Tag: Philosophy

The Power of Choice

“We are disturbed not by things, but by the views which we take of things.” ~ Epictetus

An old Cherokee chief is teaching his grandchild about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the child. “It is a fight between two wolves. One is evil—it is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

He continued, “The other is good—it is joy, peace, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and loving awareness. The same fight is going on inside you—and inside every other person in the world.”

The grandchild thought about it for a minute and then asked the grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

To which the old man simply replied, “The one you feed.”

The Cherokee parable and Epictetus’ teaching serve as a reminder that our inner world is shaped by choice, not chance. The two wolves represent real emotions, impulses, and habits that show up in our lives. We don’t choose whether these feelings exist; we only choose which ones we nurture.

Our reactions are often more influential than the events themselves. And this is essential, because what bothers us isn’t simply what happens, but the meaning we give those moments. And more often than not, that meaning is important because of the nature of our work or our lives, as well as our lived experiences and shared expectations. Often, this stirs up the wolf of anger, frustration, and resentment. But instead of feeding into those feelings, it’s much more helpful to see the difficult moments as opportunities to grow and to nourish the wolf of resilience, empathy, and compassion.

Remember that character is built choice by choice. Feeding the “good wolf” isn’t about being perfect—it’s about returning to the values we want to embody again and again. It’s about noticing when negativity pulls at us and gently choosing a different response. And over time, those small decisions shape who we become.

Ultimately, the power of choice comes down to this: we can’t always control our circumstances, but we can always decide which inner voice we allow to guide us. And sometimes it’s probably easier and feels better to let the evil voice reign and triumph. I always picture the angel and the devil on the shoulders – listening to the better angel of our nature is the way to go!

Consciousness and the Nature of Reality

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” – Albert Einstein.

I’ve been thinking and wanting to write about Consciousness for some time now – what is it, where does it come from, and how does it shape our reality, if at all? Few questions are as mysterious or fascinating. Scientists, philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual traditions all describe it in different ways. Are our thoughts, feelings, emotions, awareness, and sense of self created entirely within our brains? Or is the brain more like a receiver that “tunes into” a consciousness that exists outside the body? One aspect of this puzzle that most agree on is that objective reality exists independent of our subjective experiences, which are dependent on our minds.

So, what is consciousness? Researchers describe it in several layers. There’s phenomenal consciousness, which is our raw subjective experience through the five senses – what it feels like to see color or taste food. There’s access consciousness, which refers to the parts of experience that we can reflect on, describe, and use in decision-making by focusing on cognitive utility. There’s self-awareness, which is the sense of being “me.” Last but not least, there are the unconscious and subconscious layers – deeper layers of the human mind beneath conscious awareness – such as memories, urges, muscle memory, and automatic responses that constantly influence behavior. These varied definitions highlight the complexity of consciousness that is deeply tied to the brain, yet not fully explained by biological processes alone.

The strongest evidence for biological processes is that physical damage to the brain and chemical substances can alter consciousness. For instance, prefrontal cortex injuries can alter personality and decision-making. LSD and other drugs can induce psychological effects that alter perception, mood, and thought. There are also instances where, after someone suffers a brain injury, they can do amazing things that they couldn’t before – music, math, languages. In a way, they were able to access other dimensions of consciousness because of the result of physical injury, which precisely changes experience. Moreover, modern tools like the EEG and fMRI observe neural activity patterns that correspond to thoughts, perceptions, and emotions. In some cases, intentions can even sometimes be predicted milliseconds before a person becomes aware of them. Finally, we have all heard stories of near-death and out-of-body experiences in which the person sees a tunnel, bright light, euphoria, and a sense of separation, which could be explained by hypoxia, surges of brain activity, and REM intrusion, like sleep paralysis. However, science still cannot fully account for experiences in which someone who’s supposedly under anesthesia and not actively conscious could describe in accurate detail what happened while they were under. This leads to the possibility of the non-local model that views consciousness as fundamental, with different dimensions that our minds could theoretically access and perhaps tap into, like a collective consciousness.

In Dan Brown’s new novel, “The Secret of Secrets,” he introduces the field of Noetic science, which posits that our brain is like a receiver that can tune to different dimensions of consciousness, similar to how our eyes can only see, process, and interpret a limited part of the electromagnetic spectrum. This theory could account for the geniuses of human beings like Newton and Einstein – they were somehow able to access and see those other dimensions that are fundamental and universal. Another notable perspective is that throughout history, meditation traditions such as those from Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, and Vedanta, among others, describe consciousness as almost a pure capacity of awareness – independent of thoughts, emotions, and sensory input. People who practice yoga, prayer, and spiritual traditions will tell you that they are able to attain a higher level of clarity in consciousness and can create a sense of connection to others, the universe, or even a divine deity. Whether or not God exists, people’s spiritual experience contributes to a richer sense of conscious awareness.

So, where does this leave us? While some models see consciousness as created by our brain, others see it as something our brain filters. What we can agree on is that consciousness is still a central mystery and probably more complex than any model can explain, but it is something to explore through both scientific and introspective methods.

“The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.” – Lao Tzu.

The Farmer and the Horse

Recently, I had to give a reflection before a regular meeting. As I prepared for it, I came across a parable that was not only connected to what I had been thinking about but also relevant to my work as a Resident Faculty. The parable is called “The Farmer and the Horse.”

There was a farmer in a small village with a single horse who helped him earn a living for his family. The other villagers constantly told the farmer how lucky he was to have such a great horse.

“Maybe,” he would reply.

One day, the horse ran away. The villagers came to the farmer to express their sympathies.

“Your horse ran away. How unfortunate!” the villagers exclaimed.

“Maybe,” the farmer replied.

