Revison of "What Are the Elements That In Our Action?"

New Title:What Are The Elements That Motivate Our Actions?

This week, I read the Sanskrit poem Bhagavad-Gita, also known as the Song of the Lord.  This poem contains great philosophical ideas that are so endurable and powerful that it has influenced Indian society for thousands of years.  There are many philosophical perspectives within this poem, such as the rule of reincarnation, the rigid of the reincarnation order, discipline and duty.  However, among all those fascinating perspectives, the one about humans’ motivations for their actions--The Second Teaching, from sections 47 through 51 (Krishna’s words to Arjuna, trying to persuade him to fight)--is interesting for its parallels with Kant’s moral theory.

In section 47, it initially states that our actions should not bind with the consequences, and in the ensuing section 48, it complements that rather than focusing on the consequences, our actions should follow the discipline. The discipline is the neutral balanced manner between failure and success.  Section 49 to 50 basically describes that men become pitiful if their motives of the action are influenced by the consequences, instead of from their understanding of the discipline (it is neither failure and success, nor good and evil). In order to do that, they need to be rational and wise.  In fact, this idea is similar with a famous German philosopher, Immanuel Kant’s moral theory.  In Kant’s moral theory, he indicates that morality only exists when one’s action’s motivation come from a good will, which contains an obligation/discipline that has moral worth; and one does something only for the sake of the right thing itself, regardless of anything else (such as consequences, self-interests, experiences, education, etc).  Kant’s explanation to his idea is that if we do things do not meet such requirements he mentioned before, then we are not doing the right thing out of our very pure heart, and our mind are not free from desires(or any personal things), nor our decision or action will be considered free.  Coincidentally, in the section 51, the poem also indicates that if we are wise enough to “relinquish the fruit born of action,” we will be “freed from these bonds of rebirth,” and can “reach a place beyond decay.” 

This is something that we rarely thought about in our daily life, isn’t it? When we do things, it is almost impossible that not to think of the consequences or reactions that would be following after our decisions or actions; and in modern perspective, our motives of action should always have a reward or a punishment behind it, rather than thinking what is our firm duty/discipline, and that is why we are so easy to bind up with things in our lifes. 

Moment

After I read the 4^th chapter of the ancient Japanese novel From the Tale of Genji, “Evening Faces,” it reminds me a joke.  One day, a guy asks God, "God, what does 100 million years seem like to you?" God answers, “One hundred million years? That's like a moment me." Then the man asks again, "God, what's 100 million dollars seem like to you?" “One hundred million dollars? It seems like a penny to me." So this guy says, "Hey God, could I borrow a penny?" And God answers, "Sure. Just a moment."

So how long does a “moment” last? Well, a moment is actually a medieval unit of time equal to 90 seconds.  Of course, in modern days, it means a short period of time.  It is not that essential to measure how long a moment is, but far more important is to focus on how we should spend that moment, and how we are going to treasure the moment, as well as every moment in our lifes.  The reason is simple:  we cannot experience any one moment twice ever again; and what’s left will only exist in our memory.

In the story, Genji is initially going to visit his old nurse, and since the nurse is not at home, he meets the mysterious, shy and attractive woman next door in a conincidence. Then, they start to date day and night.  However, just a couple of days later, the girl dies after Genji woke up from a horrified dream at a strange night. It is all supernatural and sudden to Genji about the girl’s death, and he is very depressed by that. The time spend with the mysterious girl seems to last only a moment compared to the entire life experiences of Genji. However, no matter what Genji does after the girl’s death, what’s done cannot be undone: the moment with her was long gone.

  A moment can pass us by quickly and without a notice.  Sometimes, we never think of treasuring something until it is gone; and sometimes, even though we already have done our best to maintain something, it will still pass us by. That is the moment of life.  Therefore, we should take good care of ourselves because the moment in life is very limited, and we should also look after and treat people around us nicely because we do not know when they will forever pass us by. 

 

                                  A beautiful moment of the mysterious girl

An Orphan Elephant:Kinship Love

            I do not talk about my past to people often, not even to some of my friends.  The reason is not only because my story is very depressing to talk about, but also because my audiences usually misunderstand me. 

As an only child of my parents, I grew up in a normal Chinese family and lived a normal life until when I was nine years old my father went to the U.S. for a job.   Because of the departure of my father, the responsibility of supporting the whole family had doubled on my mother’s side: She had to work extra hard to pay back the debts which my father incurred for his trip, and also, she had to take care of me and my grandparents. Since she had no time to take care of herself, and due the accumulative pressure she obtained, just roughly a year later, she died of cancer when I was ten. Moreover, due to the passport and monetary difficulties, my father could not come back, nor I could go abroad; so I was all alone.   When I tell my story about this point, my audiences would say things like “I’m so sorry to hear that” or “Dude, you must have or develop an adamant and mature nature to live a life like that since then. You are such a man.”  By saying this, they have already missed the point.

            It was the love from the kinship which supported and protected me after my mother passed away.  Without my kin, how could I possibly live by myself in a condition that has nothing to eat and nowhere to live?  It was my grandparents who provided a comfortable room for me to live. It was them who cook for me and took care of me daily.  Also, my other relatives: uncles and aunts, they usually gave me money and take me to shopping mall to buy new clothes and shoes, and even a new computer.  Moreover, it was my cousins who would like to spend time with me and chat with me.  It was my kin who raised me up, and took an extremely good care of me.  They used their love to fill up my broken heart.  Thus, this is my life and my world: A world filled with kinship love, and without these love, I would not be here today.  They saved me.

            Once upon a time, I watched a TV show which is about elephants.  It describes the elephant herds, especially the female elders, usually aunts, will take care the little orphan elephants, until they grew older and stronger.  Once upon a time, I was an orphan elephant, and the herd and its love, was my whole world.