Theory and Practice of Life

I see myself as a student of life, and I keep on learning new lessons every moment. Life itself is the subject of my study, and I learn this subject by directly experiencing life. The more I learn about life the more mysterious it becomes to me. I have been learning since I arrived in this world, and I want to continue to learn until I leave. The very experience of learning excites me. Every new thing I learn opens a whole new world before me.

I learn primarily by observing and experiencing life. Whatever I notice and experience gets compared in my mind with whatever I have previously noticed and experienced. This leads to the formation of concepts and understanding. Once a theory develops in me, I would want to verify it by further observation and experiments with life. Each theory helps me to take a step forward. I abandon a theory once I find a better and more satisfying theory.

Learning is not an individual endeavor. I always learn from others, and others learn from me. I read classics and scriptures from the ancient times to compare my understanding of life with that of the wise people from the past. Writing this down is an attempt to share my thoughts with others. While I do this, I get an opportunity to clarify my own thoughts. Also those who read this get an opportunity to understand their own thoughts by comparing with mine.

Writing down my thoughts is also a risk. It is very easy for a reader to misunderstand my thoughts and my intention. Misunderstanding comes easily, but understanding requires some effort and patience. I convey my thoughts using statements which can be either facts or my own opinions. One may misunderstand facts to be opinions or opinions to be facts. Also sometimes I use literal language and sometimes I use metaphorical language. One may misunderstand literal to be metaphorical and metaphorical to be literal. Words have multiple meanings. Although I use a certain word in a certain context to mean a certain idea, a reader may not receive the exact idea I mean by that word.

In spite of the risk of being misunderstood, I continue to write with the hope of learning more. I write primarily to learn. Information processing happens within my mind in a faster pace when I write, which helps me to take giant leaps at times.

I have also noticed that all that I experience cannot be verbalized. There is a  limit to my thoughts and language. Hence, my understanding cannot be fully conveyed.

A theory of life

I have a system of beliefs and practices upon which my life stands. The beliefs are about life itself. If my life is like a building, my beliefs are like its foundation. If life is like a trip, and if I am like a train, my beliefs are the rails on which my life runs, and the map that is used for the trip. Therefore, if I am serious about life, I have to be serious about my belief system as well.

These beliefs orient me. They are about what I am, where I am, why I am here and how I need to live my life. A meaningful life is impossible without some sort of answers to these questions. Facts are not available as answers to these questions. Only beliefs are available. Beliefs vary from person to person, community to community, place to place and from time to time. Beliefs need to be used as stepping stones in our journey of life. As long as a belief helps us to move on in life, it serves its purpose. A belief is like a ferryboat. It takes me from one shore to the other. Once I reach the other shore, I need to discard this ferryboat and continue my journey using another means of transportation. On the other hand, if I carry the ferryboat with me even if I don’t want it, it will become a hindrance to a successful journey.

Such an understanding of beliefs is a very liberating experience. It lets me drop a lot of ferryboats and continue my journey easily and successfully. It also saves me from unnecessary arguments and fights about which ferryboat is better than the others. A ferryboat has a specific use in a specific situation. Once it serves its purpose, I need to leave it right there and move on. Depending upon the specific situation I am in, I classify the available beliefs into beneficial, harmful, or neutral. I make use of the beneficial ones, discard the harmful ones, and ignore the neutral ones.

I share most of my beliefs with the community around me. This community has inherited a set of beliefs from its ancestors and will transfer them to its descendants.  Although I share most of my beliefs with the whole of humanity, I share some of them only with the particular religious culture I belong to, which is the Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and some of them only with my social culture I belong to, which is the Malayalee community in the south Indian state of Kerala. I may have certain beliefs at any time that are not generally accepted within my own culture and community.

My understanding of life keeps on changing as I continue to grow and develop. When I move one step forward in life, I have to discard my present understanding of life, and have to adopt a new understanding.  If my understanding stays the same refusing to change, my life also comes to a standstill. In order to let my understanding change as I advance in life, I have to keep my mind open all the time. A closed mind results in an unchanging understanding, and an unchanging life.

