Many have said that the world of science and philosophy are worlds apart and cannot be understood or used to complement each other. These two fields seem to contradict each other at every angle but some do think they can be used together to allow a better understanding of the universe and our place in it.
Science as we know is based on fact or the search of an explanation for something through facts. Meaning why a candlestick burns scientifically is because of many known scientific processes like; oxidation, fuel, air, combustion and so on and so forth. But taking the standpoint of a philosopher pondering that fact would result in a totally different definition or explanation.

The merging of these two fields of study is not as far off as you think. Many of the fathers of philosophy were scientists in their own rights. These ancient people formed the basis for both philosophy and the sciences. Thales, who is considered to be the father of philosophy wondered about the universe from his time and the significance of man in that universe. He was said to have employed a form of research that can be en-likened to a scientific inquiry or study. The next ancient philosopher, Anaximander, focused more on the nature of the universe as a whole. He is credited to have made the first accurate sundial marking accurately the hours of the day on a sundial. He made elementary maps in his quest to find the relationships of the places he knew and their significance to his existence. One of the most famous philosophers was Pythagoras who was a philosopher and mathematician where he formulated some of the most elementary basis of mathematics and their relationships with the universe.
Many more ancient philosophers and scientists shared the same passion for a better understanding of the universe and the way we influence it or are a part of it. True to this, we can say that it may be theoretically possible to meld the two areas of science and philosophy into a new area of study where we seek answers and hopefully better questions to answers to them.

Many have tried and many have failed at this endeavour. Philosophy has been defined by many and many have attempted to become the masters of philosophy. But is there a finite and true one definition of philosophy. Philosophy seems to contradict itself due to the fact that man began contepmlating about it since recorded history can recall or has records of. One philosopher says according to his extensive study into the field that this is the rational analysis of the world around us in a way that is obscure to most people on this planet.

Who else can give us a true definition of philosophy then? Academics, economists, scientists, physicists…….. you can call all forms and shapes of experts from all fields of science and they will each have a definition that they see as the absolute definition of philosophy. But when you ponder on the foundations laid thousands of years ago by the world’s earliest philosophers there is no one true definition. Even after dedicating their whole lives to the study of philosophy you would still have a different view of what it is. This is why it is so difficult to define, ask a fool on what it means and he might say, ” I do not know”, but that statement is in a way an application of the fundamental theories of philosophy. Information is knowledge, knowledge and power and people in power are fools for they think they become something above everything else void of the shortcomings and failures that makes us human. Thinking that having all the knowledge in the world under your belt gives you the knowledge and thus power to say that others are wrong in their perception of philosophy is a true fallacy indeed for all of us who are part of the human race is what philosophy is all about. The science of trying to understand an individual who is different from everybody else around him thus indefinable.

So Philosophy has no one true meaning, and that any definition can be either true or false. Maybe that’s why the father’s of philosophy were treated as fools and ridiculed as such. For asking questions that only fools did and tried to make sense of the world. Maybe that’s the true meaning of philosophy, strip yourself of all the things that makes you, yourself and you might, you might just be able to define it definitely. But after that, nobody would be interested in what you say for you are now a nobody and nobody listens to nobody’s.

Ponder that……

It would be great if we could just have any habit we want in a snap. However, we know that habits are formed overtime. It is during the “formative” time that we usually end up giving up because it is of course the time when we have to rely on motivation and self-discipline. As I have said before though, when the motivation wanes we end up having to work twice as hard to fight inertia. So what do we do while we don’t have our habits to fall back to yet? How do we prepare for the waning of motivation?

One of the best things we can do to make habit forming time easier and so increase our changes of success is to control what we can in our immediate environment while we still have the motivation to do it. Setting up your environment to help you succeed at your goal is definitely not only sensible but also the path to least resistance. For example, if losing weight is your goal and the habits you need to develop include exercise and a healthy diet the first things you need to do is get rid of all the junk food in the house and shop for healthier alternatives. If you have junk food all around you how can you expect to resist the temptation? As for exercise you can buy yourself a good pair of rubber shoes and dust off your exercise equipment. Make what you need accessible and what you don’t inaccessible.

Another thing that is pretty effective is to get some help. Join a group with the same goals as you or have an accountability partner. Make sure your partner is not an enabler or you’ll just end up making excuses for each other. Instead get someone you trust and respect who can help spur and motivate you when you cannot do it yourself. In the end though, it will still be up to you but setting yourself up to succeed instead of setting yourself up to fail sure will help a lot.

