The Oracle Chapter 4 (Anthropos)
Life
(Zoi)
1. The Oracle defines life, as a quality that is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy transformation and reproduction, but in philosophy it means much more.
2. Life is a natural experiment that we experience daily, and the wonders of life are to be understood like the misfortunes that befall, as a developing part of the influential process of our evolution. Diogenes said, "Life has three types of grapes. The first of pleasure. The second of intoxication. The third of disgust".
3. Human beings for centuries have attempted to analyse and find the reason for their purpose in life. Some people have uniquely found that purpose and others have failed miserably in the endeavour. Epictetus once said, “Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.” This is the answer about life.
4. Is our consciousness the key to resolving the mystery of life? Could we ever in our effort and contemplation reduce the mitigating effects of suffering? Is our world only a token reference to the condition of our reality?
5. Does time only reveal the relevancy of existence? Is depression the concealment of our volition? Is fear the representation of our uncertainty? Why should life be reduced to death? “Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself", said Epictetus. Life is full of many mysteries and riddles.
6. Socrates believed that the only life worth living is a life that is persistent in seeking good character. There is a simplicity in life that we discover, but are reluctant to admit its actual relevance. This simplicity is called the moment.
7. If life is governed by the set of rules of probabilistic or deterministic causes to occurrences, then everything in life would either be perceived, as being predictable or unpredictable in nature.
8. "The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things," said Epictetus. Life is what we construct of it, not the unbearable things that we cannot control.
9. "The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival," declared Aristotle. If we merely construe life to be survival than we would be exacting the importance of death, over the importance of life.
10. The most universal thing is life and the most definite thing is time. Time is the determining factor to the ultimate form of life, with its common quintessence and interchangeable value.
11. Death is not the purpose for life, because as inherent beings, we the people of the world determine what is the purpose of our life. Without volition, there is no need for function. Thereby, death could only be interpreted, as a non sequitur or a natural state. Epicureus said, "Death is nothing to us. When we exist death is not, and when death exists, we are not. All sensation and consciousness ends with death and therefore in death there is neither pleasure nor pain. The fear of death arises from the belief that in death, there is awareness".
12. Every whole-minded person must be accountable, for his or her actions in life. Everyone is capable of the common traits of good and bad. It is we the people that define their relevant signification. Diogenes said, "Wisdom serves to restrain the youth, consoltion for the old, wealth for the poor and embellishment for the rich."
13. "The really important thing is not to live, but to live well. And to live well meant, along with more enjoyable things in life, to live according to your principles," Socrates said. The manner in which we understand life is integral to our survival. We cannot survive on the mere necessity, when there is the factor of the unknown mystery that accompanies the probability of death.
14. We must learn to cherish the value of life and accept that it is relevant, as long as we make it relevant. It is lasting, as long as we last. Thus, we live as long as we have life. People have become more mechanical in their minds, actions, instincts, thoughts that they have forsaken the most necessary demonstration of humanity, consciousness.
15. There is nothing fair about life or about its actual essence. A person does not choose to be born or the need to be treated unfairly. Its essence is not governed by some force of indivisibility, but by the elements of the factor of time, restraint and contingency.
16. "The state comes into existence for the sake of life and continues to exist for the sake of good life," said Aristotle. The worst failure in life for a man is never being successful in the eyes of others. People search for a deity to answer their prayers, when all they need is to explore the innermost depth of their mind for happiness in life.
17. There is an abyss within us all that cannot be eradicated or extemporised. It has no external shape, no internal meaning, except that it is there. It is a cruelty that no man should bear without enjoyment. It has many names or titles, but it hides itself well under the guise of emptiness.
18. Piety or as the Greeks call it Eusebia is a measure of human benevolence that should reflect not the ego of the person, but the conscience that awards this act as a considerable purpose. It is eudemonia along with euporia that we humans seek to obtain in life.
19. People usually take life for granted and believe that they are entitled more good fortune than what they have presently, yet they forget that life is contingent to what a person does with that life, not to a mere fancy.