The purpose of beliefs is to help me advance in life. I need to become more and more successful in my life. If this should happen, the primary condition is to keep my mind open and watchful. Each day, each week, and each month, it has to evaluate if I am advancing in my life. It also has to evaluate the belief system on which I stand to see if it helps me achieve my goal. If I find that my beliefs pull me back, I will have to discard my present understanding of life, and adopt a new understanding. It is like discarding an old theory of life for a new theory.

In order to discard a theory that doesn’t work, and adopt a new theory that works, I need to be convinced that my knowledge is not absolute at all. Whatever I think right could be wrong. If I hang on to a piece of knowledge as ultimate truth, I wouldn’t be willing to give it up, and my belief system stays the same, and my life won’t advance.

Man remains ignorant about the ultimate questions about life such as: What is life? Why do we live? How should we live? No absolutely right answers can be given to these questions. Only beliefs and theories are possible.

Here I am writing my present theory of life. I am writing this so that I can have a better grasp of it. I am not writing this to convert anyone to my theory of life because by the time I finish writing this, my theory will have changed. Once I have a better understanding of my present theory of life, I can advance to a better theory. If someone cares to understand my theory of life by reading this, he/she will have an opportunity to have a look at his/her own theory of life in the light of my theory of life. Some others reading this may laugh at this, for they have a much better theory of life. I humbly admit that I am open to any corrections or modifications.  

Life is impossible for conscious beings without a theory of it. All people have a theory of life. However, most of the people take the theory for granted. They are not aware that they have a theory. If they are asked specific questions, they might be able to spell out their theory in bits and pieces. Only very few people consciously ask basic questions about life and seek answers. Apples have fallen on the heads of innumerable people; however, only a Newton asked a question about it and sought its answer. He came up with a theory of why apples fall down instead of going up. He did not claim any infallibility to this theory. He admitted that he was just like a child playing at the shore of the ocean of knowledge. I live my life just like anybody else. The only difference is that I dare to ask questions about life as Newton did. The questions might sound simple or even stupid. However, they might yield invaluable information and wisdom about life.

Born and raised in an Eastern Orthodox Christian family in South India, I began looking at life through the eyes of a Christian. Along with the Christian religious tradition, I also became familiar with the other Indian religious traditions such a Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. I have been living out of India for about twenty years, and this has given me a global perspective. Today I try to look at life through the eyes of a human being. I look at all the religions of the world as the collective, rich heritage of the human race. The question, which of them is true or false, is silly to me. They all belong to us, and it is up to us to make use of this rich heritage for the advantage of the humanity. I will be referring much more often to Christianity than to the other religions, not out of disrespect or disregard to the others. It is simply because Christianity is what I am more familiar with. It is like my mother tongue.  

In constructing a theory of life, we have to distinguish between what we already know and what we don’t know. What we already know shall be stated as facts, and what we don’t know shall be stated as beliefs. A fact is a statement that can be verified to be true, whereas, a belief is a statement that cannot verified at all. A belief might be true or false –we just don’t know. Once it can be verified, then it gets promoted to the level of fact. Presenting a belief as a fact is dishonesty.  

We also have to distinguish between literal and metaphorical language when constructing a theory of life. We use metaphorical language because something new can be known only by comparing to something familiar to us. A lot of misunderstanding is caused by taking the metaphorical language literally.

