A Sunset of Promise

I continue struggling with the physical pain that has forced me into hospital two weeks ago. Thankfully, my pain wasn't that severe today but it's still early days and there can be good or bad days - depending on whether I wake up early enough to take my medication.

I admit there were hard days when I felt I wished to close myself to the world or even die. However, I knew that this pain, like any other thing, is simpermanent and one day will cease to be. In many ways, it's also an illusion if you think about it. All the pain is an result of the nervous system with no material basis.

This isn't implying that it lacs existence but that it arises out of the senses. In other words, if we had problems with our pain senses, we could be prone to doing ourselves harm or even die. Granted, nobody wishes to experience pain but it's good to know if the cup of tea you're about to drink is boiling before you Stuqrt gulping down its contents. Ouch! Stomach ulcer...

In the same way as pain is a warning mechanism that draws our attention to possible damage, I realise that this might have been how the body wanted to let me know that I needed to take a step back and collect my thoughts once-again and reexamine my life. Indeed, I am aware that part of my suffering arose from thoughts that echoed in my mind. When there was no pain. Even the times I was still a young boy.

I've returned home from hospital just a week ago but my memory fails to recall the details. Yet, together with all the memories and experiences I gathered over the years, I can truly say that I feel truly changed. I feel unsure about the future. Then, again, I had the opportunity to learn about myself and my relation to those around me.

in particular, I also found the support of friends and those close to me. We do forget atTimes how nuch we depend on each other, as individuals, on each other's cooperation to live our lives on this little rock we call Earth. For so much could happen to us in so little time that it's foolish to seek only for oneself.

On that note, I note that sunset has turned the day to night. Little things I've got to do. I need to eat, drink and, I hope to sleep.

Preparing for another day of unknown possibilities, preparing for the good and being open to the worse.

The Thing Called Pain

I've been experiencing a sense of pain for over a week. At times, it's as if it won't go away. A thought that I have even when I know nothing in this universe lasts forever.

This fact appears to provide a certain hope that that a future without this pain is certain.
While I wish that this physical pain disappears, so that I can return
to my routine, the fact that it has disrupted the routine gave me the
chance to examine my life and, when the pain is bearable, to force me
to attempt to understand pain.

The world today does well in finding means by which to manage pain. On the other hand, a degree of pain remains an essential sense to ensure
our health and survival. Indeed, feeling pain when putting your hand
on a burning fire can protect us for serious damage. And in so many
ways, pain is such a warning mechanism.

I believe, thus, that this pain I feel today is a result of days when
I failed to pay attention to my body and persisted as the pain
intensified. Eventually, it led to the current situation when I come
face to face with the reality of our human dependency or codependence.

But, if you think about it, pain isn't unreal because science reveals
that the sense of pain results from electrochemical signals
generated in the body. This isn't saying that pain doesn't exist but
that its reality isn't as solid and tangible as it might appear. In
this way, one could say that it's a simulation.

Apart from that, the experience of pain reveals how we are part of the
world and while we are separate in many ways from the world that
surrounds us, such a separation can never be complete but is always
partial and, maybe, artificial.

I appreciate the experience of pain not because I enjoy pain but
because it's giving me a chance to rekindle a sense of wonder.
Breaking up the chains of conventionality and, once more, offering me
the opportunity to pursue new possibilities.

This pain will end. Yet as long as there's only so much I can do at
present, is to learn from it.

The Urgent Need for a Universal Secularr Ethics

I have considered the challenges facing the world at the turn of the century and the start of this new millennium. Indeed, the world has gone through various global crises that have affected, on some level, all of us. We have witnessed some of the most dramatic environmental disasters, a persistent global recession, civil wars and terrorist activity. Many, if not all, remain unresolved and still the cause of world suffering. Unfortunately, while some events are beyond our direct control, we know that the ecological consequences of human actions have much to account for the freak weather hitting the world as I write by our failure to act.

