Questions About Religion.

*

I’m trying to understand why people believe in God.

I’ve been to Ajenta and Ellora caves and seen the incredible work that had been done over history in worship of different gods. Making those caves was a painstaking work. Was all that energy coming from the belief in god?

Visiting Varanasi also gave me some kind of a shock. There are people living in the most holy part of the city. It’s a belief that if you die in this part, you will be blessed (or something like that, excuse me for the non exact terms). People just stay inside this part their whole life, not going out, being afraid to die in a place outside the wholly part. How do people limit themselves to such an extent?

I find it hard to believe in something I don’t have any proof for its existence. I can understand the comfort person find in believing in hard times, but is that comfort enough?

It probably sounds arrogant from a certain point of view. It is not my intention. Just thoughts that have been going through my mind lately. I can’t really make an attempt to answer these questions at this point. Hope I’ll be able to some day (?).

*This post is not meant to hurt anyone. I’m asking questions and raising points I’m curious about, and would love to hear any opinion.

who you really are?

Some events that happened lately with people that I considered myself close to made me wonder.

It doesn’t matter how much you trust someone, how sure you are that you know him and that you know he’s telling the truth – you can still end up being wrong.

How much do we actually know the people around us, even those we consider our closest friends? After all, we create an image in our minds, based on our experience with that person. But this image is still of our own creation, our own observations and reflections upon simple and complex things, behaviors, etc.

Didn’t it happen to you that one single thing that your friend did suddenly made it clear to you that he might not be at all what you though him to be?

The problem is to try and understand what is real and genuine, and also what projections we make in our mind when getting to know someone.

Or maybe there isn’t at all any separation between the image of the person we create in our mind and the person himself. Or maybe the image we have actually affect the person himself

However you look at it, it makes all our relationship scarily fragile. Philosophy seriously mess up with your mind :)...

democracy, army and other thoughts

While most of the people around here are deeply concerned with predicted grades, SATs and university applications, I have quite a different issue on my mind.

I have written about the whole army issue before. It’s a big part of all us Israeli’s life as you have probably noticed, so excuse me for writing so much about it. Anyway, I have already shared the fact that I decided not to serve in the army.

I have discussed in one of the previous posts weather this decision is completely mine or not, so for know I’m just going to refer to it as my own decision.

Anyways, it is quite hard to explain a decision like that, which is so into a specific context. Being in Israel you live the politics. It’s all around you, so you don’t have much choice really. You have to be very ignorant in order not to have any opinion about at least the main things that are going on. However, sometimes those opinions happen to be very strong and one might say distinct. So strong, that if you really believe in those opinions, they prevent you from obeying a law of the very same country who created them.

I can’t join the army because I can’t just suddenly cooperate with all the things I’ve stood against for the last few years of my life. Even if it won’t be a direct cooperation, even if I only have to make coffee to some people in the office, even if I only need to wear those uniforms – I would still be part of the whole machine. And seeing the end product of this machine, which creates a disaster after another, I cannot take any part.

It’s funny. If I send a letter to the army explaining why I won’t serve in the army, I will be called for an interview with a panel of people we will have to decide whether my conscience is ‘real’. How can someone decide what my conscience let me or doesn’t let me do? Is it something you can uncover that easily? I frankly don’t think so. I think it is such a complex thing, that I myself cannot completely understand, then how will a random group of people (which aren’t even psychologists or anything of that kind) can understand it from a one hour interview understand?

I am aware of the fact that if each person who doesn’t like a law would decide not to obey it, won’t, there will be a huge mess. If I won’t go to the army, I won’t really escape the law. I will do it in a legal way (some people may say it is immoral, but it is still legal). After reading Mill’s article regarding the whole idea of activeness, I think that if we all just obey rules blindly it won’t be a democracy anymore. People have to express their opinions, in active ways (no – a talkback on the internet is NOT being active), and in extreme cases like this, take an action – which might have to be against the law. I think the point of being active is having the chance to change thisng you disagree with.

The arguments for and against this idea can fill a whole book. I would love to have a conversation about it in class or with anyone who is interested.

"It's all in your mind!"

The last project week I've joined the group going to Varanasi to work with the NGO "Alice Project". Alice Project runs a school in Sarnath, a town 10 km away from the city, which has a very distinct philosophy behind it.

"Alice Project is a research project for the education of children and teachers.It is based on the integration of our inner and outer worlds, the transcendence of borders we artificially create, and the awakening and nurturing of the understanding of self.
The methods used tap the most powerful potential we possess - the potential to be wise and kind." (Alice Project website)

The experience was wonderful. First, I got to know many new people that although I've leaved with them for the last few months we never had the chance to talk and actually get to know each other. I think we fall into our 'safe area' of friend in muwci too easily. There is something so comfortable in just being with the few people you already know so well. However, every time I go out of my ‘safe zone’ and spend time with new people I enjoy it so much.

