Action is something that is original and it is a production from nothing. Reaction is a copy of the original. Action is original because only God can Act. All the actions of God are independent of everything. Examples of God’s action would be “God created the world. He created all the living being in the universe.” All these are actions as they are created originally and from nothing. All the actions (so called) of human beings are only reactions as they proceed from what already exists. One example of human reaction can be ‘speaking’. It is a reaction in the sense that I did not create my mouth to serve the purpose of speaking. It is given. But then, Can our reactions become actions? It is never. But if it so happens, we pretend to be God and do His work. Let us be reactors and not actors. Sunday, February 6, 2011
Philosophy Behind Action-Reaction
Action is something that is original and it is a production from nothing. Reaction is a copy of the original. Action is original because only God can Act. All the actions of God are independent of everything. Examples of God’s action would be “God created the world. He created all the living being in the universe.” All these are actions as they are created originally and from nothing. All the actions (so called) of human beings are only reactions as they proceed from what already exists. One example of human reaction can be ‘speaking’. It is a reaction in the sense that I did not create my mouth to serve the purpose of speaking. It is given. But then, Can our reactions become actions? It is never. But if it so happens, we pretend to be God and do His work. Let us be reactors and not actors. 
Thought- The Dictator
“I become what I think.” Is it true?Yes, it is. Human being is the production of thoughts. I am what I am at the moment because of the thought I think. I will never become what I don’t think to be. I may not be aware that I am acting according to my thought but it is actually thought that is making me behave such and such a way. The thought dictates my way of living. None of us claim to be out of thought just not even for a moment. It is in thought I create, mould, shape and manufacture my self. The moment I stop thinking, I don’t exist in my fullness. Human being is not only the production of thoughts but also producer of thoughts. I produce thoughts and in turn I become victim of my thoughts. Let us think thoughts that make our lives better and better.
Why Go to Jesus?
Not because He is the Son of God, but because He made us sons of God
Not because He died on the Cross, but He made our life with less of Cross
Not because He is Lord, but because He is our Brother
Not because we Love him, but because He loves us
Not because we Love him, but because He loves us
Not because He saved our lives, but because He sacrificed his life for us
Not because He showed the way to God, but because He became the Way to God
Not because we have sinned, but because He resurrects us from every sin
Not because He underwent passion, but because He showed Compassion without limit
Not because he healed, but because He is the heart-robber of Countless people
Not because He preached, but because He practiced in life what he preached
Not because He was the Saviour, but because He is Life-Giver
Thursday, February 3, 2011
COMMUNICATION AS THE HORIZON OF MEANING AND AUTHENTICITY
I start with the summary of the book that I read in my philosophy days, “The Third Wave” written by Alvin Toffler. In this Masterpiece of literature, he enumerates the three waves that the world has time-honored from the birth of human life. The ancient world was dominated by the agricultural wave, the medieval world was conquered by the industrial wave and the present modern world is in the age of digital wave. When I sat down to write an article on communication, the wave that struck me was digital wave.
The digital wave is characterized by ever changing technology, rapid industrialization and resultant shrinking of the globe by the emergence of information societies. Innovative technologies such as the medium wave transmission, colour television systems, undersea communication cable links, satellite communication, semi-conductors, digital electronics, computers, telephones, laser, and optical fibers have revolutionized and furthered the process of communication. Before moving further, let us understand the word communication
Understanding ‘Communication’
Communication is derived from two Latin words communicare (Share) and communis (Common Horizon). First communication implies a coming together to share the common horizon. It is in common horizon, both, the sender and receiver communicate to become meaning making animals. Human beings realize the need to touch the horizon of the other. This is a constant and continual journey of awareness. In this journey, Communication becomes a path in discovering the new horizon of the other. Most of the life experiences are constructed in communication with other life experiences, which arise out of common life.[1]
Human being is thrown into the world of freedom, to make his/her own choices, to discover a new horizon, which makes his/her life authentic. The supreme dharma of Human Being is to embrace, ever-new horizons of relationship and understanding, for the fulfillment of the self. Discovering the new horizon is very much constructed in and around language, because human being will know the horizon of the other, as much as he/she is acquainted, with language of the other. Thus, the human self is fulfilled, in language. Wittgenstein steps in here affirming, that limit of Communication (language (that human being understands) means the limit of human being’s world.[2] That is why Chomsky is right in saying, that communication is a reality, which is specifically designed for the process of relationship between the person and the other.[3] It is a conscious and a continuous process in human life.
