This is a newsletter where you get three perception-altering ideas every Saturday that help you become a better person.
And these insights don’t come from random “deep quotes” searches on the Web, mind you, but from (mostly) books, podcasts, articles, videos. And I share only what I find helpful. So, please share with your loved ones, if you find this stuff valuable.
Here are this week’s insights:
1. Limitations
Human eyes can perceive things only in the forms that they know.
When we’re trying to uncover the secrets of the world we’re on an even worse level than a person born with no eyes trying to understand the world of colors. In the latter case, others can help, even if without success, to explain things to that person. But in the former case, we’re on our own.
And when we stumble upon some pattern, we hastily name it a law. Even though we have proofs enough of how many laws and theories have been proved wrong in the past.
It’s better to remain skeptical of our abilities, our theories, our laws, even while advancing. Not to be discouraged, but to keep in mind that there’s more.
2. Intolerance
The law of intolerance is therefore absurd and barbaric. It is the law of the jungle and, indeed, it is even worse because wild animals kill others only to eat, while we human beings are extermination each other for the sake of a few paragraphs.
Voltaire is talking about religious intolerance and paragraphs from holy books. Intolerance today isn’t as severe as it used to be more than a hundred years ago. For instance, you’re not going to get publicly burned alive, or executed with the breaking wheel, for your faith.
But, the problem is still there and has taken other forms. In some parts of the world, people are still killing each other for religion—they’re doing holy service. And not only for religion but also for looks, language, clothing, hairstyle, sexual identity, beliefs.
It seems that the faster we are progressing in the stream of science, the tighter many people are clinging to their superstitions. Just as when a spaceship didn’t arrive to take away the members of a cult to another world, instead of throwing their delusions away, they became even more convinced of their otherworldly saviors.
Now, I’m not advocating against God. No. But, like Voltaire, I’m asking us to be tolerant of fellow beings and their choices regarding their lives. Since, as far as we know, each has only one life, so instead of trying to own someone’s life, let them live however they wish.
3. Experience
A person does not simply experience something and not be impressed by it. Anything you see, hear, sense becomes a part of you. It’s a different matter entirely if that new part is neutralized by other stronger parts. But that thing, which you went through, experienced, sensed, did leave an impression upon you—no matter how minuscule, no matter of what sort.
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