But that is not actually what I wanted to talk about. We spent our project week mostly in the school, interacting with the students, observing classes and talking to teachers and the founder and director of the place – Valentino. We attended his ‘daily teaching of Valentino’s philosophy for older students’ and also had the chance of talking to him personally, trying to challenge his ideas.

“Our mind thinks and creates. Whatever we see, hear, smell, touch, imagine is but a product of our mind. The products of our mind cannot be considered as really existing. Indeed, they exist only as mental outputs and cannot be found beyond the mind itself.” (Valentino’s writing)

It’s at once very easy and very hard to agree with this idea. We know that everything we see, for example, was processed in our brain (it is biologically proven). But to get from that to the conclusion that nothing outside our mind actually exist is a bit hard to understand. How is it, then, that if I stand with a group of people in a certain place and we all look at the same place, we will all see a tree? The image of the tree might be different in every person’s mind, but we can still converse between us and talk about the tree. Yes, you may say that the whole bunch of people and the conversation between us is also in my mind. I don’t think I can actually prove that it isn’t so, but it is just too scary to actually believe in it, isn’t it? Does it mean that I’m the only person to exist? Or, wait, no – I’m also a creation of my own mind… then what actually does exist?

I can understand the importance of introducing a philosophy like this to those students, whose lives are not easy at all. Valentino uses this idea to convince them that all the suffering they are going through is only a creating of their mind, If so, it is their own choice weather to suffer of not.

Furthermore, he is trying to convince them that most of the subjects they learn at school – math, science, etc. are… well, crap. He states that none of those things will lead them to happiness. He criticized the western idea of getting good grades, a job and money as the way to happiness. He argues that getting money only makes people want more and more money, and thus they will never reach true happiness. The only way to reach happiness is to understand your own mind/soul – through meditation and god. Here comes into the whole picture the idea of religion, which I still didn’t quite understand how it fits in. But I guess I can keep the issue of religion for another post, because I have a lot of thoughts about the subject.

The school was certainly a fascinating place. We could all observe the difference in the students in compare to other government school we observed and any school we saw before in India and in our home countries. I’m still not quite sure what, of all the special aspects of the school, create this difference. It is certainly a place I would love to visit again and investigate more.

Optimism :)

I have no idea where this post will lead to, but reading Dr. Seuss wonderful short book ‘Oh! The Places You’ll Go!’ made me think about what a great opportunity we got coming to a place like MUWCI.

“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go”

I think we all tend to forget quite often what a great opportunity we got coming here, and what a great place this is. How many people can, at the age of 16-18 or so, just leave everything and come to a new, so different, country and get to know people from all over the world. To go own your own, be independent, learn so many new things. When I first heard about UWC it sounded to me like a dream. When I got in it was a dream coming true.

“And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll

meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are

some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare

you so much you won’t want to go on”

And still, with all the pressure and all the difficulties it is all very easy to forget. I think we let school stuff take over us too much. We let misunderstandings and arguments with friends and so on to take over our mood too easily. We forget what really cause us happiness under all the things ‘we need to do’.

These tense days I’m trying to be optimistic, laugh at me as much as you want. I’m trying not to fall under the pressure, and enjoy the things I really like. Surprisingly it also makes school stuff much more interesting and enjoyable.

Optimism is "an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome" It is the philosophical opposite of Pessimism Optimists generally believe that people and events are inherently good, so that most situations work out in the end for the best (Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary).

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.

There are different arguments for or against optimism. Some may say it encourages passivity.This presumption is not always true. I agree just sitting and thinking positively won't do any good. I just think that being in an optimistic state can make it easier to do the things we need to do, and relieve the pressure. It may be different for different people. Some may need this negative pressure in order to make themselves move things. But if we can find a way to get to do everything without that, it would be much more pleasant.

So guys (well, probably no one is reading it, so I’m practically talking to myself. Never mind…) – try to relax and think positively. Don’t get so stressed. Grades are really not everything. This two years are going by so fast so don’t regret later for not enjoying the most out of it. As the Indian mystic and sage Meher Baba said: don’t worry be happy!

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

Is it my OWN Decision?

As you all probably know, all Israelis (yes, girls as well) have to serve in the army after high school. However, I personally (along with a small but growing percentage of the Israeli society) decided not to obey this law, and not to go to the army. There is handful of reasons for this decision, which I will probably discuss in another post, but right now I would like to look at another aspect of the whole issue.

As I made this decision quite a long time ago, when I was quite young, I’m wondering now what brought me to make the decision. How much of it is really my own reflection upon the situation, and how much of it is affected by my family (extremely radical leftist one), my education (special schools such as art high-school, muwci etc.), the environment I live in (Tel-Aviv the big and liberal city) and more.