Why of Communication
The world of today runs on communication and therefore, doing the acts, speaking the words and even remaining in silence is all communication. Therefore, nothing can escape the realm of communication. Thus, it is an important fact of human life. Therefore, human beings need communication more than communication need human being does. Communication is necessary because of three reasons:
· To Know: Every being in the world is knowable, conceptualized, framed, captured, thought and judged in communication. Human being by his/her nature desires to know.[4] Knowledge is continuously ongoing process. Communication is an aid in acquiring knowledge and imparting knowledge. Human knowledge cannot function without communication and it is wrapped up in the realm of language. Knowledge is within the language. Knowledge as such is acquired, that bursts forth from language and has its roots deep in language. The ancient Indian linguist Barthrhari proclaims, that all knowledge is illumined through language and there is no such thing as knowledge without language says Gadamer.[5] Without communication, human knowledge could not be propagated. Without a relationship of communication between subjects that know, with reference to a knowable world, the act of knowing would disappear.
· To Become: Communication is the foundation on which human being, lays the project of the self towards transformation. In this present world, communication speaks human being than the humans speak communication.[6] Communication as the primary purpose of human being develops a sakti of changing life and the rest of reality within the human reach. It transforms, moulds, creates and destroys human being’s use or abuse of it. A good word communicated remains as an agent of transformation and it is a source of healing the spoilt self. Though communication cannot fully express dharma, without communication dharma cannot be conveyed.[7] For example, human being knows that there are laws to be followed to live in the society in peace and harmony. One simple law is human being has no right to take the life of the other human being. He/she knows it because it is put in language. Unless law is in language, it can never be communicated.
· To Integrate: Communication with its power creates an attitude of integration rather than adaptation. It becomes integration when human being is able to root in his own horizon and at the same time, make, his own the horizon of others. It is in this fashion that aliens become non-aliens, strangers become fellowmen, and foreigners become one’s own people.
Purpose and Meaning of Communication
In the entire universe, there are many living beings like animals, plants, insects and many other beings. They just exist without a sense of purpose in life. On the other hand, human being exists and makes every choice purposefully and consciously to become authentic in life. It is because human being has the capacity for communication.[8] No human being is without it. Human life can be built, created and achieved authentically only on his/her thirst for relationship and understanding within the boundaries of language. Thus, the world of human being is a world of communication. Communication is always accompanied by dialogue and hence it implies reciprocity that is as something that learns and as something that communicates.[9] It is more apt to say that communication is not speaking but doing. The person longing to be a human being defines meaning of life, which in turn is the basis for the authentic living.
Communication Builds Authentic Relationship with the Self and Other
In this part of the article, I shall explain the core of language in relation to human being in acquiring and building relationship with oneself and the other. Human beings become participants in communication to acquire knowledge, as language constitutes a network of relationships.[10] Relationship means what a person is to the other and what is other to a person. Language prepares the ground for human being to relate with and understand realities, which in turn fit into and make humans to interpret in the given situation. In the absence of understanding, communication becomes ambiguous. Human behaviour is continuously spurred, molded and constrained by information and communication both internally by socialization, perception and cognition and externally through human interaction, social structures and emerging technologies. Human world would not exist if it were not a world that is able to communicate. Just as there are no isolated human beings, there cannot be isolation in thinking.
Human Being exists in the world. The existence, in the world is all about relationship. Human communication with other is a channel for self-realization, the relation to others only an instrument for that relation to oneself.[11] The Contact with the other discloses the identity of oneself. From the beginning of human life, the human life is designed for/with the other. In other words to exist is to co-exist as it is the fundamental fact of human existence. As long as he/she exists, he/she longs to relate with the world in which he/she lives, with the Absolute the cause of his/her existence and with the person with whom he/she lives. In other words, it is the consciousness of/about the other. This capacity and longingness to enter into relationship distinguishes human beings and serves as a motivating force in life.[12] In other words, it is in communication that human being is revealed to him along with the other. As the vehicle of this appeal, it is indispensable to meaning and authenticity.
