I’m not going to criticize religion and atheism anymore, now that I know what’s good and bad about them. Being aware of them is enough and we need to go beyond them. What is the next step? Should we begin with knowing who we are? That seems to be next step. Philosophers always begin with the investigation into the nature of the self. It would seem that by knowing who we are we’d be able to go to the next step of knowing what we need to be. However, in this day and age, there are so many notions of who we are, what the self is. Which notion is true about the self? You could spend a lot of time trying to figure out which one is true. But, then you stumble upon the notion of truth, and begin to wander off trying to find the true notion of the truth. But, what is the true notion of truth, when you and I haven’t yet determined the nature of the truth? Perhaps, we need to agree on a methodology. But how are we to determine the correct method of knowing what the truth is in order to know what the self is? It’s terribly confusing, and I am pretty sure, we are going to get into a lot of mess before we could get off the first base. So, I’m going to say: Let’s put the issue on the nature of the self and methodology aside, and let’s start with some realization – some truths that are plain to see.
A friend of mine once told me that he’s convinced that the right thing for anyone to do is to be ‘nice to people’. He just knows that it is morally right to be ‘nice to people’ regardless of their differences, and to be a good father to his children, and a good husband to his wife. I asked him, “What about God?” to which he replied ‘Well, um, yeah, maybe there is a God. Then, again, I don’t really know. But what I know for sure is ‘be nice to people’.“ It is simply and plainly true, and he didn’t have to mention anything related to the nature of the self, or of the truth. I suspect that when you mix up what is simple and plain the truth with some judgments about which you don’t know, but claim to know, it blurs your vision of what is out there, in plain sight. It affects your judgment about the purpose of life and how one ought to live with people who hold different views. This is why Confucius reprimanded his students for getting enmeshed with questions as to whether there is life after life. Getting involved in something you honestly know nothing about makes you forget that your true and only concern of living is to live well. It also complicates life. And when you worry over the things you claim to know, because, deep inside, you know that you really don’t know, then it’s easy to become a victim to certain kinds of religious and political practices.
You and I know, almost instinctively, what is to be done. But, life has been quite complicated by the media, and an overexposure to religious, political and social propaganda. It’s time, according to Socrates, to realize the worth of living by way of examining one’s life.
