October 18, 2007
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Being and Changing
Are all my past thoughts assumed in my present moment of existence; or must I rethink them? Certainly I have been changed by many thoughts and occurrences in my past, but at any given moment I am not thinking of them. Thus, is how I am in the present moment, the way I think, what I think, and my mood about life, simply a general addition of all that has already come to pass in my life? Is it true that I am constantly changing into a slightly different person in every moment? And is it further true that this change is predicated upon what I am consciously pursuing mentally or physically at any given time?
So my present state of being is what has been carved by thoughts and actions, day by day over the period of my past leading up to this moment, so that I do not have to be in perpetual perception of things I have thought. But instead a thought came to me at one time, and whatever thought it was chipped the sculpture of my mind, so it was slightly affected. When many similar thoughts, or thoughts of the same mood, were chipped, my mind gradually formed more into the state of those thoughts. The ultimate state of those type of thoughts is whatever they look like when they are all massed together; or put simply, the genre or quiddity of those thoughts. So how I presently am is a summation of all that I have been doing and been thinking; and every day I am being further crafted by my own will in what I think and do.
The thought that started this meditation was that I am not constantly consciously thinking all that has created who I presently am, and yet I am still presently who those thoughts have created; but where it led me made me vaguely remember a quote from C.S. Lewis that I eventually found after a long time of searching:
“[E]very time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature.”What can we conclude from this grand realization that we gradually become what we habitually think and do?
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” [Philippians 4:7-9]
Comments (4)
ryc: It isn’t just Harris. Not a one of the representatives of the newly militant atheism can give a lick of meaning to the universe or articulate a viable moral framework, outside of the desperately unsatisfying “..life has whatever meaning you give it.”
I put up an interesting thought exercise here.
Haven’t yet had an atheist answer it. Ah well.
For me, tonight, that’s a really discouraging thought. But on the other hand, just thinking that there must be some positive side to this is itself a positive side of the issue. Intresting how that works out. It’s just like your last post; it’s a self-validifiying assumption.
Feel
ryc: Though I’d heard about it, I hadn’t yet read it. Thanks!