Communication Creates Authentic Understanding
Understanding is, as I see a reproduction that makes human beings productive, in their approach towards holistic view of reality. It is not just a mode of human behavior but it is his/her basic ability to live and cope skillfully with the world. It is grasping the entire mode and essence of being in the world.[13] Hence, it requires projection of possibilities that occur within the territory of communication.[14]The fundamentality of Human existence, in the world is that human understands his/her self, and every reality. All human beings by their very nature seek to understand realities making communication a catalyst.[15] All understanding proceeds from a pre-understanding. Communication is a process of reaching understanding. Language has such nature, that it offers itself totally to be understood. Thus, every understanding process is grounded in the language,[16] and hence being that can be understood is language as Heidegger affirms language as the house of being.[17] It is also equally important that very much of human understanding is shaped by the tradition and the context in which they live, move and have his/her being. When language is understood taken as removing the veil, of human ignorance and reveals the knowledge of reality.[18]
Understanding is an event that happens in the world. When the communication between people is understood, creates for him/her a world illuminated by communication.[19] Every being in the world presents itself in communication. As he/she is able to understand reality, he/she is able to consider reality, as it is in as much as it is, to interpret it to the context.[20] Understanding is not just an assertion, for the sake of assertion, but it is being changed into a state of life in which human beings do not remain as he/she was but becomes a new being through understanding. When he/she possesses the understandability, has the capacity to interpret the reality and being in the state of interpretability.
Meaning and Authenticity Emerge In and Through Communication
Among all the living beings, the existence of human being is unique. Uniqueness is an essential good of human being that is given to him/her to unfold the realities through his/her actions. His/her uniqueness allows him/her to encounter the other differently. Not only the human being encounters the world differently but also every event in life is encountered differently. The mere fact, that human being is in the world is an indication that human being quests for something primordial in his/her existence and life. This quest in common is to thirst for authenticity. All human beings are in the process of authentication. The process of authentication is complete in and with the other. The other is a facticity, that cannot be denied and turned away from, but only can be lived with. Living with the other, as far as is concerned, comprises assortment of events. Every event in the life of human being occurs within the territory of communication. Therefore, there is a continuous interaction between human being and the other. Every event happening in the life of human being reveals the degree of meaning and authenticity in every human being. Thus, communication between the individuals becomes the scale to measure the meaning and authenticity in the life and existence of human being.
[2] Wittgenstein Ludwig, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, trans. D.F Pears, and B.F. McGuiness (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963) 115.
[4] William F. Lawhead
[5] Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method (London: Sheed and Ward, 1981), 368.
[6] Gunter Figal, “The Doing of the Thing in Itself: Gadamer’s Hermeneutic Ontology of Language,” Cambridge Companion to Gadamer, ed. Robert J Dostal, (Cambridge
[7] Yorgu Wang, “Liberating One Self from the Absolutized Boundary of Language,” Philosophy East and West, 51 (January 2001) 88.
[10] Dan Stiver
[12] Laurence J. Silberstein , Martin Buber’s Social and Religious Thought (New York: New York University press, 1990) 131.
[13] David Couzens Hoy, “Heidegger and the Hermeneutic Turn,” The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger, ed. Charles B.Guignon (Cambridge : Cambridge University
[14] John Thompson, Critical Hermeneutics: A Study in the Thought of Paul Ricouer and Jurgen Habermas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981) 40-41.
[15] David Vessey, “The Role of Language in Object Transcendence,” Philosophy Today 51 (2007) 65.
[16] Jean Gordin, “Gadamer’s Understanding of Understanding,” Cambridge Companion to Gadamer, ed. Robert J. Dostal, (Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 2002) 41.
[17] Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method (London: Sheed and Ward, 1981), 432.
[18] Harold Coward, “Language as Revelation,” Indian Philosophical Quarterly 3 (1976) 448.
[19] Hans Herbert Kogler, The Power of Dialogue, trans. Paul Hendrickson (Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1999) 60.