A few days later, the horse returned home with ten strong wild horses in tow.

“What good fortune. What incredible luck!” the villagers crowed.

“Maybe,” the farmer again replied.

The following week, the farmer’s son was riding on one of the wild horses in the fields, when it kicked him off and broke his leg. The villagers arrived to express their dismay.

“What dismal luck,” they said.

“Maybe,” the farmer replied.

The next month, a military officer marched into the village, recruiting able-bodied young men for the war. The farmer’s son, with his broken leg, was left behind.

The villagers were joyful. “Your son has been spared, what beautiful luck!”

The farmer simply smiled, “Maybe.”

In my work with high school teenagers, one of the most important things that I’ve learned and have tried to do is to avoid judgment. It is human nature to judge because we compare what we see or observe to our lived experiences. That’s how we make sense of the world. In our conversations, it’s difficult but essential to separate the narrative from the facts. In the story, The villagers decide at every instance whether what happened was good or bad. The farmer, however, accepts the reality as it is and allows the space for the events to unfold, to exist, to just be. As Steve Jobs said in his Stanford commencement address, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”

When a student makes a mistake or comes to us with a problem, sometimes it’s easy to think, “Oh, that’s dumb” or “Come on, there are simple solutions” or “Why didn’t you think about the consequences?” These judgments come to mind because as adults, we “know better.” But more often than not, we probably made the same mistake and had the same problem and there was probably an adult that thought the same about us when we were younger.

So, instead of making judgments about whatever situation students encounter or bring up, be empathetic and understanding, recognize their thoughts and feelings, acknowledge their emotions, and help them to the best of your ability. This applies to everyday life as well and is part of practicing mindfulness for ourselves because sometimes, we are our own harshest critics.

There’s no gene for fate…

Or is there? That was one of the memorable quotes in the movie Gattaca that I loved (and still do). It was one of many that kept me on my toes.

Anywho, the reason I bring up that quote is because of this article. Basically, a Bio-Computer has been created and tested inside a living cell which allows the manipulation of molecules. Engineered RNA (Ribonucleic acid, different from DNA, RNA is single-stranded) Bio-Computer can ultimately be “commanded” to change genes. Read the article for details.

The thought of altering genes took me right back to the movie. Genetically engineered human beings (eventually). This brings up controversial issues like stem-cell research and human ethics (mostly). The thought of having the power to play God is scary because admit it, ambitions drive us to the edge sometimes, and people make bad choices. The ones who have power want more power. This desire is our most basic human instinct. It gave us the development of new technologies, it gave us new knowledge of our world, it took us to the Moon (There’s no conspiracy here people, we did go to the moon), it gave us so many of the conveniences we enjoy every day without even thinking about it.

Nature vs Nurture is also another issue that consists of so many variables that it’s simply impossible to determine a trait. When we think about it, altering genes is really against nature, it doesn’t occur naturally. We manipulate and ultimately control it. I’m sure we’ve all seen it in TV shows and movies: aliens, robots, robots that are biologically based, AI, etc. I mean, sure, it’s fictional, but it can happen given this exponential growth of scientific knowledge and advances.

In the end, how do we determine the limits of these advances? What’s good? What’s evil? Yes, these are all philosophical questions and there’s no definite answer, these are all clichés, important, nonetheless. So, if you can alter a gene for fate, would you do it?

Cheers for a headache!

Mind over matter

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy – commonly known as ‘broken heart syndrome’ is a weakening of the heart muscle due to severe emotional stress. Our mind controls everything and our brain gives off magnitudes of electromagnetic waves triggered by the constant firing of neurons. All these signals are received and interpreted by the brain and the appropriate response occurs, from blinking our eyes to breathing to playing sports. I’m sure everyone knows this. What intrigues me is not the physical aspect of our body but the mental aspect. The physical can be seen, has been proven and there are certain natural laws and rules to it. The mental or emotional, however, does not follow any kind of rules.

True, there are studies and statistics but these only apply to that set of subjects and should not be used to generalize and make the same assumptions on others. Two patients have the same sickness, one has a reason to live, and the other does not. Both are given the same treatment, but more than likely, the one who doesn’t want to live will die. We’ve seen and heard about these instances from news to TV shows to our friends. Ultimately, it comes down to a person’s will to live, to survive, to persevere. Hence, ‘Mind over matter’.

Science is based on theories proven by evidence over and over. Whether we choose to believe it or not, everything is made out of atoms, The Moon rotates around the Earth, the Earth rotates around the Sun, and everything that we feel or think are chemical reactions within our cells tissues, and veins. Many people would beg to differ. Many people want to believe that there is something more, something more than just plain old scientific facts. Einstein said it best: “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

I read this book a few years ago titled The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into our Genes by Dean H. Hamer. It was very interesting because Hamer hypothesized that religion and faith have a genetic component to it which we human beings inherit from our predecessors. Faith is a tricky concept that has different meanings to different people. Some put their faith in the government (insert sarcasm here), some in science, some in themselves, but others put their faith in ‘God’. I put that in quotation marks because I don’t believe there’s some sort of supreme being out there guiding us (no offense), but what I do believe is that this ‘God’ is more of an abstract concept that’s universal even though it’s interpreted differently in every religion (Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, etc). It represents an idea; it gives people hope; it lends us an invisible shoulder to lean on if you may, and believe me, many of us need that comfort.

So, after all that, what’s the point? I mean, there’s probably an answer out there but it will most likely be something that’s beyond our capacity of understanding. In the end, the only thing we do know is to believe in whatever we choose to believe and stick with it. Despite the myriad amount of clichés, there are of what I’m about to say, I’m still gonna say it: Just be yourself and everything will fall into place.

Good day.