20. Must everything be understood about life or is life in essence, merely all that we understand it to be and to mean, without a concise or elaborate definition? As conscious beings, we conceptualise from our observations, whether nomic or telic, the nature of our world. What we are is predicated on, who do we believe we are in function and who do we perceive ourselves in essence?
21. The beauty of life is being able to enjoy in such a brief time, the simplistic quintessence of what it means to be human with common expression. The moral of the story of life can be resumed in the simplicity of life.
22. We are all observers of life, but we can choose to be participants of our observations. If my ultimate purpose in life is to serve the cause of philosophy, then may the centuries attest to the strife of my resolution.
23. In life, a man cannot be a hostage to his irrational desires or thoughts. He must learn to accept his human weaknesses and strengthen his conscious mind to overcome them. Until he can achieve this, he will remain a nolitional hostage to his irrationality.
24. No one has the right to take an innocent life from this Earth. We are not the proprietors of time or death, but the keepers of life. We can choose to be the semblance of substantial difference or the cruelty of the extreme indifference to human life.
25. Epictetus had stated that there is only one way to happiness in life and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. Life is full of the endless chapters of experiences, and many chapters are still left to be written.
26. As human beings, we have the capacity to alter the condition of our existence. To know the meaning of life, a person cannot be hindered by a thing humans call fate?
27. If we ascribed to that notion, would it not be plausible that extinction is the ultimate fate of mankind in the future and the planet will be ruled and dominated by artificial intelligence and life? If so, we are doomed from the beginning.
28. "If you don't get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don't want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can't hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is law and no amount of pretending will alter that reality," said Socrates.
29. Obstacles are not the extraneous impediments that are imposed upon us in life, instead the impediments that we impose upon ourselves with our reluctance. This type of irrational thinking leads to nowhere of substance.
30. To be humble is not the same as to be reverent, for to be forgotten is easier than to be remembered. What we feel entitled is what we merit and what we have earned by our diligence.
31. Life is indeed a lifelong journey to be embarked and to be never taken for granted; for we are not guaranteed its continuation. To live is not the same as to die. A man can learn to not fear death. He must embrace life, as he must embrace death.
32. Life can mean many things or it can merely be the reflection of a sobering truth. We attempt to grasp through our understanding, the complexities in life, but sometimes life is more of simplicity in nature.
33. If I use reasons to determine the course of my life, my behaviour or the consequences of my actions, then I must first acknowledge that I am flawed not flawless. There is a moment in one's life, when one's vulnerability becomes one's conviction.
34. Life can never be the replica of dreams, because it is only the guise of a yearning hope. Life is a journey with a course. We either embrace it or we forsake it; even though we might not understand its mysteries.
35. What we seem to want is not always what we truly need. Nor what we crave is what is good for us. There are plenteous things that are less worthy than others and are more of a benefit than a vice.
36. We could continue to dwell within the boredom of living or venture beyond the world of the pages of our ingenuity. We could rise up to the challenges of life or remain insignificant in its obtenebrated mysteries.
37. Life is the measurement of our episodes and experiences. To learn entirely about something, we must first be willing to free the burden that disenables our progress in life. "Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding on to", said Socrates.
38. To be cognisant about our suffering is to be human. To ignore our suffering is to be inhumane. We must learn to suffer in order to understand life. We must learn to be sad, in order to understand happiness. Life is about experimenting every high and low, every good and bad.
39. The Oracle provides the knowledge and wisdom that permits thinkers to become philosophers, and those individuals that aspire to influence with their inspirations. It is not a divine vaticination, or the miracle of a sacred text. It is the avatar of a revolutionary philosophy.
40. "The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom," said Plato.
41. According to Plato an individual is just when each part of his or her self performs functions without interfering with those of other elements. We are the ones that control the course of our path in the world of flux, when we do not allow others or other things to render us powerless. We either choose to live in the reality of the apparent world, or the illusion of the ideal world.
