Plato student of Socrates teacher of Aristotle teacher of Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great, man of my dreams!
When I took my philosophy class and began to learn about these three amazing men (I only said that Alexander the Great was the man of my dreams for effect) I feel as though Plato's amazing contribution to the world was a significant eye opening and amazing calling to me. I have always loved to have a good philosophical discussion. I love trying to learn about life or how to live in a better way, where I can feel happy without having all the things that to society or to the world, may be the only reasons to be truly happy. In other words, happiness to me is not having money or fancy things, happiness to me, is feeling good in my heart, having health and knowing that I am raising my children in the very best way that I possibly can as a single mother.
Now I am not saying that I wouldn't want to have a million dollars, I most definitely would, what I am saying is that to me, there are finer things in life that have nothing to do with money or the material things that we constantly look for. Yes, I would love to live in a big house, yes I want to be able to get my hair cut by a professional and not have to do it by myself the way I will be doing tomorrow. However, that is not very important to me. More important to me is, living my life right.
I sort of have always known that I'm not about material things. Although when I was younger I was very materialistic, to the point that I wouldn't even date someone if he didn't wear the right name brand. However, I was younger and all over the place (not that I'm not all over the place now) But at least now, I look for answers to my questions. Deep down inside though, even when I was younger, I would think about things in a very philosophical way. But it wasn't until I took my philosophy class in my second semester of school, that I realized how amazing philosophy truly is. I also realized that the contribution of these 3 Greek philosophers was just simply amazing.
When I learned of Socrate's death, I was on the train reading my book for my class, I remember I was standing there reading this and all of a sudden, when I learned that he had been killed, I felt as if I knew him and tears began rolling down my face and I was extremely moved. He died for the truth.
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, lived before Jesus Crist, yet when I think of Plato's teachings and those of Jesus, I cannot help but to notice the similarities. I'm not someone that has studied either one of them intensely, nor do I know the bible inside and out, but it is my basic understanding that what they both taught was one very simple thing and that was, that we are all good and that we all know what's right and what's wrong and we all further know, that the only thing we need in order to be all the things that we can be is love.
Jesus walked around preaching love, Plato taught the basic fundamentals of a human being. Yet when you look at Plato's teachings, it comes down to the same exact thing, and that is, that with love for man kind and each other, we can live the life that we are meant to.
Plato says, that we all have the good in us, but as we begin to grow and start pilling up all the judgments, ego, anger, resentment and the ideas and all of the things that we start to accumulate in our lives, we begin to loose that goodness that is in each and everyone of us. The goodness that we are born with, the god in all of us. When I think about these things in a deep way, it makes me extremely sad, because if we all lived our lives in the way it was intended for us to live it, then each and everyone of us could live a happy fruitful, magnificent life. And the world, for sure, would be a better place.
There are some days that things are so crystal clear to me, that it is almost overwhelming. So overwhelming in fact, that I almost don't believe it. It's a feeling of pure happiness, that is almost impossible to describe, yet I turn away from it because it almost appears to me like it can't be true, but it is, it is to me and every single one of us.
I believe that both Plato and Jesus were sent to this earth, to teach us this. Not only were they sent down to teach us these things, to enlighten us with wisdom, but so was every other spiritual leader or anyone else that you choose to follow. It appears to me, that they were all trying to accomplish the same goal, yet we are to blind or afraid to take on the challenge of pure love and happiness. We are so blinded by all our prejudices and all the social pressures that we forget the fundamental things that are truly important. We fail to see the good in things, even that which is bad.
Plato says that there is good in all of us. Tonight, I went to a wake and on my way to the wake, I was writing about Plato (this post). I arrived at the wake and a few minutes later, a priest arrived to give a sermon. So I am listening to his sermon and as he is talking, he is almost confirming to me what I was thinking while writing this post on my way there. In other words, my thoughts that I was writing, was the words that the priest was sharing. I felt so weird when I heard what he was saying, because my thoughts were not about God or Jesus, my thoughts were about Plato and philosophy. It was scary almost that he was saying almost exactly what I had just been writing.
The priest was there talking about God and trying to give my friends comfort with his words, trying to give them the courage and strength that it takes to keep moving forward after loosing someone we love. Telling them to keep moving forward and uniting in their time of despair. Then, he ends it with "even the person you think may be absolutely bad has something good in him we just need to look for it."
When I think of those last words the priest said and the fact that I had just been writing that, I get chills. I think the only way we can see the good in people, is when we look at all people with loving eyes. Then and only then, can we see the good. I immediately after his comment, though of Hitler and the fact that one day, he had been good. That his life's experiences had turned him evil, but that even Hitler was made or put on this earth by God, to be good, his purpose was suppose to be that of good, but his life's choices had made him bad.
Everyday, I make choices and everyday, I make mistakes and sometimes I fuck up and do things that I am not proud of. However, I think that as long as I try my best to always learn from those mistakes, if everyday I try to look at everyone without judgments, If I try to live my life in a way that I can be proud of. Then at least I am taking the first step, to living a more fruitful happier more fulfilling life. I don't know if I'm rambling or making sense. Regardless of what anyway may think by reading this post, I know in my heart, that at least for me it is important to do the best that I can. To constantly search for the good in me and in all people, because I believe that the only true religion is non denominational, true religion is just, pure LOVE. With that, we can accomplish everything else.