By the term “world’ I mean here all that exist.  We need a comprehensive view of all that exist at the outset. We can’t live our everyday life without a world-view. Every society functions with a shared world-view. World-views are among the beliefs we inherit. They get modified and passed on to the next generation.  No one has ever seen the world as such. It is impossible to look at the world from the outside because we are a part of the world. Therefore, the overall view of the world is beyond our knowledge. The only option is to create a model of the world in our imagination. Here we need the help of metaphorical language. We need to compare the world to something we are familiar with. If we examine the religious scriptures, we will find in them innumerable models of the world. World-views are always created related to the living conditions and knowledge of people. The agrarian civilization saw the world as a large farm with God as its farmer. A variant was to see the whole world as a tree. The sheep-rearing communities saw a shepherd in God. Relating to the basic family structure, it was easy to see the world as a family. The development of political systems changed world-views accordingly. The world was seen as a kingdom with God as its king. With the development of industrial age and science, the world was seen as a huge machine. The development of computer and worldwide network is at work in creating another world-view today. No model is perfect, or is suitable for all purposes. Therefore, we will have to choose models according to the purpose and situation.

Equally important is the need for a theory of what an individual human being is. I need a working model of myself. How is man related to the ultimate reality? My Christian religious tradition calls man an image of God, which means that man is the visible representation of the invisible God. The Indian religious tradition asks me to identify with all that exists (aham brahmasmi). How is the body of man related to his mind and his soul? Most of the religious traditions describe the human body as the temple of God. Man also is given the freedom to be the image of God or to deny that privilege. Man has the potential to exhibit the ultimate reality through him fully by growing to that level. Without identifying with the body and the mind, I have to identify myself with my true self, the soul, the I. This helps me to gain control over my mind and body.

Although I have an individual existence, I have a communal existence too. I am a part of my immediate family, my larger family, my religious community, my workplace community, my nation, and the human community. This is how my communal existence extends spatially. My communal existence has a temporal extension too. I and my community that is alive is a part of a larger community that consists of all those who have passed away, and all those who are going to live. This is my relation with the other human beings. The human beings are related to non-human beings such as viruses, bacteria, plants, and animals. The human beings are also related to any beings that live elsewhere in the universe, which include those who are in higher levels of existence. All living beings depend upon nonliving beings (things) for their existence. Looking that way, the whole of the universe may be seen as one huge living being.

My individual way of life is so much conditioned by the culture in which I was born and brought up. My communal life is much more conditioned by my culture. As an individual, I experiment so much with life. As my enthusiasm and my quest for truth may not be shared by the other members of my community, such experiments won’t be undertaken by my community. Hence, as an individual, at times I feel so much constricted within my community. However, soon I overcome my sense of bondage acknowledging that I am a part of my community, a higher form of existence, and that someone like me has a specific role to play in my community. I also think of the community as a support group of individuals – the stronger the bond, the stronger the support.  Being a part of a community, an individual has not only the privilege of being supported but also the responsibility to support others.  

As an individual I find myself a member of both a small community and the entire human community that includes the former. For example, I am a member of the Christian church, and also a member of the humanity. I am a citizen of India, and also a citizen of the world. I find myself in trouble if my membership in the smaller one is opposed to my membership in the larger one. I must be able to see the smaller community as a part of the whole. For example, India is a part of the world, and the Christian religion is a part of the humanity. Being the citizen of India does not mean that I am against the rest of the world. Being in Christian religion does not mean that I am against the rest of the humanity. From my small family, I extend my mind to see the whole world as a family. Standing inside a church building to pray, I extend my awareness to see the whole world as the temple of God.

  

Practice of life

Raised as a Christian, I practiced prayer, fasting, attending religious festivals etc. from my childhood though not always with the same intensity. As I grew up, I couldn’t relate them much to my life, as no one helped me to understand the meaning of those practices satisfactorily. Influenced by the western Christian groups, I found personal prayer meaningful for some time. I was influenced by the practice of yoga from my childhood. It involved certain physical exercises, some controlled breathing, and some concentration. My knowledge of yoga was only from books, and I could not practice yoga consistently. However, looking back at my past years, I realize that a combination of yoga and personal prayer I have always done has helped me tremendously to keep my sanity. I shall briefly describe and explain my own way of practicing yoga and personal prayer.   

