Our Innate Thirst For Understanding

I would argue that everyone is philosophically-inclinced; to the degree that we want to understand the events in our lives. A world that makes 'sense' is important to us. Thus, there is a desire so deep and so pervasive in the very constitution of what it means to be human that compels us to try and discern the rationale behind the reality. Why are things the way they are? Is there some 'grand conspiracy'--an invisible, secret cabal controlling the events that are, well, beyond our own personal control? Or is everything sort of haphazard and random, with only minimal human control able to be exhibited on any one level of our lives?

I would also contend that when things are 'going well' we don't seek to understand the reasons and the rationale behind why things are the way they are. We are just grateful. Maybe even a little superstitious so we don't dare ask too many questions or pose to many queries, lest we jinx ourselves. Besides, when things are going well we are often caught up in the 'flow of events' to the point that there is no sense of separate self-hood that wants to look back and reflect on events so as to analyze them for their logic. This is why, as I mentioned yesterday, there is a mutual relationship between suffering and philosophy. Suffering is good for philosophy, for psychology, for religion, for inquiry of any and all sorts--even scientific.

Let me hit this one again: If things are moving along nicely you are just enjoying yourself and the world you are in harmony with. There is no need to ask, to inquire, to investigate. Just enjoy what is! Just being caught up in the 'flow' is enough.

However, if things are not moving along so nicely you are not enjoying yourself! So there is an inhernet incentive to inquire and investigate into the potential reasons why things are not going so smoothly. Philosophy, psychology, and religion seem to me to emerge in that context--the context of suffering. Dukkha (Sanskrit for 'unsatisfactoriness') is like the thorn in our side that compels the questions that compel the philosophy.

The happy, meanwhile, are somewhere 'immersed fully in the moment.' ; o)