50 Philosophical Gems

1.) Majority of people you meet are very fickle and whimsical in nature.  Forgive them for what they do (or do not do) for they do not know who they are or understand the full implications of what they do when they do it. Realize that most people are moved to act based on emotion not reason.  Very few people that you will encounter act based on reason first, emotion second.

2.)  Life is nothing more than a set of choices that you will make at every moment you are alive.  Every choice has a consequence, outcome, and ramification.  The consequence, outcome, and ramification cannot be avoided by not making the decision.  By not making a choice, that too has its own consequences, outcomes, and ramifications.

3.) The “Birth Lottery” will always play an impact on the choices that you have in your life and the beliefs that you believe in (unconsciously with certainty -if not consciously- and especially in the early stages of your life).

4.)  Reality simplified is nothing more than people wearing masks.  Reality simplified is nothing more than people acting on stage with the role(s) they are given through the “Birth Lottery” and through the choices, they have made.  Reality simplified is nothing more than Shadows and Light, the “Unseen” and “Seen” simultaneously conflicting with one another for your attention.

5.) Life is filled with ups and downs, peaks and valleys.  If you were to draw it on a linear chart, a day and a lifetime has ups and down, peaks and valleys, and mixed in there is mundane routines and rituals. 

6.) All things you do in life entail risk.  In fact, all things and people in life can be seen either as: “liabilities”, “assets”, or “incentives”.  Simplified, that means that not all things are equal in life.  Some people that are “assets” in your life will be able to bring benefits to your life and make you feel a certain positive way and open doors for you or make you see things you otherwise could not see.  On the other hand, there are people that are “liabilities” who will pull you down and have their best interests over yours thus not enabling you to reach your full limit.  In each situation, and with each person, you have to understand what their “incentive” is.  These terms also apply with situational choices you will make in your day-to-day life.

7.) Learn from others.  What someone lacks or what you lack, someone else can provide.  Never stop learning or you will stagnant.  Never become repetitive seeing only what you already know and already understand for in truth, "walls that keep out danger, keep out knowledge".  Your stagnation also has the ability (directly and indirectly) to cause others around you to stagnate therefore it is not in your best interest to let yourself stagnate.

8.) You are created in order to die.  It is not a matter of “if” but “how” and “when”.  When death comes, you can never know with certainty when it will happen or how it will happen.  Therefore, you can never know beforehand, the amount of experiences and moments you have before your death.  Appreciate the moments and experiences because each one could be your last and if you decide not to appreciate it, the main ramification is that you are wearing out your body and causing it unnecessary stress before your death, nothing more, nothing less.

9.) Ego must be conquered and if not conquered, at worst ego must be tamed.  Ego automatically brings with it emotional responses and emotional attachments to situations, words, and interactions.  You must understand that you are more than your ego.  In order to tame your ego and conquer it, your thought processes must be able to look at situations, interactions, and words at a macrocosmic level and a microcosmic level simultaneously therefore not allowing ego to be your one sole guide during situations, interactions, and words.  You must be able to balance both parts of your personality, your ego and your thought processes and not allow them to fuse into one being.

10.) There are more ways to be “wrong” than “right” in every given situation and in every given moment.  Realize this truth so you will not allow yourself to be a doormat to everyone’s needs and expectations.  Realize this truth so that you do not unnecessarily struggle in trying to make everyone around you happy and satisfied and in return, your sense of self is squarely rooted around the happiness of others and meeting their expectations and needs.  Being squarely rooted in the happiness of others is an unnecessary uphill battle that can be avoided.

11.) Morality is cultural, individual, perceptual, situational, and relative. Situations dictate morals and there are no absolutes when it comes to morality and “sin”.  The need to survive often overtakes “sin” and morality and therefore is the major determinate when situations, actions, and events occur.

12.) Every moment is an opportunity.  Life is too short for regrets, second-guessing yourself, “what if’s?”, and “what could have been?”  Understand that each and every moment is an opportunity to move forward, to correct the past (or at least accept it and learn the lesson from the past), and to act in the present.

13.) Nothing is permanent, everything is temporary.  All things are fleeting and change occurs in the blink of any eye. 

14.) To see anything for what it is, eliminate your biasness and defensive positions and look at things with a “blank slate”.  Look at things as if it is the teacher and you are the student.

15.) Life is about saying, “goodbyes”.  There are easy “goodbyes” and hard “goodbyes”.  Nonetheless, life will be filled with many “goodbyes” before you pass away.  That is an unavoidable part of life.

16.) What attracts your attention says a lot about you.  What attracts your attention also has transformative powers inside yourself and in your everyday life. 

