What one would/should ask for?

[Kuldeep]

After just finishing my reply to thread " What would you do with the power of creation? I want to express the same situation in a different language because we may or may not get this power of creation. Or after getting the power of creation, it is possible we may like to creat or not like to.

So the problem actually boils down to what one should/would like the most, or to "Ultimate purpose of one's life" ( my one previous thread).

I am simplifying the situation for all in yet different language as follows:

Both theists and atheists believe in some or the other absolute reality in the form of God, Diety, Angles, Satan, Science and logic... so on and so forth. Supposing that Absolute Reality takes a physical form before you and asks you "what wish you want to get fulfilled", noting that form can make anything and everything possible for you. In such a situation the question I am posing is "What one should/would ask for"????????????

Yes, may be Zinkovich would ask that he wish to become a Ceator. Then his problem is to know what to creat!!!!! All right he may get help from a friend like me. He creats as per his wish, then what ???? Would he be satisfied eternally???? I do not think so!!!!

Hundred million doller question, I repeat, is: "Would he be satisfied. Therefore, my answer to my own question is that I would ask Peace of Mind under all situations. Answer from others is welcome!!!!

[Athena]

Quote by: Kuldeep After just finishing my reply to thread " What would you do with the power of creation? I want to express the same situation in a different language because we may or may not get this power of creation. Or after getting the power of creation, it is possible we may like to creat or not like to. So the problem actually boils down to what one should/would like the most, or to "Ultimate purpose of one's life" ( my one previous thread). I am simplifying the situation for all in yet different language as follows: Both theists and atheists believe in some or the other absolute reality in the form of God, Diety, Angles, Satan, Science and logic... so on and so forth. Supposing that Absolute Reality takes a physical form before you and asks you "what wish you want to get fulfilled", noting that form can make anything and everything possible for you. In such a situation the question I am posing is "What one should/would ask for"???????????? Yes, may be Zinkovich would ask that he wish to become a Ceator. Then his problem is to know what to creat!!!!! All right he may get help from a friend like me. He creats as per his wish, then what ???? Would he be satisfied eternally???? I do not think so!!!! Hundred million doller question, I repeat, is: "Would he be satisfied. Therefore, my answer to my own question is that I would ask Peace of Mind under all situations. Answer from others is welcome!!!!

I love the question, because it reminds me that I am pretty pleased with things the way are, even the things I don't like. Oh peace around the world would be nice, but I think it might be more fun trying to achieve that, rather than having it happen just because we wish it so. I would really like my oldest granddaughter to be more aware of herself, and then, more self confident of who she is and what she can do. Like there are improvements I could wish for everyone in my family, including myself, but I still don't think there would be much satisfaction in having all this perfection, simply by wishing it. If I could wish everything and everyone to be as I want, then how meaningful would anything be? With all the good and bad, I think of game of life is just the way it should be.

[Athena]

On second thought- if I were the creator, I would make men and women more compatible. Yes, I do think that would be an improvement without any adverse effects.

[Kuldeep]

Athena, all that you are trying to ask from an identity who can provide anything is nothing but peace of mind.

The problem is the world would go on and on as it goes. Good and bad are relative. One can not exist without the other. The point is you have to ask something whose sensational good feeling would never end after achieving the boon you should ask.
As said in OP, I would ask peace of mind even under even un-conducive situation. My family would live as they wish, if I look at the things as not suiting my temperament, I may feel sad and dejected. But, I would ask the boon giver to keep my peaceful mind in tact and not get disturbed by wrong attitude of the family.

[anubis]

What should we ask for?

Nothing........

Many do not deserve much... Besides if we ask for nothing we have ultimate hapiness because we have not put out some crazy ideas or expectations on what things are supposed to be.

[Athena]

Quote by: Kuldeep Athena, all that you are trying to ask from an identity who can provide anything is nothing but peace of mind. The problem is the world would go on and on as it goes. Good and bad are relative. One can not exist without the other. The point is you have to ask something whose sensational good feeling would never end after achieving the boon you should ask. As said in OP, I would ask peace of mind even under even un-conducive situation. My family would live as they wish, if I look at the things as not suiting my temperament, I may feel sad and dejected. But, I would ask the boon giver to keep my peaceful mind in tact and not get disturbed by wrong attitude of the family.