On my last post I discussed how having healthy habits will see us through to success during times when our motivation is at a low point. This time I will be discussing some healthy habits that we can form to help up succeed in the different aspects of our life.

Perhaps one of the most popular books ever written about habits is Stephen Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. There he elaborates on the 7 habits that he says effective people. According to Covey the 7 habits are:

1. Be proactive
2. Begin with the end in mind
3. Put first things first
4. Think Win/Win – teamwork
5. Seek first to understand – communication
6. Synergize – cooperation
7. Sharpening the saw – renewal or continued development of the 7 habits

As you see the first three deals with self-mastery (he calls it dependence to independence), which is something we all should strive for first. Without the first three it would be hard to follow through on all our tasks, which will of course affect our relations with other people as well as our jobs. Another thing you would notice is that Covey approaches the habits not with a list of tasks but with our mindset. I believe that we should develop specific tasks as our habit but he is very correct in putting emphasis on making sure that we have specific mindsets as a habit, after all our actions are determined by our thoughts. So to be able to develop habits like going to work on time or speaking more positively we need to develop the habit of choosing to be proactive, thinking of our end goals, knowing hoe to prioritize, and all the other things that Covey says we should develop.

On my last post I explained how motivation is needed in order for us to succeed but also the reason why we can not rely on motivation to see us through our journey. Motivation is unreliable because it is an emotion, and like all emotions, it comes and goes. When motivation subsides though what we are left with are our habits.

What we do when we don’t feel motivated is determined by our habits. Habits stay because they do not depend on emotion. We can do things without even really thinking about them if it is part of our habit. For example, if you’re just used to washing your face before going to sleep you probably don’t even realize that you’ll go straight to the bathroom to freshen even after a really tiring day before hitting the bed. If washing your face is not part of your routine though you will need to really exert more effort just to wash your face and maybe just decide not do it and prioritize your rest instead.

Now when it comes to achieving success we need to develop habits that will help set us up for success. We need to have our habits so deeply ingrained that when obstacles come we won’t have to split up our energy between overcoming those obstacles and just going about the daily activities that we need to do in order to function properly. Having good habits doesn’t mean having no troubles but it means that most of your reactions will be automatic and you won’t have added stress in your life.

In my next post I will elaborate more on habits that we need to form in order to have a better chance at success.

We all want to be a success in life. It doesn’t matter whether success for you means a high-powered career, great relationships, finding yourself, achieving a particular dream, or getting a PhD. The truth though is that the path to success is filled with obstacles, so much so that many find themselves frustrated and unable to continue their journey in achieving success.

One of the things that is often pointed to for failure is lack of motivation. People tend to think that if they get motivated enough they will be able to face the biggest obstacles and find a way beat them down or go around them. There is truth to this matter. Without motivation people will just not even start something, especially if they know that it will be difficult. However, the problem with motivation is that it is a feeling. Of course there is a solid reason for that feeling but still, like any other emotion, it comes and goes. What this means is that when the emotion goes away or subsides a bit there is a huge tendency to lie back and just give in to inertia. We end up giving up when we don’t feel so motivated anymore and then start again but only when the motivation comes back.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that motivation is a bad thing. In fact we NEED motivation. We need to get fired up in order to start the path to success. However, my point is that motivation is unreliable and it is not enough. By all means pump yourself up and find reasons to motivate you but do not make the mistake of solely relying on motivation.

On my next post I will be discussing the thing that we can rely on even when the emotion subsides.

Anger is one of the seven deadly sins. Anger is also a fact of life, something viewed by most as negative and some as inescapable. The good news though is that more and more people are realizing that anger is something that can actually be overcome. It is inescapable as a spontaneous emotion but not inescapable as a lasting one.

Robert Thurman, a leading author in Buddhism and Eastern Philosophy, delves deeper into the issue of anger approaching it using ancient Buddhism wisdom. The book “Anger” explains how anger, if guided by wisdom, can actually not just be tempered but actually wielded to bring positive results such as the easing of human suffering. This is actually something that the great Aristotle will agree with, after all he believes that anger is not necessarily evil but actually necessary for fighting evil. In fact Aristotle teaches that anger can be a virtue if one is angered by those that are wicked and so strive to not become like the wicked and even fight their evil deeds.

