My House

What does one need to build a good house? He needs to find a land first, a land where it is sturdy enough to build on. How does one know this? Easy, you survey the land, check for humidity, soil texture, type, and land history. The same can be said when it comes to housing a philosophy into one’s mind. Before one can start talking about his philosophy in life, it is only necessary that he knows himself deeply enough, that he knows his own philosophy, otherwise, if he does not know himself, he could not know what his philosophy in life is.

I had been a huge fan of thinkers my entire life. I didn’t like to memorize *insert rationalization and sour-grapes here*, I wanted to think, and I wanted to understand. The simple thought of doing nothing disgusts me. “How does a refrigerator work? How does an air conditioner work?” I could not be at peace with myself until I find meaning or answers to those questions. I had many questions. One day we were having a “class” with my father when he told me about what this person, JFK’s brother I think, thought about questions, that it was good to ask why, but it was always better to ask why not – to make dreams a reality.

This was at this point that I started knowing myself. I had me a good foundation of where to build my house – my philosophical house. To reinforce my house, I needed to make a good foundation, not just a good ground; I mean a really good foundation. I started “consulting” people. I went out, talked to a lot of people, learned from them, viewed things from their perspectives and compared them with mine. I started living.

One of the more interesting people I’ve met was my Relsone professor, had he a lot of ideas that stirred my mind. “Faith without works is dead, JAS 2:17.” He wanted to instill that in our hearts. Then he also talked about heaven and hell and how they do not exist.
Later, I added reason. Further, one needs to have a good wall and a strong roof. Those will what make you a structure, but not yet a house. A good structure cannot be penetrated by just strong winds and rains. It is in itself, a fortress. But that does not mean it can not be penetrated totally, a wall can be torn down [with owner’s consent], and have it extended on one side after all. That’s what you call change and acceptance. When one wants to accommodate more inside his house, he does just this.

Why does heaven and hell not exist? Simple I thought, because the concept of heaven and hell was just coined by people who could not find meaning into their existence somewhere else. They wanted their lives to have meaning, and if doing good would not take you to heaven, then there’s no meaning to that. If doing bad does not take you to hell, there’s no meaning to that either, they thought. It is not uncommon to hear the phrase “liars go to hell” when I was young. People are actually teaching their kids to do good to NOT go to hell. For me, this is NOT how people should think. Reason separates man from animals, as sentient beings. We are not like our dogs that we train, we understand. Dogs could be manipulated using a good biscuit. This should not be the same case with human beings, one should not do good because he wants to go to heaven, one should do good because reason dictates him to do good, he should do good because it is good.
Now what makes this structure a good place to dwell in? You need a comfortable couch, a good bed and tables to go with them, to get a good rest and sleep, and of course door locks to protect your things with, to be at peace at night. One is at peace with himself when he knows his mind is safe, when no one could just take everything from him with one sweep. One is at peace with himself when his philosophy is not under threat. On the brighter side though, when a house is threatened, one is in doubt. But doubt should not be feared. Doubt should not be taken for granted either. It is when at doubt that man starts to use reason to solve things. When one becomes so passionate and comfortable, one might refuse to use reason, it is doubt that balances reason and passion.

Now what will you need to complete this structure? What will you need to make this a house? Well, you need people to dwell in it; you need people to share your house with. One should not end with just a good structure; the structure would be useless if no one lived in it. You put your philosophy into practice. It is that point when one completes living a life. You should not just end in believing in something, you need to concretize what you believe in. After all, even the bible would agree, again, that faith without works is dead. It would not have been “believing” in something if you could not put it into practice, otherwise, you do not believe in it after all.
Now what will make this house a home? Some say that you can not have if home with a family and a house alone. Happiness and love makes it a home. How does one achieve this? According to the Hindu belief, what can make a man happy is joy, knowledge, life, and infinity of those mentioned – infinite joy, infinite knowledge, and infinite life. How can one achieve this when infinite joy is limited by suffering, that infinite knowledge is hindered by fallacies, and the road to infinite life is obstructed by death? Easy they say, because knowing oneself, he gets closer to God. Man is the temple of God. When one is with God, he will find infinite joy, knowledge and life. So it will all bring us back to the questions not about the surroundings, not about the stars, not about the comets, not about the milky way, not about the earth either, but to ourselves, and how we should relate to mankind.

A philosophical house is not just a structure where you throw everything in and it builds by itself, otherwise it would not be a house, it would only be a pile of wood, stone, metal and mud. It takes years to build a house. And in building this house, you need to choose your materials wisely. And in choosing the materials needed, you will need to examine them – a test. And my test to the materials I choose? Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better relationships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? It seems to be a pretty good place to start.
But before all this, before one could even build a house. He needs to do something about it. He needs to take actions into his own hands. One thing about the atheists that I like? They don’t just pray and hope that something will spring from the ground. They know that they could not just rely on a powerful being to do their work for them, if they wanted something, they do something about it. And atheism does not necessarily equate to evil. They just believe that they need to take matters into their hands. As for me? I believe there is a God. Just because I want to take matters into my own hands does not make me evil. And if I was a God, I would have my people do the same before they turn to me. To build a house, you need to do everything that you could, find out everything that you might need. To build a philosophical house, go out into the society and learn about its problems, and do something about it. You could choose to build a small shanty, a modest bungalow, a comfortable duplex. Mix everything with reason, passion, truth and a dash of faith and you could build any philosophical house that you like. If you did just this, put your mind and heart into it, you could build yourself a mansion.

One’s philosophy is just like a house. This must be what my late professor wanted us to realize before we started off with the course. When a person grows older, it is inevitable that he starts to ask questions about life, what kind of life he wants to live, what type of work he wants to pursue, what house he wants to build on, and eventually, to whom he wants to share this house with.