What you say makes sense, but, but, I don't really have a good objection, I just don't think I would like too much peace of mind. I feel guilty for saying that. Admitting I like the drama of life is admitting something I don't like to admit, but gosh, I think I do like the drama of life. What is the point of having a life if we don't like the drama?

[Kuldeep]

@ anubis
If you answer "Nothing"! That means you are left with no desire which I think is doubtful and impossible. The minimum desire a person would have "To exist and live continually". I am sure you are still living and would like to continue as far as possible. If you have that desire left in you then definitely you would like to remain peaceful and happy!

That is why, I would ask for peace of mind under any circumstance.

@Athena

Yes very correct! You live since you love to live. No doubt the whole thing is drama. Fortunately or unfortunately you are one the main character getting emotionally involved in that drama. Anything happening not suiting your temperament would make you sad causing depression and many other inconveniences.

To avoide that I would try to get a boon from real boon giver "to remain always happy and peaceful. After all my feeling is that "Any action good or bad we perform in life is done to achieve happiness and peace of mind!":)

[bionis23]

Quote by: Kuldeep If you answer "Nothing"! That means you are left with no desire which I think is doubtful and impossible.

I think it's more along the lines of... unselfish.

[shunyadragon]

Quote by: Kuldeep After just finishing my reply to thread " What would you do with the power of creation? I want to express the same situation in a different language because we may or may not get this power of creation. Or after getting the power of creation, it is possible we may like to creat or not like to. So the problem actually boils down to what one should/would like the most, or to "Ultimate purpose of one's life" ( my one previous thread). I am simplifying the situation for all in yet different language as follows: Both theists and atheists believe in some or the other absolute reality in the form of God, Diety, Angles, Satan, Science and logic... so on and so forth. Supposing that Absolute Reality takes a physical form before you and asks you "what wish you want to get fulfilled", noting that form can make anything and everything possible for you. In such a situation the question I am posing is "What one should/would ask for"???????????? Yes, may be Zinkovich would ask that he wish to become a Ceator. Then his problem is to know what to creat!!!!! All right he may get help from a friend like me. He creats as per his wish, then what ???? Would he be satisfied eternally???? I do not think so!!!! Hundred million doller question, I repeat, is: "Would he be satisfied. Therefore, my answer to my own question is that I would ask Peace of Mind under all situations. Answer from others is welcome!!!!

From the Baha'i perspective the answer is simple and in the prayer given by Christ.

Pray for 'God's will on heaven as it is on earth.'

From the Baha'i perspective God's will is embrace the universal vision of spiritual unity for humanity and existence instead of the individual culturally moribound egocentric visions that divide humanity in violence, fear and indifference toward the different visions of our fellow humans on the same journey on the same planet.

There was a good reason why Gandhi toward the end of his life found that it was only the Baha'is that he could trust, and could only meet the leader of the Moslems in the neutral ground of the Baha'i National Center, and relied on Baha'is for save haven in his journeys in India.

[CoffeeSaint]

I would wish for people to know themselves, to be truly aware of what they were capable of and what they were worth, and also aware of what other people were capable of and what other people were worth -- even if (especially if) the answer to both of those was "Not much." I think it would be harder to be contemptuous of others if you actually knew what everyone could do, and had some idea of what mattered.

The problem with this is that I don't know how to make everyone agree on what matters. I like to think that knowing what people are capable of would give some importance to certain traits, but I realize that people already give far too much importance to certain pointless attributes, like how tall someone is. I also like to think that understanding what one was truly capable of would make a person want to pursue his or her own goals, rather than worrying about others, but again, my optimism doesn't reflect reality as I know it.


Heck with it. It may not solve anything, but I still want everyone to follow Emerson's dictum: Know thyself. That would be my wish.