42. Whatever I shall become, and wherever I shall be, the universal question is, howsoever shall I be understood by the world? That is the pending question that we ask ourselves instinctively, related to our impermanence. Anaximander asked, "Who is there that could redeem you from the curse of coming-to-be?"
43. I try to understand the universal truth, about many things in this world. I am only an observer of the world I live in presently. I perceive many things that people simply ignore. We all have the power to be observers and knowers, but few of us have the understanding of wisdom and knowledge.
44. Patience is the virtue that we all acknowledge we need in life, yet it is the worse of all human traits, when it becomes impatience. We must learn the lesson of patience, so that we can apply it in accordance with our thinking.
45. There are qualities in sentient beings appertained that are particular attributes predominantly inherent and transpicuous in all of us. Whatever I assumed about my persona will be reflected in the manner of my self-expression.
46. Life for humans is a repetitive cycle of new experiences that are concatenated to our mortality. To some these experiences define their lives, or to others they merely are insignificant to their lives.
47. Philosophy ascribes to the meditative practice of self-control and self-awareness. It is vital to the self, body and mind that we contemplate the things that are applicable in our quotidian lives.
48. Expanding our minds and exposing them to new, innovative thoughts and concepts is alible to our minds. What we learn about what makes us happy and those things that are pertinent, will guide us to better paths and prepare us for difficult obstacles that need to be confronted.
49. Each enjoyment in life, is as good as each accomplishment that we effectuate. When we accept that life is not unjust, instead it is the circumstances and people that are unjust, then we start the process of comprehending the way the world revolves around us.
50. Until we realise that we can change the course of our life, we shall continue to linger in the repetitive cycle of stagnation and uncertainty. An uncertainty that is provoked by our unawareness to understand the reason or reasons that led us to this repetitive cycle in the beginning and our failure to act.
51. When we are able to determine the purpose for our life, then we facilitate the means of ascertaining that purpose, that goal. Life is not about reaching a certain place in time or in status. It is about appreciating the moment that is present and its fruition.
52. We tend to find comfort in things of commonality that we understand and are connected to life. Life is not about epicaricacy or residing in an inexplicable vacivity. There is nothing immoral about philocaly in life, when we appreciate the virtue of it. It is when we become an aesthete that we forsake virtue and replace it with egotism.
53. There is a capability that we all possess and that is the essence of life. To some it is fulfilling and to others it is onerous. Life is not meant to be perfect nor imperfect. Life is not discriminatory. It is people that are discriminatory.
54. When describing eunoia, its relevance is understood by the eupathy that we express and how we express that eunoia. Philosophy is not about revealing the truth only, it is about comprehending the truth in its absolute form when revealed.
55. Life has a plethora of challenges and obstacles daily that we must discern and resolve. It is how we learn to cope with them that displays our ability to apply logic and find reasonable answers.
56. To overcome the enigma about the vetusty of the mysteries of life, we should realise that there is much more to life than the simple fact of living and existing. This is when, we understand what life means.
57. A good cause in life is always inspiring and elevates the mind to its potentiality, but a bad cause will disable the mind and its rational thinking. We should learn to be more coherent in our reasoning than compulsive.
58. Life can be perceived as the measure of an illusion of the truth, or it is perceived as the example of our reality. It is difficult to conceive that we can instantiate a belief based on anthropism, or dismiss something of despair as nihilism.
59. Life is not the blind faith of rapture or the duration of fate. Our experiences are only a quantum of life and meant to be that of which we perceive and create knowingly. It is better to have a quality of life than a quantity of life that is meaningless.
60. There is a clear difference between the notion of pessimism and optimism. One is a reflection of what we discern as propitious and the other as fatalistic. Both pessimism and optimism are common and both demonstrate a state of mind.
61. It is always better for one to not exceed or self-indulge in pessimism nor optimism, but to find the middle ground in life. What we could enjoy does not require, a great measure of materiality. We could learn to be content with those things that we can cherish, not with those things that we accumulate in material value.
