God's Gift: Life
NIKKIE NATONIO OCTOBER 4, 2010
ECONOMICS 102
GOD'S GIFT: LIFE
Our mind is free to do what it wants but our heart is a prisoner of our own inhibitions. For so long, it was like that. We have gone through a lot of lifeless days and cold nights. Those were the times of our life when our days seemed to be numbered. Its as if we will never glimpse at the rising sun in a beautiful morning again. Every time we open our eyes, it looks like we are at the edge of a cliff where from beneath, we can see people and things are just about the size of an ant. We know that we stayed there for so long time and sooner, if we will let this rotten heart rule, we will eventually fall. All of life is experienced. Everything we ever learned throughout our existence has been one big experience, starting where our life began. At some point in time we came into being. We perceived things around us, but we were not aware of who we were or even that we existed. At birth, we entered a world of sights and sounds, and we interacted with them in the only way we knew how. We made no cognizant choices; We simply behaved as we would, regardless of how we “ought to.” We were simply us. It’s a wonder that we ever came to know ourself. We knew about the things around us before we knew of ourself, and even after we became self-conscious, we only knew of ourself in relation to those things. To this day, we only know ourself in relation to the things and actions and feelings that we experienced around us in our lifetime. We cannot know ourself apart from our experiences. We need a reality outside of us with which to interact. We need a story in which to see ourself. We heard of a courtyard outside a Buddhist temple in which there were 15 large stones. The stones were placed in such a way that anywhere we might stand inside the courtyard, we can only see
ECONOMICS 102
GOD'S GIFT: LIFE
Our mind is free to do what it wants but our heart is a prisoner of our own inhibitions. For so long, it was like that. We have gone through a lot of lifeless days and cold nights. Those were the times of our life when our days seemed to be numbered. Its as if we will never glimpse at the rising sun in a beautiful morning again. Every time we open our eyes, it looks like we are at the edge of a cliff where from beneath, we can see people and things are just about the size of an ant. We know that we stayed there for so long time and sooner, if we will let this rotten heart rule, we will eventually fall. All of life is experienced. Everything we ever learned throughout our existence has been one big experience, starting where our life began. At some point in time we came into being. We perceived things around us, but we were not aware of who we were or even that we existed. At birth, we entered a world of sights and sounds, and we interacted with them in the only way we knew how. We made no cognizant choices; We simply behaved as we would, regardless of how we “ought to.” We were simply us. It’s a wonder that we ever came to know ourself. We knew about the things around us before we knew of ourself, and even after we became self-conscious, we only knew of ourself in relation to those things. To this day, we only know ourself in relation to the things and actions and feelings that we experienced around us in our lifetime. We cannot know ourself apart from our experiences. We need a reality outside of us with which to interact. We need a story in which to see ourself. We heard of a courtyard outside a Buddhist temple in which there were 15 large stones. The stones were placed in such a way that anywhere we might stand inside the courtyard, we can only see