Fixation
Sometimes Christians are so intent on holding on to their mini kancils that when the opportunity comes in the form of a first class jet ticket they refuse to board the jet because they’re insistent that the kancil is the only way to travel.
I can use that same metaphor, really, to describe how we tend to be stuck to our high horses when it comes to making a choice on how to achieve our goals. That God said it’s going to look like A,B,C, and when it appears in form X,Y,Z blatantly in our faces, we’re not going to move at all, because according to us, God said its going to look like A,B,C so X,Y,Z, won’t hold water.
Its little wonder that most of the world think we’re a bunch of weird, judgemental and prideful beings.
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THe concept of being fixed about everything just stops us from Growing. You know I can put this into all stages of our lives. At age 5, many of us would have looked at a friend of the opposite gender and we’d go ‘yuck’ and nomatter what mummy says ‘its ok to sit with Joey Joey is a nice friend,’ Lisa will pprobably still go, ‘Boys are dirty and I don’t want to hold the boy’s hand.’.
Fast forward 10 years later, at age 15, is it actually natural to stay stuck with the mindset of a 5 year old in treating relationships with the opposite gender? Conditioning in human communities has sort of taught us that relationships are healthy, that being with a boy and attracted to a boy enough to want to know what its like to hold a boy’s hand, is very natural, and we grow naturally into it.
Challenges to the fixed perception of ‘rights’ and ‘wrong’s are natural, and it is natural to mold ourselves and shift our mindsets while sticking to the very basis of ‘right’ and ‘wrongs’ by limiting them to pure principles. This is why, Going back to the Christian principles outlined within the ‘ten commandments’, we are given principles that are general and specific enough to tell us how it is that we can treat people, and how we should live. DOn’t kill, don’t murder, don’t covet other people’s belongings, love each other, your neighbour, as your own.
God being transcendant, is beyond us. Loving God with all our being, doesn’t mean we have to be fixed about concepts of God. The moment we do that, and focus on just commandments no 1,2, and 3, and we start arguing about the how-tos, we get confused and begin to argue and fight for all the wrong reasons, resulting in a haphazard breaking of most of the rules nos 4 to 10. When we start to fight for the right to be right, we begin to get stuck in mini prisons of our own making, and in the process we break the rest of the commandments to not kill not steal not fight (God said to love each other, right?)
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So what i’m saying is, all this witch hunting towards the new age beliefs is really quite ridiculous, because if we were actually willing to look closer at the concept of ‘new age’ (heck just check out the term itself). What on earth is new age?
It is nothing. NOTHING at all.
So why the heck are we so uptight about righting Christianity and putting it up against nothing?
And what if, what if, we were willing to look beyond the religiousity that surrounds what we know as today’s Christianity, and we were willing to strip away all the ‘human’ understanding that has cling-wrapped the stories and the testaments in the bible to tell us the contexts of living by Christ and for Christ in the 2000 years before, what if, the entire teaching is actually ‘new age’ by our standards.
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So back to the kancil stuck Christian with the opportunity to sit in a jet plane to the land of finding our purpose? What’s the whole big deal about leaving a kancil to go on the Boeing 767? Or what if there’s a train, a bullet train, a steam train, a choo-choo train? Or if its only a bus…
Why are we so fixed on how-tos when the idea is getting to the destination… regardless of the method?
June 20th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Does the ends justify the means?
Can u do good regardless of ways?
Can we reach god ur way or my way, without going to the highway?
June 20th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
smiles:
“its not just moslems who pray 5 times a day ler..”
So, who else pray 5 times a day?
June 20th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
u ask ur christian frens and buddhist frens how many times per day ler..
must it only be moslems 5 times/day?
ignoramus
June 20th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
So, how many times your Christian and Buddhist friends pray in a day?
June 21st, 2008 at 9:57 am
Err…..is there a God? Or rather, does God as you perceive Her to be, exist?
June 21st, 2008 at 7:43 pm
zefi.. stop talkin rubbish
just becos u pray 5 times = moslem?
if u pray only 4 times ur not moslem?
ur worst than osama!
buddhist and christian cant pray 5 times?
stupid ignorant ppl..
ppl are free to pray 5,6 ,10, a hundred times..
please go and pray to ur god today for knowledge
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:20 am
Oh, I’m sorry if you felt that I’m “talkin rubbish.”
It’s just that, I’ve been a committee member of my uni’s Interfaith Talk event for a few years, and I’ve taken courses on different religions, and have once in a while do some reading on various religions, and yet still unable to figure out who you’re referring to when you say “its not just moslems who pray 5 times a day ler..” Perhaps, like you said, I’m an ignoramus.
Of course Buddhist and Christians can pray five times a day, but that’s not the point. The point is WHO YOU WERE REFERRING TO when you mentioned that, and that’s what I’m trying to understand.
I’m sorry if my attempt to understand better what you’re trying to say has offended you.
You even compared me to Osama, out of a sudden… I wonder what led to that. But you do seem really annoyed. Or perhaps more accurately, feeling defensive?
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:16 am
I guess for some, its just cultural baggage and for most ppl never ever got out of their comfort zone or been stuck there too long they are afraid of the insecurity, which is actually a facade.
This reminds me of what the computer security industry ppl calls “security theatre”. This term refers to a situation, where ppl play in a lot of drama expecting other ppl to solve a problem when really, they themselves are the root of the problem as they do not grasp that security is about a ‘collective mindset’, and not just rely on a product or particular person. Security, as it is said is only “as strong as its weakest link”.