In every day life though what I believe we should start learning is simply letting go of toxic anger so as to be able to leave in peace. As Buddha and Marcus Aurelius teaches us, holding on to anger can hurt us more than its cause can.

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. ~ Buddha

How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it. ~ Marcus Aurelius

There are no strangers to loneliness, after all we have all experienced how to be lonely at some point in our lives. Thomas Dumm recognizes this fact and delves on what it really means lonely in his book “Loneliness as a Way of Life”.

According to the Harvard University Press, Dumm “takes us beyond social circumstances and into the deeper forces that shape our very existence as modern individuals. The modern individual, Dumm suggests, is fundamentally a lonely self. This book challenges us, not to overcome our loneliness, but to learn how to re-inhabit it in a better way.”

This takes me back to one of my favorite poet’s work – Letters to a Young Poet (Letter Number Six). There Rainer Maria Rilke tells us to embrace solitude and why. Here’s a snippet from letter # 6:

But when you notice that it [solitude] is vast, you should be happy; for what (you should ask yourself) would a solitude be that was not vast; there is only one solitude and it is vast, heavy, difficult to bear…be attentive to what is arising within you…What is happening in your most innermost self is worthy of your entire love; somehow you must find a way to work at it…

And letter #8:

So you mustn’t be frightened, dear Mr. Kappus, if a sadness rises in front of you, larger than any you have ever seen; if an anxiety, like light and cloud-shadows, moves over your hands and over everything you do. You must realize that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall.

Now if ever there was an expert in loneliness I would say that would be Rainer Maria Rilke.

In my last post I asked the question: WHY DO YOU GIVE?

As I mulled about the issue it became clearer that no one who gives does it purely for unselfish reasons. Now, I hope I am not being jaded about this but coming across Tovia Smith’s article “Selfish Giving: Does it count if you get in return?”, I found myself agreeing with most of her observations.

Tovia points out how nowadays businesses give to charity because they “have to”. It’s an image thing. But so what? They’re businesses after all and we do expect them to think about their bottom line. However, Tovia also points out that its pretty much the same with “high school kids signing up for their community service trip — the summer before their college applications are due. It’s simply what they have to do to be competitive.”

It sounds awful but if you really think about it these people are not the only “selfish” givers. Even those who do it because of their belief, as I pointed out in my last post, give for future rewards: in Buddhism and Hinduism its for good karma, for Christians it’s for God’s Blessing and whatever their reward awaits them in heaven, for Muslims the “Zakat” purifies their wealth and is done in obedience it Allah. While it is true that their primary reason for giving may not primarily be material rewards, and may not even be in this lifetime, they still do it for a reason other than giving.

So does anyone really give for the pure joy of giving? Maybe. Maybe not.

In my opinion this is not the point though. The point is that giving is “good” and as Rory Morton, dean of students at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge said, “…once they go do it [give/do community service], they get into it. And that’s good enough for me.”

The answers to WHYs are important but sometimes we have to stop asking and just be thankful that we can do something noble and good as giving and in top of that get something in return, whether that be material, spiritual, or emotional.

Giving is a concept that can be found in most religions – if not all.

It is espoused by both the Bible and the Qur’an. In fact if you look at the following verses you’ll be struck by the similarity of what the two religions tell their believers to do.

Giving shows the believers’ love for their God:

“And they feed, for the love of Allah, the poor, the orphan, and the captive.” (Qur’an 76:8)

“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3: 17-18)

Giving in secret:

“If you give alms openly, it is well, and if you hide it and give it to the poor, it is better for you” (Qur’an 2:271)

“But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:3-43)

There are other similarities such as the concept of “tithing” wherein a portion of a person’s earning should be given back to the church.

Generosity is also encouraged in Buddhism and Hinduism. In Buddhism they have what they call dāna, which when translated means generosity. However, it means more than just the word but actually refers to the practice of cultivating generosity. To Buddhists the more they give selflessly in this life the better off they will be in the next life. A belief that even Christians whose “treasures are stored up in heaven” and Muslims also believe.

The question now though is this: With all the teachings of different religions telling us to give are you practicing what you say you believe in? Do you give? In what way? How much? And more importantly, WHY?

You can find more info on giving to HAITI at Google’s Haiti Crisis Response Page.