In this sense, we are partly to blame for the disasters taking place around the world. Yet, people with hidden agendas or self-interests still deny that things have changed and we need to take urgent actions. It may be time to change how our world on various levels operates. We need to recognise that this world is not the same world we left at the end of the 20th century. In fact, we cannot afford to approach the world’s challenges today using an old approach that our world has now outgrown. We cannot afford to close ourselves to a rigid religious belief or to expect people not to question authority. We cannot assume that we can impose an ethics that is bound to a particular belief or unbelief without risking to alienate individuals who are coming from other backgrounds.

Thus, we should work together to face challenges facing all of us as a human family. Indeed, an urgent situation that doesn’t appear to be taken seriously, or more probably, overridden by personal, political and corporate interests emerging is the environmental impact of human activity on the environment. I notice that many times, such a topic is considered to be very appropriate for children but not as important as ‘adult’ conversations on politics, science, religion and so on and so forth. I have to add the economy on that list.

We may not see the gravity of the environmental crisis because we are only seeing early signs and we can still function so far. We all might be hoping that others in authority will save us. While we complain about the bad state of the planet, we fail to do our part and expect our future generations to do the work while we do the wasting. We are too interested in our income and what we can purchase. Yet, we forget that if it wasn’t for the ecology, the economy and all sectors of life, will collapse. After all, money in itself only has value thanks to a social agreement and is nothing more than printed paper and minted coins. A money bill will not feed you if you are lost in the middle of the desert.

It’s a failing I notice in both a scientific materialism that with no agreed basic ethics risks being reductionistic and a religious fundamentalism that affirms only one ethics bound to a particular belief system. In both approaches, basic human reality is being denied. It is here that I see an urgent need for a new type of ethics that is unbound to neither a reductionist view of humanity or an airy-fairy view of reality that should be driven by beliefs that cannot be changed. For both interpretations are unsustainable in a globalised society where there are many ways to live ethically.

Having said that, the problem of shaping an ethical system based on belief or faith isn’t because such an ethical system would have its good points but rather it presumes that only a particular system is valid and the other views are either weak or downright false and dangerous. This secular ethics, in fact, should respect diversity and accept the right of every human being to belief and express their identity and self-determination. At the same time, such an ethics should protect the freedom of speech and belief of all people.

This secular ethics should be an ethics that respects humanity’s common concerns. Thus, it should be based on a shared interest on the welfare of humanity. It cannot be tied to a set of ethics dictated by personal or group beliefs, but rather is founded on a number of principles that are of central importance of all living beings. As human beings who have more responsibility in safeguarding the future of many living species, our place within it should make it clear that since we have a greater control over the future of Earthly life, we should also have the greatest responsibility.

This isn’t placing humans in a superior position to other living beings because, at the end of it all, we - as human beings - and living beings all depend on one another Therefore, a secular ethics should be based on a respect of all living beings. We can’t survive without the sustenance of stable ecosystems. Indeed, without nature and the environment in which it grows, human society would just be impossible. We arise in relation to others and the outside living and non-living world.

In addition, we need other people to know ourselves in a society. It is also this society that is central in defining who we are. While it’s untenable for us to expect to agree on matters of beliefs, we can agree on some basic universal principles. We all want to be valued as persons and we can learn a lot if we were open to diverse opinions than our own without having to give up our own beliefs. In this sense, my idea of a universal secular ethics isn’t one that actively excludes value systems based on religion or faith. Rather, it’s a secular ethics that recognises and celebrates human potential and promotes a culture of dialogue and cooperation aimed at respecting every human being beyond culture, faith and all other ways that have divided us for so long.

Secular ethics should not deny individuality and the value of various ways of expressing our humanity. Yet, it should be based on ethical principles that ensure that we don’t forget that that we are all similar human beings, dependent on each other and the world and whom, must face our end. We have a responsibility to the whole world and to future generations.

We are at a point when we have talked enough. Even if other matters that affect our life are important, we cannot afford to waste our time and energy any longer on never ending conferences and discussions to solve the ecological crisis. It’s time to take concrete action for, no amount of abstract debate or hope to be saved will materialise if we don’t act today.

Let’s not forget that without a stable ecology, human life would be impossible.