Archive for November, 2008

Didactic of Faith

I find myself writing this as a comment in a friend’s blog…

To me faith is a state of being, that one has set in their minds – modeled after and inseparable from the understanding in their hearts – a deep trust. Faith itself, is useless unless it is based on something that is steadfast, something incontrovertible. Our common doubting of our faith, is not that our trust is weak, it’s that our minds aren’t fully conformed into what our hearts believe – hence we want to believe but aren’t certain. Overcoming it would mean that sometimes, we accept that we cannot fully understand in our minds – but we know in our hearts… and that is enough.

I think some ppl are more ‘heart-belief equals mind-knowledge’, and for some others ‘heart-belief comes after mind-knowledge’. Faith is easier for the stoics – who know, but don’t necessarily need to feel – because they feel what they know/believe. But it’s a double edge sword. I think I’m this kind to an extent. But I know I feel too. But not as strong as how a feeler will feel when they have a strong conviction of faith. So anyway, that’s just food for thought. It’s not a theological hypothesis =)

Otherwise, we can just try to understand that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Maybe faith is a potent mixture of visceral and cerebral notions.

Bedside Popcorn

Imagine walking into a cinema without the need to queue for a ticket. Now as you pass the entrance to the screening halls, there is no one to tab your tickets – you don’t have a ticket! You walk pass. As you walk upon stars on the embroidered carpet of red and blue, you emancipate into a state of calm. You’re now lying on a chair that seems so much like, a bed. You’re wrapped in a cosy warm blanket. You open your eyes and wonder how you skipped the door to the hall, and the search for your seat’s row and number. As you lower your head, it rests upon a marshmallow of a pillow. You exhale in a state of bliss.

You find yourself walking along a street, or sitting somewhere else talking to someone, or observing some de’javu moment. You forget you were in the cinema. You’re now in the movie. You’re the director, you’re the cinematographer, you’re a DVD player, you’re the actor. Every scene plays out in perfect randomness and to some extent, you know what’s going to happen next. But sometimes, you don’t. And anxiety takes over. But that’s part of the suspense, the thrill.

You evanesce into another state. This time, your eyes – slowly adjusting to the light around you, blurness dissipates into a make-up of a table, then the wall, books, and then some. Your move your arms and feel the fur on your cuddly puppy. You smile. You’re awake. You breathe. You shut your eyes for a brief moment to harness whatever strength you find in attempts to remember that scene that just happened. The one that felt so profound, yet so random, yet queer, yet mystical, and sometimes euphoric. Sometimes, sad, emphatic. Sometimes, weird. You open your eyes to realize you cannot remember anything else but snippets. Now, you grasp a movie that has converged into a mere picture. This is one’s fragment of imagination – literally.

This is a dream. You smile. You go back to sleep. But you feel guilty. You wake. You sit up. You smile. You wish. You live.

Two Books in a Day, and More

I finished the novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Song of Songs today. What a combination huh. That inter-spliced with a segment of Socrates in Love about Eros and eros, and the animation Grave of the Fireflies. All this, coz I couldn’t sleep. But managed to catch a seemingly long fifty winks during the day.

I have this to say about Breakfast at Tiffany’s… I wish I could tell more though, but I cannot.

Everything else I had privy to today, illustrates in one way or another – one of the following forms of love; eros, xenia, philia, storge, agape. Some in more striking fashion than the other, but these juxtaposition of literature and art, today, compounds and builds upon my lingering thoughts over the past few days.

How we struggle with life. And love. And the battle of accepting that tis’ better to have loved than not to have loved at all. Speaking of which, that saying… was in reference to a more brotherly love than a lost lover – I found out. Google “In Memoriam”.

In the end, it seems – we all seek love to find arete. To emancipate to a higher state of being – holds some truth.

Arya… what a nice name. Comes from the same root work for arete.