[20] George Panthanmackel, Coming and Going (Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 1999) 31.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
PASSION AND PASSIVITY
‘An uncritical life is not worth living’ said the great Greek philosopher Socrates. It means to live a life lovingly and critically. Let me explain the title.PASSION | PASSIVITY |
Chosen | Cultivated |
Maximum Pull to act | Maximum reflection in the action |
Untimely act | Occupies time |
Accompanied by love and desire | Accompanied by ambition |
Passion is a call to live life and passivity is living that life call critically. When both passion and passivity reflect in the accomplishment of the task, marvels of harmony, peace and fruitfulness happen. As such both should go hand in hand. No domination of one over the other. They promise life to the full without compromise which human being looks forward to. Let us be then passionate about being critical and at the same I can critically evaluate my passion.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
GOD - “THE AUTHOR OF GOOD”
I am not sure whether the title arises in you a question. But certainly when I sat down to write, the title arose in me a simple but yet profound question and that is God not creator of bad? After a deep and intense reflection, I conclude and affirm that there is nothing bad or profane in the universe. All that exists and crated was good. To quote in the words of Sacred Scripture “God created everything and found good.” The problem arises because in the everydayness of carrying on with life, the human being undergoes or rather comes across events that are bad or experiences the bad itself in its fullness. If God not cause for it, who is the cause? Who can take the responsibility for the cause of bad in the world?
Nothing is bad but something becomes bad if it is used not the way it is supposed to be used. Let us take for example, the burning issue sex. It is not bad. It is good in as much as used by the legally married couple for the furthering of creation. But same sex becomes bad, when lovers or people do it for enjoyment, pleasure or money. Very many examples can be quoted but one provides space for reflection.
After all, everything depends on the perspective of human being because he/she is able to make something good into bad and bad into good. And so, ultimately the cause is in not out there but it is very much in.
Friday, January 7, 2011
THE WONDER OF HUMAN BODY
Is there something to really wonder about human body? It is largely believed that human being is not the cause of his/her own existence. In simple words, he/she is the effect of amalgamation of different causes. In this sense, the fact of human existence itself is a great wonder. Let me do justice to the title.
The human body, for that matter even animal body, to be wondered for the well fixation of different parts of the body in their proper and own place. Just imagine if an individual had leg in the place of head and in the place of nose fingers. This even becomes beyond imagination. Then do we wonder about our body?
God, the author and cause of life and above all, ongoing life-giver, so logically yet aesthetically, so theoretically but yet practically, and so beautifully and attractively placed every part of the body to be wondered and to be in awe.
WHERE ARE YOU?
Where are you? Don’t you listen?
The voice, in the gentle whispers of breeze
In the chirpings of bird, in the rustling of the leaves
And dearly and lovingly in the silence of heart.
Where are you? Is not the calling so loud?
As the dark of the night, as calm as the ocean,
As powerful as the monster, as loud as the sound of thunder
And as good and clear as running waters in the stream
Where are you? Are you deaf to hear and respond
To that call, which responded in due time,
Grants you life in abundance, then come on
Hurry up, wake up, heed and answer.
SACRED WASTE
What is Waste? It is something that we don’t like to keep it to ourselves. It is something that is unwanted, unnecessary and useless. What is sacred Waste? It is something that comes out of abundance of heart. It is wasting oneself for the good of the other. It becomes the good of the other when one feels that something is waste that is something is useful to me but more useful for the other. It is journey from self to selflessness, possession to Non-possession. It is this feeling of waste that makes it sacred. The feeling of wasting oneself results from the fullness. It is the willingness to give or throw oneself at the disposal of the other The whole history of human kind is the record of people who wasted themselves fully what is good in themselves for the good and benefit of others. For example the Great Buddha wasted himself after the enlightenment, Christ wasted himself after forty days of prayer, and Mahatma Gandhi wasted himself for the good of the country. There are umpteen numbers of examples to quote but reflection fro you and for me starts here.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF “YES” AND “NO”
Yes and No are the two most powerful answers to the questions of life. To choose between yes and no is a freedom of choice. Yes and No are like real and unreal, living and dying, truth and untruth, certain and uncertain,possession and non-possession. Yes and No make people to become what they are and what they are not.
‘Yes’, I would like to learn. It is this kind of yes that opens the door for fullness of life, provides space for opportunities and gives luck for improvement. But this yes involves taking risk, crossing the boundaries, breaking the pot and making the horizons meet. In this creativeness flows automatically in the opportunities carried out. ‘No’, what I know is sufficient. It is this kind of no that closes the door for life, blocks the chance for improvement and becomes obstacle in taking up opportunities. This No makes a person to be what he is and then gradually becomes what he is not. This involves an easy going life that any tom dick harry can live. Let us turn the coin. ‘Yes’ I know it. This kind of yes does no more good than making me what I am. It ends all my possibilities to be. In other words I remain what I am. ‘No’, but I desire to know. This type of no provides the possibilities to be what I am not that is becoming new. It makes an individual journey ongoingly from being to becoming.