62. It is better to be poor in wealth than be poor in self and humility. The Oracle teaches one that to be humble is the one characteristic that we must never lose, or compromise for gain of wealth.
63. Suffering is only a part of our life, but it should not define us. We are people of reason and consciousness, and within that power, we are capable of understanding our suffering and our ability to alter that suffering.
64. In life there are things that are predictable compared to things that are unpredictable. Until we fully comprehend the distinction, we shall fail to realise what they signify and how they affect our lives.
65. With transitivity, our experiences evolve into chapters of our lives. We either capture the quintessence of their value or we dismiss their value. To those people whose life is believed to be intricate, their life will continue down that path of complexities. As for those that see the simplicity of life, they will comprehend the esence of time.
66. Life can seem to have hyponoias that remain insoluble, but we can attempt to previse what life really represents in the mortal sense. The state of mortality is the semblance and essence of the chronology of our years upon the Earth.
67. It is apodictic that we live a certain time in our physical vessels called the bodies that have no actual course, but the purpose of our mortality. However, our lives are not limited to that notion.
68. Life in the physical sense is indeed ephemeral and our mortality is seen as conditional. However, our lives are not limited to that notion. We as human beings, experiment much more in life than our mere mortality.
69. Verily, no one can presume to predict the immediate effect of something in life that has evolved, until there is knowledge of that effect. To obtain that knowledge, it is necessary that we accomplish the simple task of recognising our fallibility.
70. Even though, mortality is a vulnerable state of being that denotes our limitation as human beings, it is devoid of experience and thought by itself. Thus, it is rendered as a state of being, not a state of mind. We are created to be born as we are to die. Nothing we do in life is to be presupposed as impossible, if there is the clear option of feasibility.
71. There is a constant reminder of mortality in our lives and it involves the concept of the concatenation of our past, present and future. Each person experiences the quality of life, with its distinctive episodes that are positive or negative in their occurrences.
72. The Oracle represents the aspect of a philosophy that we can ascribe to its reasonable principles. There are certain factors that contribute to the harmony of our body, mind and self such as satisfaction, self-awareness, virtue and self-acceptance. Within the definition of philosophy, the concept is explored in the process of its practice.
73. It can be stated with a posit that our life expansion is not the years we have lived, but the time we have matured. What it is meant by that is the reality that time is endless and never ends. Thus, our mortal self is only a façade of our own perception of who we believe we are essentially in life.
74. Plato declared in his words that, "It is a common saying, and in everybody's mouth, that life is but a sojourn." We should learn to live life and appreciate it day by day, since we are not guaranteed another day.
75. Death is the illusion that we fear to accept and fail to acknowledge its inconspicuous guise, but death does not define life. We define life. Whatever pretext we propose about its actuality is more convenient that it be rationally understood. The question that is argued is why do we struggle to understand it?
76. We should learn that it is a natural part of the process that gave us birth. Let us imagine for a minute that we are in a dreamlike state of being and our awareness is incapable of processing that surrealism. Then the meaning of death would be as ambiguous, as the fulfilment of its purpose. Existence is the confirmation of living.
77. How often does the actual apprehension of death establish the process of our capacity to distinguish the concepts of life and death? If we are prevalent to the acknowledgement of that state of cognisance, then the capacity would be more meaningful. We would discover the intrinsic nature of the self and its adaptation to life.
78. There is no absolute clarity in this world, except that we are in the process of the resumption of our being and self. There is the common sense of being conscious, as in a dream and realising that one is in a dream that is never-ending.
79. What distinguishes the concept of this philosophy to life is the procurement of its understanding. A belief cannot be measured on the sole purpose of its principles, when it must depend on believers.
80. For every logical variable, there must be its opposite force that is operating as a paradoxical form in life and in the universe. Life and death can seem extrinsic in their nature, but there are not extraneous in their purpose and sequential order.
