Good morning, World.
Today’s song is Come Back, Be Here by Taylor Swift (Taylor’s version please). Listen to it with me.
Some days I wake up with a song in my head and I find a pleasant meaning associated with it. Today is not one of those days — I woke up, mad, a leaf blower was blasting its way through the garden of my apartment building at 1000 this morning and found a tidy remix of Come Back Be Here x Teach Me How to Dougie on TikTok. The good part lasts for a neat 15 seconds but I’ll take it.
I’m outdoors, writing in the shaded area on a wooden bench. It’s lovely here. Blue skies with patches of cloud so skimpily and poorly condensed it looks like cytoplasm burst from a membrane, the kind you learn about in Secondary School. I hear the sound of traffic in the background, view hindered by a freshly trimmed garden and a yellow butterfly dances past me as I start my journal entry. A good sign. I feel.. thankful and lucky to see its life.
Buddhism/Taoism
I’ve been looking for a belief system to subscribe to for quite some time. I was born into a family of Buddhists and Taoists. As far as my knowledge goes, I know this:
Buddhism is non-theistic, a philosophy, a way of life. Buddhism does not concern itself with creation, it merely teaches its beliefs about karma and reincarnation, the best way people should lead their lives. I.e. There is no ‘I’.
Taoism, on the other hand, believes in transformation and energy, and to live harmoniously with nature. Almost like a human-cosmos transcendence. Buddhism and Taoism have very similar values, and I think could be one of the bases of ‘spirituality’ that we understand in the western world. I think, in fact, plenty of native asian cultures (as well as indigenous traditions) bear familiarity with modernised western spiritual thought pieces. Not that western beliefs are plagiarisms, but I am ashamed to only have started recognising and embracing the influence of asian-affiliated religions after learning the western ways. Imperialism! And ignorance, on my part.
Which religion could give you all you could believe in?
So I remain now as I did when I was 13, questioning the nuances of religion, confused and convinced there is “one”, “true”, “real” thing to believe.
That is until I realised — I take bits of what I can to create my own belief system. See, the benchmark is that it has to be real enough, believable enough for me.
I adopt the Buddhists’ faithlessness in a diety, and their teachings in mortality. I believe the Taoists’ idea of living in the rhythms of flow and spontaneity. From them I believe in reincarnation. I like to believe I am a more spiritual than religious person now. So I believe some things happen for a reason, whether that is to be made clear now or later on. (then someone in my brain argues if things happen for reasons at all). It is okay to accept both these answers, I think. I believe we accept the most convenient and comfortable truths to go on living our lives.
I believe in evolution, Science, our chemical compositions and at the base of it all I think I mostly believe in the autonomous self. What we think about certain situations, how we react, can influence the way we perceive and understand things. The ability to self-regulate and all that. Thereafter, as creators of our minds and realities, our physical bodies and the way it reacts, the tangible ways in which we choose to lead our lives, changes accordingly.
If you were wondering, my philosophy is that sometimes life just happens. If you find yourself needing to attribute a meaning to it, go ahead. Though I’d like to note that sometimes life happens and we don’t give it a meaning in the first place. We don’t realise it because we aren’t actively looking for it, until we are. Accepting things as they are, though, can be difficult. I may have become somewhat of a Pantheist because I choose to believe that there is something magical in living. Spices things up.
What anything means to you
It’s all perspective I reckon — Maybe God is giving you a sign that you should leave your current job to chase better opportunities. Maybe all there is, is you believing there is a better opportunity out there, and the confirmation bias theory. Maybe believing in a divine gives you hope and faith that unexpected, not great things can happen to lead you to your desires or equivalents of them. Maybe you can accept life happening as it is, and comfortably move forward from there.
It’s kind of the egg and the chicken. Where do you want to draw the line? Can’t keep debating forever, not if you want to settle with an answer. Unless you can live in the cyclical nature of it. See where I’m going with this?
Accept what you can about the theories about the workings of the world, reject what you cannot. Division exists even within religions, people take what they want and use it to further their agenda. Figure out what yours is, and let go of everything that does not align. We don’t need to believe fully in one thing. I think life is way too complicated for that.
But we need to respect others and their beliefs — best we can do. Be kind, be humble, be charitable. Respect all. Maybe that’s all there is.
P.S. Always keen to listen to different world views, if you’d like to share yours.
