Shifting Paradigms
Since the first day of the second term I’ve been thinking about the convictions and ideologies each of us has, which somehow are influenced by our experiences, discoveries or our environment. However, shifting paradigms is what keeps popping in my mind. I’m intrigued on how every single human being sees the world differently, how can we do that? And even more difficult, how can we strive to see the world from a different perspective? I think understanding and connecting is the essence to shift our preconceptions. I’m constantly overwhelmed on how our wonder, surprise and curiosity play a very important role in creating meaning. I truly believe that each of us has the power to create or find meaning in something. The complexity of this arises when I realize that we all have different perspectives and by consequence different meanings. I think that having the ability to understand different and many perspectives is one of the miracles of our nature. Nevertheless, many people don’t understand different perspectives because they think they have the one and only truth.
We may have many miracles in our nature but not all humans are open to experience them. An interesting and dangerous thing in our nature is the aim to be right. Of course, it’s important to mention that some enlightened human beings understand that they won’t always be right. Anyways, I wonder why a lot of governments or groups of people kill others to shut them down. Why does our nature can’t engage on a dialogue or try to understand another human being? What’s the reason for the lack of respect towards other lives? I think that life is a miracle and it should be respected, forever and always. Our existence is a mystery and maybe it will always be. Where do we come from? Why are we here? What’s the reason and purpose of our existence in this world? Is there any truth out there? Are we ready to grasp it? Are we prepared to understand it?
Maybe there are many truths and they are all connected but we are blind to see its unity. We are blind because we don’t want to see it; it’s up to us to see it or not. It’s all about openness and trying to understand different perspectives. It stroke me the fact that the people who were prisoners in Atacama found freedom in the stars, the meaning they created was deeper than we could ever imagine. How do we give meaning to something? Why? Why does a red rose stand for love or passion? There was a question very interesting on the meta-dialogue from last week: Do we create meaning or do we find meaning? I believe we do both, I think they are recursive and reciprocal. Meaning can be discovered or imposed. In religion for instance, since children we are exposed to certain beliefs that we didn’t discover. Our innocence takes those beliefs as truth, and it reminds me of the several wars that the Christians and the Muslims had or the World War II, and many other tragedies that had its foundations on different meanings. I keep repeating to myself that meaning is very important because it creates our concepts, which creates our paradigms, which sometimes creates intolerance, which may even produce a war.
Our thirst to know our purpose on this earth fascinates me. It seems to me that we all have this “software” to question the reason of our existence. How many philosophies do we have? How many thinkers? How many inquirers? Even the people that don’t question themselves follow certain religion to find truth and purpose. We all have this thirst of wonder and questioning, no matter what we’re going through, we’ll keep on observing and having insights…even if we don’t share them with anyone else. An interesting fact is that we are constantly experiencing the world in many ways, in different eras. I dare to say that each day a human being discovers or creates something. What does that mean? In my opinion, it means that we have always strived for more and we have always connected previous knowledge to present experiences. It comes to my mind for instance the person who invented the radio needed certain “invented things” to make the radio work. By this example I mean, that we are constantly building on others ideas. And I consider that as another miracle of our nature: connecting. I must say that maybe the ability to connect is one of the hardest things to do, not everyone sees the big picture they rather specialize in something.
Does specialization shuts down the inquiry to know about the whole picture? I think it narrows the view you have about the world and it constricts your connections. It’s wonderful to know a lot about something but it is more wonderful to know about everything and finding unity in knowledge. However, it leads you to discover specific branches and specific knowledge that you wouldn’t have discovered. One way or another, the important thing is to shift paradigms and really try to understand how another person came to a different reasoning than us. How does his/her mind worked to create that conclusion? How does the past experiences, knowledge and background influenced the way of thinking of that person? For example, Ayn Rand who experienced communism at an early age and was witness of all the injustices the Soviet Union made. Her philosophy is the opposite of communism, she thinks that communism or living for others is the root of all evils. How does your background story change your perspective of the world, of your life? How can we manage to understand that we all have different stories and experiences behind us?