I remember one conversation I had with a few people at MUWCI at the beginning of last year, which became a hot political argument concerning the Israeli-Arab conflict. At some point my co-year got really angry and walked away. Later on when we talked only the two f us she ‘accused’ me of not really seeing ‘the other side’ and presenting very one-sided view, which is anyway not really my own.

Of course most of my political ideas are not genuine. I’m not experienced enough and I don’t have enough knowledge to make up my own arguments about those issues that are talked about so much.

Of course I am affected by my surroundings, even designed by my surroundings. You cannot disconnect yourself from the outside world. You are always exposed to different stimulus.

However, I don’t think that each one of us is a complete reflection of his family, community or group of friends. You can find many examples of people who grow up to believe in completely different views than their family and whole environment. Growing up, I started to reflect upon what I constantly hear around me. I was also exposed to different opinions at school, the media etc. However, some things I decided to adopt as my own opinions, and some others not.

I could choose to go to the army. That what my school told me is right to do. My family would have respected my decision. Not to mention how much easier it would be not to cope with the society reactions to whoever doesn’t serve in the army. I had all the reasons to go, and all the reasons not to and I made up my mind, after many internal thoughts and external discussions. I do believe that this makes it my own genuine decision, as t make any of my opinions genuinely my own.

However, one may claim that what brought me to make that final decision are those external stimuli at younger age, when I wasn’t yet able to reflect and debate, or that there are many more factors affecting me that I’m not fully aware of.

I think here it is a matter of what I choose to believe in. Maybe it just makes me feel better to think I’m able to make decisions that are really my own…

(the philosophy of?) Collective Memory

One and half years ago I went on a school journey to Poland, a journey most of the Israeli high school students go to with their schools, to visit the concentration camps and study about the Holocaust. After visiting Auschwitz, where you can see horrible sights, we all got letters from our parents, which were collected by the school before we left. My parents’ letter was the most aspiring thing in my whole journey. After coming back, I was asked to write a speech for an evening about the journey for parents and students.

It would be too long to translate, so I’ll tell you about it shortly (well, I’ve tried to make it short it didn’t really work)…

I was describing our experience in the different concentration and extermination camps. I was describing the constant will to try and understand how huge the horrors were, the need to try understanding and even feeling the pain that those six million people experienced. I talked about how impossible it actually is. How big the number six million is. We all agreed that it is intangible, but still we go there and visit those places, so there must be a bigger cause.

Thus I concluded that even though the numbers, the deeds, the horrors – were intangible we all stopped and thought. We all have learned something. Something about the ability of modern methods to impose authority over the people and make them do cruel deeds. Something about the indifference of the environment, this can turn a blind eye even when horrors happen right in front of it. Something about seeing and understanding ‘the other’, on discrimination and racism. Something about hatred, about suffering, life and death. Something about the will to live. About rebellion, survival and coping even impossible conditions.

However, this is not a good enough reason for travelling all the way to Poland. There are lessons that have to be acknowledged. The Holocaust was a singular, one of a kind, and it is impossible to compare it with any other event. However, there were many horrible massacres and other occasions before and after the holocaust that have to be remembered. Furthermore, it is important to think about the present and the future, as the studying of history is important in order not to repeat it, as we all know. So what is the point if we don’t make the right conclusions?

Then came the ‘problematic’ part:
Right now Israel does not recognize the Armenian Holocaust, because we need good relations with Turkey.

Right now there is a disgraceful and shameful treatment for the survivors if the Holocaust who live here in Israel.
And right now we live in occupying country, behind an occupying and oppressive army, a country where million Arabs live under oppression and lack basic human rights. A country in which there are specific territories where innocent people are killed every day.

Now, after we’ve been there, and saw with our own eyes what the world has seen then - and said nothing, now we cannot
stay quiet, we should not ignore.
Perhaps this journey would lead us to think beyond our own selves. Think social, national, global… Then came and optimistic call (that sounded appropriate to me at that time for the students to change the world and that everything is possible).

However, when I showed the speech to the teacher, she erased the part about the occupation – “you cannot mention the occupation on a stage of a Jewish school” she said. When I argued, I was invited to talk to the headmaster of the school. After lecturing to me for hours about the Israeli-Arab conflict he smashed my speech and threw it away telling me he’s expecting me to write a new one.

Eventually I read almost the original version, only marking out that I’m not presenting any comparison (although my I wasn’t presenting any comparison to begin with). The reaction I got were very warming and encouraging, both from students and parents. Later on it also got into the newspaper, stating that “a student compared the IDF to the Nazis and was censured”. I even received a letter from an Holocaust survivor rebuking me about the comparison (that I haven’t even made!).

First of all, it is very interesting to see how easily people interoperate other people’s words so different than they essentially are, even when the things are stated very clearly. After experiencing it (and suffering from it quite a bit…) I understand how easily things can go wrong because of misunderstanding. I wonder how different the world would have been if people would just LISTEN more carefully.