Doing exercises is a part of my daily life. Twenty minutes of walking a day keeps my blood sugar level down, and keeps me healthy and fit. I usually do a little mental exercise along with that. Yoga is nothing but mental exercise for me. I usually do it in four parts.

1. Relaxation. I consciously relax all the muscles in my whole body. Muscles in turn relax the motor nerves, which in turn relax the mind.

2. Controlled breathing.

a. Whole body breathing. While taking deep breath, I imagine that my whole body is breathing in and out. Then I imagine that I am breathing in and out along with the whole universe. This exercise helps me realize that I am one with the universe.

b. Breathing through each nostril alternately. Breathe in through one, and breathe out through the other. This might be useful for the coordination of the left and right brains.

3. Stimulating each of the five senses.

a. Eyes. Look at something. Then close my eyes and try to see it in my mind. Repeat it. Each time I look at the object more carefully.

b. Ears. Try to listen to all the sounds around me.

c. Nose. Try to smell all the smells around me.

d. Taste. Try to taste consciously.

e. Feel the whole body part by part.

4. Concentration. I use one of the following ways.

a. I look at an object, and imagine that my mind is fixed there, and I cannot move it from there. I keep my mind there without thinking of anything. After a few minutes, when I feel that my mind has really become one with that object, I stop it.

b. I imagine that my mind is like a room, and I stand aside and watch the thoughts and feelings that enter my mind.

c. I fix my mind in a sound I repeatedly utter.

d. I fix my mind in the act of breathing.

These exercises help me stay free from the bondage of my body and my mind. My own body and my mind are nothing but my tools. My body is nothing but my container, and my mind is nothing but a tool to think and feel. When I really know in my subconscious mind that the real I is neither my mind nor my body, I am freed to grow further.

When I am able to keep my mind still without thinking, I am making myself free from all the thought-patterns and belief systems that have bound my mind in the past with or without my knowledge.  

There is a fifth mental exercise I do now and then. Its purpose is to stimulate the memory. I try to force my mind to remember all that happened that day in order. If I do this for a few days continuously, I will know that my power of memory has increased considerably.

Along with these mental exercises I do personal prayer as well. It helps me place myself in the right relationship with the ultimate being and with my fellow beings.  Traditionally prayer has the following components:

1. Praise.  Coming to God’s presence, I see God’s glory, and I praise God involuntarily. God does not need my praise, nor will God dislike me if I do not praise God. I praise God primarily for being holy, almighty, all-knowing, and immortal. When I realize that God alone is all-knowing and holy, I admit that all humans including me have limited knowledge, and that it is human to err. When I realize that God alone is all-powerful, I admit that all human beings have limited abilities, and so we all need to depend on and help each other. When I realize that God alone is immortal, I realize that all human beings are mortals, living with the life of God.   

2. Thanks. My realization that God owns everything, my existence is fully because of God, and God wishes only my well being, I will always have a positive attitude of gratefulness. Complaints are not a part of prayer.

3. Repentance. The realization that God is all-knowing and fully right and the realization that my life is a journey toward the perfection of God, make me come to God’s presence with an attitude of repentance. I will be like the prodigal son coming to his father’s presence admitting that he was wrong; not like his older brother who justified himself and accused his brother and father.  

4. Self-surrender. All the preceding will naturally lead me to surrendering myself fully to God. Like the prodigal son, I will say, “I am not worthy to be called thy child; let me be thy servant”.

5. Intercession. Once I acknowledge and respond to Gods love, love flows from me to my fellow beings. I will wish for the well-being of all my fellow beings.

What I have said above are what I do as an individual. Just as an individual does exercises to maintain health, a community also does exercises. When all the members of a family get together around a table to eat or when they get together for a family prayer, these can be considered exercises of the family. When the members in a religious community get together weekly in a church or a temple or a mosque, they are doing an exercise to maintain their community. All celebrations may be considered exercises of a community.

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