nuclear bomb. If the US did not invent it during the Manhattan project during WWII, somebody else would have. And on this thoughtstream, the fission technology is similar to stem cell debate which is another way of saying Pandora's box.

Do you want the technology and all of the moral obligations to this answer created here or created there. The US is not that an omnipotent powerhouse that can prevent other people from pursuing this idea. That has already been illustrated by the Korean scientist who is much closer to creating human clones then anyone here.

If the US does not pursue this.. we will just be further behind the rest of the world, there is already a brain drain of stem cell scientists leaving this country for places such as Britain and Singapore b/c they believe that this will help people supported by there respective governments.

The naive view of this.. is that we have the power to control when and where we will open this Pandora's box. The realistic view is that the box has already been opened. Do you, we, choose to accept its opening.. or do we keep living in this blissful state of ignorance that is not going to last? Pain now or Pain later?

And the truth of it all.. is it possible w/ stem cell's to create a society of Hitlers? yes.. Is it possible that society creates a storage area of half bodies meant for organ development? yes.. Is it possible that stem cells can cure Alzheimer's, Diabetes, Paralysis, Parkinson's, Arthritis? yes.. But this is the same concept as every person's own greatest strength is equally there greatest weakness. It is the same idea that people can only be as happy as they are sad. And with all things.. with greater power comes greater responsibility, but do not tell me that you can stop the world from evolving.. And that is what Bush is trying to say to me with his policies.

In the original story of Pandora. Jupiter had crammed all the diseases, sorrow, vices, and crimes that aflict poor humanity into this one box. Pandora devestated by her own curiosity opened the box and introduced pain and anger into the world. However a part of this story that few realize is that Pandora opened the box a second time. And as an act of compassion by the gods, they hid one good spirit within all of the evil released into the world. The second time that Pandora opened the box, she released Hope into the world.

And according to the story, "evil entered into the world bringing untold misery; but Hope followed closely in its footsteps, to aid struggling humanity, and point to a happier future."

Who do we want Pandora to be? Do we rather have Mrs. Reagan or Mrs. Bush? The box has already been opened once. And I think as a society in general, we need to open the stem cell box again. We need to re-introduce hope into this world and that is why I support stem cell research.