Another issue that I came to understand is how sensitive the memorial of the holocaust is in the Jewish (Israeli?) world. This ‘collective memory’ has become a ‘taboo’ which is not to be talked about in any other connotation other than its own memorial. Every time the issue is raised everyone immediately become so defensive and even aggressive, and I’ve experienced it personally. I perceive it as an extremely negative thing. Of course I believe that the memory of the Holocaust is important, but its importance is exactly in those ‘comparisons’ (again, not really comparing, but putting into context with other events) with other events in our history and present life. Keeping the Holocaust as something that people are scared of mentioning will only reduce the importance of the memory, instead of expanding it to a discussion about humanism, human rights, and so much more.

More than that, I believe that education and in particular the teaching of history such as the Holocaust, can cause or solve many problems and hatred depending on the way it is taught, but this is an issue for another post (well, it’s actually quite similar to my EE topic…).

Definitions.

The TOK essay, Philosophy classes and even recent conversations with friends made me wonder - why do we have this strong need to DEFINE everything?

In science classes it is more understandable, as we are presented with new words and concepts that we might have never heard of before. We need clear definitions in order to understand the bigger concept.

But why is it so necessary to define wide concepts that are generally familiar to all of us, such as LOVE, TRUTH and FREEDOM? It’s becoming clear to me that however hard we try to stick to one ‘dry’ definition, we will end up having many different perspectives of the same concept. Many of these perspectives will contrast each other, causing an even bigger confusion with our understanding of that concept than we had o begin with.

I do understand the need to discuss those ideas and to explore them to depth. It is indeed fascinating to discover different perceptions of something you thought was so clear and simple. But can’t we keep it in the level of discussing and discovering, rather than defining?

I suppose that definitions make it easier for people to organize their knowledge, or express it in a clear way which is understandable to all. However, I feel that defining limits in a way our ‘open’ thinking and structure it unnecessarily. Can’t we just love, or be free, or look for the truth without being precisely sure of the definitions of those ideas?

expressing opinions and other thoughts.

A few days ago I got into a rather inconvenient situation which made me think about our freedom of opinion and of expression, and how it affects others.

I was having dinner with my Israelis co-years and first years, and somehow a conversation about army stuff started (an unsurprising case, I must say, when at least one Israeli is around). While most of them were talking about what jobs they would like to do in the army, and how smart you need to be to do those, I started talking to one of them about how I am planning to get out of the army. Refusing to serve in the army is a decision I took quite a long time ago, and it has an ideological background behind it, but I will keep that discussion for another post perhaps. One of my co-years then stopped the conversation and said that although he respects my decision, he is uncomfortable or even offended of me ‘making fun’ out of the whole ‘not-going-to-the-army’ subject. I admit that lately I tend to talk in a very light way about the subject, as I find it very hard to get into a serious, deep conversation about this controversial issue every time it comes up (and believe me, it comes up a lot!). Thus I apologized immediately and the discussion ended.

After thinking about it more closely, however, I’m not quite sure my respond was the right one. I am fully proud of my decision and I see no reason to hide it or present it in my own way (even if it is light and funny sometimes). The fact that I am presenting a minority opinion (one that is actually growing bigger and bigger in Israel those days), and he is just going to do what everyone does, gives the legitimacy to my co-year to limit my expression of that opinion, a legitimacy that I would like to fight against. I’m quite sure that my co years could speak as freely as they like to about their future job in the army, however offending I might feel it is (I’m talking about an Israeli forum of people, as when it comes to internationals, the point of view may be completely different). As a big part of our Israeli culture today is based on army experiences (‘who served with who?’ ‘What job did you do’? ‘What war did you fight in’? ‘Oh cool me too!’….), I believe that expressing contrasting opinions is extremely important.

This is only one example. The same, I assume, can occur in many different forums and regarding many different subjects. My question is - how far can we go expressing our own opinions, and how to decide when it might hurt others? Especially when discussing political or social issues, should the minority mind all the time the fact that they are presenting an opinion that is mostly unacceptable, and though it might ‘hurt’ others? And I put the word ‘hurt’ in quotation marks because I suspect that my co-year got insulted only because he’s not completely sure his ‘normal’ decision to do what most of the 18-years-old in our country do is the right, moral, one. His strongest defense is the one of the majority doing the same as him, and the fact that it’s a law. My opinion may challenge this decision and question its morality.

I think that expression of different opinions is extremely important, to challenge the common opinions in different issues. I believe that free discussions are the way to achieve stronger and truer opinions. Of course there is still a line after which expression of your own opinions can truly hurt others, a line that we should be careful not to cross. In this case, however, I don’t feel I’ve crossed that line, and I’m planning to keep on expressing my opinion freely, for now.