17.) Communication is the key to understanding, the key to growth, the key to transformation, and the key to existence.  (Self-communication as well as communication with others plays a major role in your life).  What you put into your mind affects the way you communicate and the way you understand, misunderstand, interpret or misinterpret when communication takes place.  Therefore, never stop brushing up on your communication skills.

18.) Dependence on others leads to living a precarious and defensive life.  This often leads to defensive thinking and defensive communication patterns.  Dependence often allows a door for ego to walk into the home.

19.) “Just cause”, “I just know”, and shrugging your shoulders do not constitute a reply or an answer.  Once a subject or topic is broached, it is easier to communicate it through than just walking away, especially if you were the one to have strong feelings or opinions about it.  By being able to communicate through it, it will allow for growth and a resolution to be made.  Avoiding communication leaves everything in limbo and leaves everything unresolved.

20.) The world is nothing more than “buyers” and “sellers”, “givers” and “receivers”.  You play both roles at different moments and at different times in your life.  In most cases, there are no “free lunches” and a form of the “barter system” comes into play where it is a “favor for a favor”.  You decide at any given moment and at any given situation if you want to be a “buyer” or a “seller”, a “giver” or a “receiver”.

21.) Passing judgment in any form says more about you than it does the topic at hand or the person you encounter and interact with.

22.) Maturity = Acknowledgement, Responsibility, and Accountability.  Simplistic ideals that majority of grown adults do not participate in. This type of maturity takes form in thought, action, and through word.

23.) Attachment to results, Attachment to people, Attachment to positions, and Attachment to timelines –leads to suffering and stress.

24.) Life is transformation.  You are not going to be the same person mentally, emotionally, or physically that you were from one moment to the next.  Give yourself room to breathe by not speaking in “absolutes” and by not speaking “in certainties”.  Thoughts and perceptions change in a blink of an eye.

25.) Everything in life is reactions, counter reactions, preventative measures, and counter measures.  Everything and everyone is reacting to things all around them whether you see it and understand it or you do not.

26.) Things are in motion that will affect your life whether you know it or not or are even present in the moment when they are occurring.  Nothing ever stops, only our perception of it leads us to believe it has stopped and is no longer playing a part in something else happening presently.

27.) In life, do not become attached to your actions.  Many times, you will “Just do” and “Just react” because of the social, political, cultural, and environmental factors at play all around you (not because you want to or choose to).   Hence, do not be attached to your action, your position, or your role.  You are created in this reality in order to be “used” by the reality that you are born into.  You are created to play a role in this reality as soon as you are born (whether you accept it or not).  Your existence the moment it occurs automatically caused a reaction.

28.) You can prepare for many things but not everything.  Some things will catch you by surprise and have unexpected results on you and your life.  In fact, “preparing for it” and “living it” are two entirely different things, yet both are interwoven together.  Many times, it is easier to prepare but harder to live through something with it occurs.  In some case, it is easier to live through than it is to prepare for.

29.) All belief systems and actions center on ideologies and thought patterns whether they are –cultural, political, sociological, or religious.  You choose (or do not choose one for yourself).  However, you are born into a particular belief system and given a particular thought pattern.  That is unavoidable.

30.) Just because the answer has not come to you, do not dismiss it, block it, or ignore it.  Let the question or thought float in your mind and eventually the answer will come (even if it comes later).

31.) Majority of words used and sentences constructed during communication are “comparative” not “neutral”.  The words you use during communication are important to perception and direction.  Being “concise” or choosing to be “vague” will lead to different results but both can be used during communication.

32.) To see anything clearly, eliminate your bias viewpoint and defensive position and take a neutral position.  To see anything for what it is in its entirety, you will have to wear three different "hats" simultaneously.  The "first hat" will enable you to see it without bias where you take a stance of neutrality.  The "second hat" will involve you taking one side of the spectrum and seeing it from that perspective.  The "third hat" will involve you seeing it from the other end of the spectrum.  Most topics can be seen clearly when drawn on a horizontal line and being able to navigate through the line from one point to another.

33.) You cannot escape the impact of culture, politics, finances/economics, natural environment, or gender in your life.  It is better to understand and accept your position and role in your social reality than to try to alter the social reality you exist in.  Trying to change the social reality rather than understanding the position and role you play (and why you play it) is less liberating and more stressful to you and those around you.

34.) You cannot “save” everyone unless they themselves want to be “saved”.  Pity is often times more destructive than helpful to all parties involved in any given situation.  Though you may have the best intentions in mind, you might not be able to save them.  However, they can pull you down and drown you with them.  Victimization makes victims of us all.

35.) Not all good intentions, good thoughts, and good actions lead to good things and good outcomes.  Not all bad intentions, bad thoughts, and bad actions lead to bad things and bad outcomes.  The ultimate result can never be determined for it has to play out on its own once it has started.  The ultimate result will be determined by a number of unknown variables at play no matter what sets the action into motion in the first place.