When I took my philosophy class and began to learn about these three amazing men (I only said that Alexander the Great was the man of my dreams for effect) I feel as though Plato's amazing contribution to the world was a significant eye opening and amazing calling to me. I have always loved to have a good philosophical discussion. I love trying to learn about life or how to live in a better way, where I can feel happy without having all the things that to society or to the world, may be the only reasons to be truly happy. In other words, happiness to me is not having money or fancy things, happiness to me, is feeling good in my heart, having health and knowing that I am raising my children in the very best way that I possibly can as a single mother.
Now I am not saying that I wouldn't want to have a million dollars, I most definitely would, what I am saying is that to me, there are finer things in life that have nothing to do with money or the material things that we constantly look for. Yes, I would love to live in a big house, yes I want to be able to get my hair cut by a professional and not have to do it by myself the way I will be doing tomorrow. However, that is not very important to me. More important to me is, living my life right.
I sort of have always known that I'm not about material things. Although when I was younger I was very materialistic, to the point that I wouldn't even date someone if he didn't wear the right name brand. However, I was younger and all over the place (not that I'm not all over the place now) But at least now, I look for answers to my questions. Deep down inside though, even when I was younger, I would think about things in a very philosophical way. But it wasn't until I took my philosophy class in my second semester of school, that I realized how amazing philosophy truly is. I also realized that the contribution of these 3 Greek philosophers was just simply amazing.
When I learned of Socrate's death, I was on the train reading my book for my class, I remember I was standing there reading this and all of a sudden, when I learned that he had been killed, I felt as if I knew him and tears began rolling down my face and I was extremely moved. He died for the truth.
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, lived before Jesus Crist, yet when I think of Plato's teachings and those of Jesus, I cannot help but to notice the similarities. I'm not someone that has studied either one of them intensely, nor do I know the bible inside and out, but it is my basic understanding that what they both taught was one very simple thing and that was, that we are all good and that we all know what's right and what's wrong and we all further know, that the only thing we need in order to be all the things that we can be is love.
Jesus walked around preaching love, Plato taught the basic fundamentals of a human being. Yet when you look at Plato's teachings, it comes down to the same exact thing, and that is, that with love for man kind and each other, we can live the life that we are meant to.
Plato says, that we all have the good in us, but as we begin to grow and start pilling up all the judgments, ego, anger, resentment and the ideas and all of the things that we start to accumulate in our lives, we begin to loose that goodness that is in each and everyone of us. The goodness that we are born with, the god in all of us. When I think about these things in a deep way, it makes me extremely sad, because if we all lived our lives in the way it was intended for us to live it, then each and everyone of us could live a happy fruitful, magnificent life. And the world, for sure, would be a better place.
There are some days that things are so crystal clear to me, that it is almost overwhelming. So overwhelming in fact, that I almost don't believe it. It's a feeling of pure happiness, that is almost impossible to describe, yet I turn away from it because it almost appears to me like it can't be true, but it is, it is to me and every single one of us.
I believe that both Plato and Jesus were sent to this earth, to teach us this. Not only were they sent down to teach us these things, to enlighten us with wisdom, but so was every other spiritual leader or anyone else that you choose to follow. It appears to me, that they were all trying to accomplish the same goal, yet we are to blind or afraid to take on the challenge of pure love and happiness. We are so blinded by all our prejudices and all the social pressures that we forget the fundamental things that are truly important. We fail to see the good in things, even that which is bad.
Plato says that there is good in all of us. Tonight, I went to a wake and on my way to the wake, I was writing about Plato (this post). I arrived at the wake and a few minutes later, a priest arrived to give a sermon. So I am listening to his sermon and as he is talking, he is almost confirming to me what I was thinking while writing this post on my way there. In other words, my thoughts that I was writing, was the words that the priest was sharing. I felt so weird when I heard what he was saying, because my thoughts were not about God or Jesus, my thoughts were about Plato and philosophy. It was scary almost that he was saying almost exactly what I had just been writing.
The priest was there talking about God and trying to give my friends comfort with his words, trying to give them the courage and strength that it takes to keep moving forward after loosing someone we love. Telling them to keep moving forward and uniting in their time of despair. Then, he ends it with "even the person you think may be absolutely bad has something good in him we just need to look for it."
When I think of those last words the priest said and the fact that I had just been writing that, I get chills. I think the only way we can see the good in people, is when we look at all people with loving eyes. Then and only then, can we see the good. I immediately after his comment, though of Hitler and the fact that one day, he had been good. That his life's experiences had turned him evil, but that even Hitler was made or put on this earth by God, to be good, his purpose was suppose to be that of good, but his life's choices had made him bad.
Everyday, I make choices and everyday, I make mistakes and sometimes I fuck up and do things that I am not proud of. However, I think that as long as I try my best to always learn from those mistakes, if everyday I try to look at everyone without judgments, If I try to live my life in a way that I can be proud of. Then at least I am taking the first step, to living a more fruitful happier more fulfilling life. I don't know if I'm rambling or making sense. Regardless of what anyway may think by reading this post, I know in my heart, that at least for me it is important to do the best that I can. To constantly search for the good in me and in all people, because I believe that the only true religion is non denominational, true religion is just, pure LOVE. With that, we can accomplish everything else.
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