81. Whatever intellectual notion or assumption that is presumed of life, we are only simple observers of this continuous process. Thus, we partake willingly or unwillingly in this natural process.
82. The state of the awareness of life is to affirm its true existence. It is our resolution, as human beings that determines the application of our thoughts and logic. "Those who intend on becoming great should love neither themselves nor their own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by themselves or others," said Plato.
83. To be existent in life does not imply the same as to be, if the perception of that comparison is not equally functional. That is to say that existence is relevant, when the keen observer is aware of that manifestation of life.
84. The Oracle is not designed to dismiss or disprove the notion of death, but to acknowledge the premise of its existence. An amelioration of a concept is always observed in the process of its effectiveness.
85. To attempt to understand the convolutions of the nature of life is to acknowledge the unusual effect of the perceptible ability to distinguish reality. Thus, the protractive notion of life is the acceptable vision of something that is not merely an inconsequential matter.
86. Let us not forget that we too are an integral part to the particular state of our consciousness that is called life. Often, we seem to believe in what we are ignorant to understand and differ, within our divergent axioms and theories.
87. We are born with the ability to possess the seed of true knowledge and develop it into the flourishing growth of wisdom. The Oracle is that wondrous origin of knowledge that can be processed into actual wisdom.
88. We have the power to create from a singular thought an idea, then convert that idea into the principles of a genuine belief that is called philosophy. It is not a mere prerogative or prerequisite, instead it is the culmination of universal sagacity.
89. Life is the renewal of our self and the recognition of our consciousness and mind. When we are the most active in our thoughts and opinions, we reveal things that define our character.
90. The tragedies of life can be measured, in the victims that have succumbed to its vile oppressors. Life is not oppression, humans oppress and enslave others. Some do it for disportment and others for gain. Nevertheless, it is not indicative of what life represents in its totality.
91. Indeed, there are as many good people as there are bad people. Everyone of us is a product of our society, our culture, our beliefs, our family and above all mankind. To all them we are suppose to serve and be recompensed, but few ever achieve such merit in a just manner, and reconcile it with their reality.
92. Within the conglomeration of people, there are people that choose to live a good life, in comparison with those that choose to live a bad life. What must be denoted is the fact that social environments and backgrounds are the main factors and causes for this devious conduct.
93. When we assume that life is contingent on countless things and occurrences, we must declare that this does not conclude that it necessarily means that that individual will always remain oppressed or devious. That individual can to some extent alter his path if so chosen. For how long, that would depend on that person.
94. It is important that we convey in the teachings about life that we are no experts on the subject expounded, because each person lives their life in accordance to their observation and perception. Thus, the pursuit of zoetic satisfaction is determined, in how we define it and achieve it.
95. How could anyone believe that his or her life was nothing more than a predestined life, when that person has not even lived to see the fulfilment of its entirety, nor know of its potentiality?
96. We can make the bold assumption that life is somehow predestined and be convinced that it is genuinely the case, or believe that it is not predestined and life is what we ultimately create from it.
97. If we are to obtain success in life, we must edify our foundation of logic, ethics and wisdom. We must learn to strengthen the mind with knowledge, not weaken it with ignorance. Learn to distinguish what is necessary from unnecessary. This is when philosophy is utile.
98. If we are to achieve happiness, we must determine what makes us happy, and accept that our felicity is not measured with mere materiality, but with the realisation of self-acceptance. It is wiser to occupy our time and minds in positive thoughts than to consume them in negativity. Emotions can be destructive.
99. Life is all that we live and all that we make of life. It is not intended to be all that we dream, or all that we desire. Instead, it is all that we construct and all that it ultimately represents. If it is good or bad, depends on how we choose to live life. We cannot anthropise the world and think only about ourselves. We must concentrate on things that are unible.
100. When we are conscious, it is better to simplify life with reason than to attempt to enrich it with vagaries. Then we could attach purpose to life. There is nothing illogical about being novaturient. Life is about vicissitudes. If we are to comprehend the true meaning and value of life, we must reach enlightenment.
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