What personal principles did you adhere to before entering this course and where did they come from? Were they taught to you? Did you develop them on your own? How have our readings and discussions impacted those principles? Of the principles covered which are you drawn to the most and why?
Upon entering this course I held several personal principles that I live by. I call it the trinity: God, myself, and school. The "trinity" was actually an invention of my older sister's. She is 25 years old, goes to Colombia, and is graduating with a Masters in Psychology in May. One day I asked her how she did it and she told me God comes first no matter what, then you have to take care of yourself (phsyically, emotionally etc.), and after that its SCHOOL SCHOOL SCHOOL!
I believe in these principles. Personally, God is an infinite source of power, inspiration, motivion, strength, and inner peace. God is a never ending resource for me, and when I run out of steam he's always there. The self is also inportant. How are could you do anything if you dont take care of yourself??!! If you don't feel whole and centered, you're not fit to do much of anything. And finally school, in my family school is everything and I agree. A good education is fundamental to the career of my dreams (being a neurosurgeon), or any respectable career.
Our readings and disscussions have strengthed my principles on all three fronts. When it comes to God and our disscusion about the exisitence of Him in our quest to find the meaning of life has reinforced my believes because no one could produce a better explaination that God has lied down for us. We also discussed the self along with trying to define happiness. Some people said we as individuals know what makes us happy because we know ourselves. Some said it was God who is know that way to happiness. I believe it is a mixture of both. And finally, in order to be a philosopher and to contemplate (the ultimate virtue) you have to be educated. Socrates and Aristotle were both scholars and opened up schools during their lifetime, backing the third part of my trinity.
I was most drawn to the taoist principles because they support my idea that happiness is a temporary state and that you should focus more on contentment. I find a lot of people don't appriciate contentment. Greed, in my opinion is one of the biggist antagonist of ever peaceful contentment.
I commented on http://becksbradley.blogspot.com/ 's blog.
