Living Stream

Hi! Just as there are many religions in this world, you can expect many different viewpoints when it comes to the philosophy of life. People come from different geographical background, have different genetic predisposition and are made up of different personalities and temperaments. One set of ideas may suit a group of people but not others. We see things through different perspectives.

Just like the management of chronic anxiety and depression. A person can consult 3 psychiatrists and get 3 different opinions and treatment strategies. One psychiatrist will focus more on psychoanalysis eg. talking to the patient and exploring his childhood, upbringing, bad experiences, personal tragedies and family history of psychiatric disorders, apart from the immediate source of anxiety like relationship problems, financial, facing a major public exam etc. Another well trained psychiatrist in behavioural science may like the patient to tackle his anxiety head-on. For example, if he has fear of speaking in front of a group of people, the psychiatrist may recommend that he joins a drama class and practice public speaking. This is called exposure therapy. A third but no less prominent psychiatrist may not even want to talk at length with his patient but is more interested in prescribing antianxiety and antidepressant medication. Perhaps this doctor has more understanding of biochemistry of the brain. We know that major depression is due to too little serotonin or epinephrine in the neurological brain system and drugs are effective either in stimulating the release of these neurotransmitters or letting them stay longer in the system before they are broken down. Or perhaps the psychiatrist has a long list of patients in the waiting room and he just wants to send the patient off with the medication. We don't know!

What we are interested here is to focus on the fact that even though we see things as an organised whole, we each have different ways of interpreting what those things mean to us. What is unfortunate is a certain perspective in life may blind us from ever seeing another perspective. However, this is better than to have no perspective at all! Throughout this journey that we are in, I will try to fit in all major opinions from the history books regarding fundamental questions about life.

And one of them which I will tackle in the next posting is: how do we reconcile ourselves to the fact that a good, benevolent and all powerful God can allow such great human sufferring throughout history. Some solutions from major religions you have heard before, and some may surprise you.