36.) You cannot predict the future.  Though you may be able to envision a certain vision of the future when standing in the present, you do not know with certainty (and without having doubts) how everything will play out in order to achieve that future that you envision.  Predicting the future often leads to self-fulfilling prophecies and is the sole reason why psychics and fortunetellers are problematic.  Knowing the future changes behaviors and thought patterns that you have.  Knowing the future alters the actions that you engage in the present.  More so, there are also more problems trying to predict or control an outcome without letting it play out on its own.  In fact, the future is never crystallized.  The future depends on the outcome of many variables at play in every moment of your life.  Living for the future prevents you from living in the present.

37.) Identifying as being “different” is also as much a cliche as being a “follower” or the “same”.  You are part and parcel of your social reality and the timeline that you are born into.  To avoid judging others or yourself, understand and realize that you or others cannot be taken or removed from their timeline.

38.) Do not do “something” expecting “something” in return (especially when dealing with people).  Many times, “something” leads to “nothing”, it is the expectation that leads to emotion and disappointment.  It is the expectation that allows ego to walk through the door.  Realize that when it comes to human beings, humans are variables that are often not predictable.

39.) Learn to laugh not only at yourself but also at the world.  The world will do its best to break you, dissuade you, and confuse you.  However, when you can laugh at yourself and the world, you diminish and hamper the negativity that the world’s institutions and its residents will throw at you on a daily basis.

40.) Every moment is a lifetime.  Appreciate every moment for once the moment is gone, it never appears the same way again.

41.) Life is perceptual.  Life is as you make it.  Life is “long” or “short”, “easy” or “hard”, “good” or “bad”, “positive” or “negative”, “sad” or “happy”, “empty” or “full”.  Life is nothing more than the way you perceive it at any given time or moment.

42.) Meaning and purpose is different for everyone.  Not everyone starts at the exact same starting point as everyone else.  Understanding another’s purpose or their meaning in life allows you to become liberated from ego when viewing them, their purpose, or their actions.

43.) Each life is lived on its own as well as simultaneously being lived in conjunction with others.  You can never fully understand the thought patterns and thought processes of those around you or expect them to fully understand the thought patterns and thought processes you are having.  Many times in life, people will understand parts of what it is you are conveying but not all of it.  Many times in life, though you walk in a room full of people, you are simultaneously walking alone.

44.) Your seven senses (including the subconscious or “third eye”, as it is commonly referred) are all sponges.  All seven senses that you possess soak in everything at every moment of your existence.  It is unavoidable that one of your seven senses is not picking something up.

45.) Appreciate the similarities and differences at play.  However, do not just see the similarity or just see the difference.  Both come into play simultaneously at all times.  “Political correctness” has enabled us to only see the similarities and avoid the differences, not understand and appreciate the differences.  “Political correctness” enables us to be tolerant by avoiding the topic all together and remaining on superficial topics and socially accepted norms.  “Political correctness” allowed us to speak in euphemistic terms and say many loaded words and yet at the same time, say very little meaningful words.

46.) You can always find reasons to do and act OR you can find excuses to do and act.  You cannot do both simultaneously.  It is always in your power to decide to find a reason or to find an excuse.  “You are apt to do what matters most at the cost of what matters least”.

47.) In the end, though you might both start at the same starting point at any given situation, most people will pick a side (whether they reveal it or not is another matter).  It is easier to pick a side than be left alone on your own with your own thoughts OR to try to play the neutral role and be the mediator without having an incentive for yourself.  Each side in any given situation will have an expectation of you once you become involved.  Each side will have an expectation of what you need to do for them in order for them to reach their objective.  Once you become involved in something, though you are in control of yourself, you can never fully know where the situation can head, the implications it will have on you, and the end result (those are all variables that are out of your control).  Once you get involved in something, sometimes it is easier to get involved than remove yourself from it.

48.) Hedonism and Self Restraint are opposite sides of the same horizontal spectrum.  You have to find what part of the spectrum works for you.  You have to find your balance and position on the spectrum and decide where you stand in any given situation or at any moment.  For some individuals, hedonism works, for others self restrain works.  For others, moderation works.  Where an individual stands on this horizontal spectrum is an individual choice that all people must make for themselves.

49.) You can only open a door for someone, you cannot walk through the door for them.  Sometimes, experience is the only teacher.

50.) Don’t forget but forgive and forgive whole-heartedly when you do.  You allow your ego to dissipate and you are not controlled by the past.  Instead, you are focused on the present and that in itself is the most liberating thing that you can do for yourself.