In the typical Asian sense, we fixate our sense and ideas of what security are till we forget that things are really changing at so great a pace that our security may already be gone before we even realise. Kofi Annan once said “There can be no development without security, no security without development.” The moment we stop developing ourselves, the moment we lose our security.
I guess far too often, we follow too closely all these things in the name of piety & perhaps harmony without really looking into what the Bible says really. Piety and harmony are good things, but too much of a good thing can become bad. A good analogy is how cancers are formed in the body system this very same way. Good cells gone rogue! Unhealthy reliance on the wrong things will cause systems to go haywire and ‘cancers’ to form.
In the end, all so often we fix the ‘howto’s because we want to impose on others what we want them to see while hiding our ‘little’ insecurities or as a form of convenience(or political correctness?). When we can stop doing that, then we will see real development as it should be-lah!
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:51 am
ohh zefi, ur trying to ask me who i refer to when i say pray five times a day?
did u actually read the whole post or u just chose to selectively read?
go back to the post..
the answer is staring back at u..
please read and think
university student… must be brilliant scholar!
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:21 am
Sigh. And I wonder whether you can just answer the question already, rather than kept evading it.
First, you called me an ignoramus, and you said that I’m worse than Osama. Now you seem to imply that I’m not.
Can you make up your mind already?
What you’re asking me to do is not to be intellectually competent; you’re asking me to mind-read.
We are not dealing with DEFINITION here, we’re dealing with YOUR INTENTION.
Did you actually read my questions properly, or you just chose to selectively read?
June 24th, 2008 at 3:54 am
pray pray pray..
pray five times a day
pray before food
pray before shower
pangsai oso pray
why dont u stop and think?
think think think
if u guys can think 5 times a day, world will be a better place
I support minishorts in tat i believe action speaks louder than simple fake gestures(i will pray for thee.)
soo to those lovely ppl who just love to say they care and they pray.. why dont they take a moment to think before they pray?
Im sure u dun lose any points wif ur god(all almighty+ merciful) for good thinking and action!
June 24th, 2008 at 3:56 am
this was the original post.
then zefi syok sendiri think ppl insult his 5/day diet, askin if other religions can pray 5 times too..
does this answer ur many questions..
i say ur ignorant becos u seem to think only moslems have the right to 5/day.
I call u osama because u insisted that only 5/day = moslems, others all kafir..
soo clear or not? brilliant university student…
June 26th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Dear smiles,
Firstly, you seem to commit a lot of conversational fallacies.
You might have already know, but Muslims don’t just pray 5 times a day. They have different types of prayer, and the 5 are compulsory. (supposedly) You can read more here.
I don’t know if you already know this, but suggestion another interpretation is not equal to an answer.
You said that “it’s not just the Muslims who pray five times a day.” You offered another view point. Fine, but that doesn’t mean that it the “poem” was not directed at them.
You said that “I support minishorts in tat i believe action speaks louder than simple fake gestures(i will pray for thee.)” but still, you didn’t say whether the poem was meant for them or not.
In all your explanations, you explained nothing. You only offered suggestion of looking at it in a different view point, and nothing else. It’s like you’re kicking a dog, and pointing towards the other side and said, “look, there’s a cat over there!” Of course, there would be a cat at the direction you’re pointing at, but the fact is that you also did kick a dog.
You could’ve used other numbers, like 4, or 3, or even 10. I’m just trying to understand better: you randomly chose the number 5, and it has no significance whatsoever? No implicit meaning whatsoever?
Ah, Osama’s good. It actually means “lion.” I feel so honoured. Thanks.
And you know, if you wanna discredit me by addressing me sarcastically, you could’ve done a better job by using my self-proclaimed experience in comparative-religion studies against me, rather than kept saying “he’s a university student and he doesn’t even understand simple logic!” You even put words I didn’t say in my mouth, by making erroneous assumptions, like:
“then zefi syok sendiri think ppl insult his 5/day diet,…”
“…becos u seem to think only moslems have the right to 5/day,”
“…u insisted that only 5/day = moslems.”
Using your own argument, couldn’t it be that I do not think that they only pray 5 times a day, but more than that, and was amazed at your allegation that it did not only refers to them, but also others?
Remember, I’m not the one who said, “its not just moslems who pray 5 times a day ler..” you said it.
Your other attempts at defending yourself was commendable, but this one was just plain lame. If you want to discredit me, use proper tool. Please try to refrain from using a logical fallacy and also ad hominem. You even used tu quoque against mystique.
You know, you would do a very bad job at constructive discussions, or mentoring. Don’t become a teacher. Some kid who could’ve grown into a great person would most probably be traumatized and discouraged by your sense of superiority, and your frequent usage of the word “ignoramus.”
Volga, I don’t know why you’re trolling, but you don’t even know what motivates you from leaving that comment, right?
And Claire, I’ve been waiting for many days now for you to tell us off from continuing this Sisyphean conversation. You just couldn’t care less when it comes to childish arguments, huh?
Should I ‘care more’? I’m not the one involved in this crazy debate. I did ponder about whether I should ‘moderate’ the stuff that’s in this chain, but seeing that my own conversation in this post above is all about ‘the fixated belief to be right NO MATTER WHAT’, your little debate with smiles (childish or not) seems to fit the conversational flow just right.