After all yes and no are freedom of choice that involves the presence and at the same time awareness of doing the work from the perspective of the individual.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
What and Why of Christmas
CHRISTMAS
I would like to speak on Christmas with some philosophical background. It may sound a bit out of the way. But I believe these thoughts have emerged as an outcome of my reflection on the nativity of the Lord.
What of Christmas
The simple question that struck me while reflecting on Christmas was what is actually Christmas? In simple words, it is the celebration of the birthday of Christ. But, is it not obvious to celebrate the birthday of a person who died 2000 years ago! Does it make any sense to celebrate? Do we celebrate the birthday of great persons who left the earth? But then, are the Christians foolish to celebrate Christmas? As Christians and more so as religious, we are called to search wisdom in foolishness. We celebrate the birthday of Christ because we believe that he is alive. He is alive in our hearts through the Holy Eucharist and sacraments. Let us go a little further to erase the doubts by asking yet another question What led to Christmas? The scripture is very clear why Christ was born and what made him born. Let me answer this question from three points of view: (1) Christmas is Christmas because of the Love of the Father: God so loved the world that he sent his only son to give eternal life (Jn 3:16). In other words, to make us, the sinful human beings, into children of God as Jesus was. (2) Christmas happened because of the Humility of Mary: Let it be done to me according to your will Lk 1:38. (3) It is the condition of the human beings that made the birth of Jesus possible.
In this case, Christmas is not once a year business but it is everyday business. We should be able to celebrate Christmas everyday. I would like to narrate an incident. A Street children Director once wrote to benefactors: we celebrate Christmas whenever a boy knocks at our door asking for shelter, food and clothing.
Why of Christmas
Why do we celebrate Christmas? For mother Mary and Joseph, Christmas was paradoxical. It was not only painful but also a moment to rejoice. But for us, modern Christians, it has become celebrations and is limited to it. Thus, it is a call to transcend the festivities of the earthly world to discover the true joy of heavenly world.
Still, the inner meaning of Christmas is the birth of Christ which was not so for Mary or not even for Jesus himself. HE is being sent to the world, to give his life for the sins of humankind. If this is the case with Jesus, it must also be the same with us today. We are called to give, spend, and sacrifice our life for others and it is for others that we are here as Jesus was and is.
Christmas – Summation of Evangelical Counsels
Does Christmas bear witness to the Evangelical Counsels? I think, it is very much true that Christmas is the convergence of Obedience, Poverty and Chastity if we look at them differently as will, generosity and love.
Christmas as a Sign of Obedience
Christmas as an event took place because of the docility of Mother Mary when she said, “Be it done to me according to your will’. It is the acceptance of Mary that led to Christmas. What does it indicate? As Mary obeyed the will of God, Christmas invites everyone of us to obey not simply but to accept happily and cheerfully the demands of obedience and to give our self wholly, especially our time, energy, talents and everything.
Christmas as a Sign of Poverty
God did not choose a palace for his son to be born but a manger amidst the animals. It also makes us remember that he was born in a manger because people refused him a place in their own house. What does it indicate? It indicates not so much the material poverty, but the rigidness of heart of human being which is the poverty of heart. For us, Christmas is a call to make the heart rich to make it abode of Jesus. This is not a simple task but difficult and requires everyday attention. This can be nurtured only by the Holy Eucharist and sacraments, personal prayer, and other moments of prayer.
Christmas as a sign of Chastity
It is the love of the Father towards the humankind that made Jesus come into the world. Chastity is love of equilibrium towards all. What does it show? Christmas should be a method of love and not for this or that human being but for all equally. Love erases unwanted and indifference leading to the manufacture of concern and care for each other.
I would like to conclude my reflection by asking yet another question: Am I able to give birth to Christ? What does this mean? It is not so much a physical birth but the capacity to reflect Jesus in my self to others. If we are not able to reflect Jesus through our actions, words and behaviour, then Christmas does not make any sense. It passes by like any other Christmas. But, let us make this Christmas a true Christmas by being reflections of Jesus to our brothers and sisters not only on the day of Christmas but everyday of our life.
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