All of these insights lead me to a crazy question, is truth infinite? Is truth eternal? Infinite means it never ends and eternal means outside of our time; it can’t be measured. It’s just unimaginable to count or see all the truths that are out there. Who created truth? And, if it has a creator…who is it? Or are we the creators of truth? Do we create it by giving meaning or by finding meaning in things? Is truth going to end if human beings seize? Would it remain in nature? We can ask an infinite amount of questions trying to answer our origin.
We may have many miracles in our nature but not all humans are open to experience them. An interesting and dangerous thing in our nature is the aim to be right. Of course, it’s important to mention that some enlightened human beings understand that they won’t always be right. Anyways, I wonder why a lot of governments or groups of people kill others to shut them down. Why does our nature can’t engage on a dialogue or try to understand another human being? What’s the reason for the lack of respect towards other lives? I think that life is a miracle and it should be respected, forever and always. Our existence is a mystery and maybe it will always be. Where do we come from? Why are we here? What’s the reason and purpose of our existence in this world? Is there any truth out there? Are we ready to grasp it? Are we prepared to understand it?
Maybe there are many truths and they are all connected but we are blind to see its unity. We are blind because we don’t want to see it; it’s up to us to see it or not. It’s all about openness and trying to understand different perspectives. It stroke me the fact that the people who were prisoners in Atacama found freedom in the stars, the meaning they created was deeper than we could ever imagine. How do we give meaning to something? Why? Why does a red rose stand for love or passion? There was a question very interesting on the meta-dialogue from last week: Do we create meaning or do we find meaning? I believe we do both, I think they are recursive and reciprocal. Meaning can be discovered or imposed. In religion for instance, since children we are exposed to certain beliefs that we didn’t discover. Our innocence takes those beliefs as truth, and it reminds me of the several wars that the Christians and the Muslims had or the World War II, and many other tragedies that had its foundations on different meanings. I keep repeating to myself that meaning is very important because it creates our concepts, which creates our paradigms, which sometimes creates intolerance, which may even produce a war.
Our thirst to know our purpose on this earth fascinates me. It seems to me that we all have this “software” to question the reason of our existence. How many philosophies do we have? How many thinkers? How many inquirers? Even the people that don’t question themselves follow certain religion to find truth and purpose. We all have this thirst of wonder and questioning, no matter what we’re going through, we’ll keep on observing and having insights…even if we don’t share them with anyone else. An interesting fact is that we are constantly experiencing the world in many ways, in different eras. I dare to say that each day a human being discovers or creates something. What does that mean? In my opinion, it means that we have always strived for more and we have always connected previous knowledge to present experiences. It comes to my mind for instance the person who invented the radio needed certain “invented things” to make the radio work. By this example I mean, that we are constantly building on others ideas. And I consider that as another miracle of our nature: connecting. I must say that maybe the ability to connect is one of the hardest things to do, not everyone sees the big picture they rather specialize in something.
Does specialization shuts down the inquiry to know about the whole picture? I think it narrows the view you have about the world and it constricts your connections. It’s wonderful to know a lot about something but it is more wonderful to know about everything and finding unity in knowledge. However, it leads you to discover specific branches and specific knowledge that you wouldn’t have discovered. One way or another, the important thing is to shift paradigms and really try to understand how another person came to a different reasoning than us. How does his/her mind worked to create that conclusion? How does the past experiences, knowledge and background influenced the way of thinking of that person? For example, Ayn Rand who experienced communism at an early age and was witness of all the injustices the Soviet Union made. Her philosophy is the opposite of communism, she thinks that communism or living for others is the root of all evils. How does your background story change your perspective of the world, of your life? How can we manage to understand that we all have different stories and experiences behind us?
All of these insights lead me to a crazy question, is truth infinite? Is truth eternal? Infinite means it never ends and eternal means outside of our time; it can’t be measured. It’s just unimaginable to count or see all the truths that are out there. Who created truth? And, if it has a creator…who is it? Or are we the creators of truth? Do we create it by giving meaning or by finding meaning in things? Is truth going to end if human beings seize? Would it remain in nature? We can ask an infinite amount of questions trying to answer our origin.