[Kuldeep]

@shunyadragon

"Pray for 'God's will on heaven as it is on earth.'' I am not able to understand how that pray can be your wish you would ask from the power you believe in. However, I could understand your wish is to have universal spritual unity. But under the action/reaction reality of nature (Karamic adjustments of fruits) full universal spritual unity is not possible to occur. So, as long you as individual has to ask for a wish, which would have eternal peaceful and pleasant effect in you has to a personal one...what could be that???


@CoffeeSaint

"Know thyself" means you wish to know the absolute reality, which is not concievable and is beyond mind and intellect. Therefore, less than that ought to be something different than knowing thyself...what is that???

[CoffeeSaint]

Quote by: Kuldeep @CoffeeSaint "Know thyself" means you wish to know the absolute reality, which is not concievable and is beyond mind and intellect. Therefore, less than that ought to be something different than knowing thyself...what is that???

How about one's place in the world? How and where one fits into human society, and what one is capable of achieving. I would want this to be a constant sense, rather than a single-moment revelation; I imagine that, as a person discovers a new ability, or formulates a new goal, that person could immediately know how far they could go towards their goal, or at least how much potential they have within themselves. Outside circumstances would still have some determining effect on the actual outcome, so it wouldn't be absolute knowledge, but at least if we failed, we would know for sure whether or not it was our own fault.

[Fonceai]

I would ask for a way for human beings to be able to voluntarily and instantly understand another human being.

When verbal communication fails, for both people to willingly open their minds to each other and see their intention without bias, language, or emotional barriers.

[Osborn F Enready]

Kuldeep said: Therefore, my answer to my own question is that I would ask Peace of Mind under all situations.

My answer would be individual liberty, recognized and valued as the core goal of mankind, checked only by the equal rights of others.

[phoenix_fire]

Quote by: Athena On second thought- if I were the creator, I would make men and women more compatible. Yes, I do think that would be an improvement without any adverse effects.

Along those lines...I'd make a certain guy get a clue.

[phoenix_fire]

Quote by: Fonceai I would ask for a way for human beings to be able to voluntarily and instantly understand another human being. When verbal communication fails, for both people to willingly open their minds to each other and see their intention without bias, language, or emotional barriers.

I read a story like that once. It was in a Japanese book called "Kino no Tabi". It is about a girl who travels to different lands on a motorcycle. Each one is more dystopic than the last. In one of them, the citizens had found a way to be able to entirely read each others' minds. But when all of the thoughts that most of us diplomatically hold in came to the surface, no one could stand anyone else and they all put vast distances between each other and made an elaborate automatic system so that they would never have to go into town and chance running into anyone. The native that Kino meets there is absolutely overjoyed to meet her and tries to make her stay simply because they cannot read each others' minds.

[Fonceai]

Yeah... that's why I said mutually voluntary.

You can open yours if you want, but it needs to be open for anyone to read it.

No intrusion.

[phoenix_fire]

The only way I could see that as having any difference from just talking to someone would be to prove that you were not lying about something...in a murder case for instance.

[Fonceai]

Or to strip off the inability to effectively communicate your ideas.

There would still be disagreement, but only over fundamentals and not over semantics.

Also, I've noticed that one of the concepts of communication is that people don't so much want to be agreed with as they want to be understood.

[Athena]

Quote by: CoffeeSaint I would wish for people to know themselves, to be truly aware of what they were capable of and what they were worth, and also aware of what other people were capable of and what other people were worth -- even if (especially if) the answer to both of those was "Not much." I think it would be harder to be contemptuous of others if you actually knew what everyone could do, and had some idea of what mattered. The problem with this is that I don't know how to make everyone agree on what matters. I like to think that knowing what people are capable of would give some importance to certain traits, but I realize that people already give far too much importance to certain pointless attributes, like how tall someone is. I also like to think that understanding what one was truly capable of would make a person want to pursue his or her own goals, rather than worrying about others, but again, my optimism doesn't reflect reality as I know it. Heck with it. It may not solve anything, but I still want everyone to follow Emerson's dictum: Know thyself. That would be my wish.

Ah, our American cultural difference. I am in total agreement with you.

I am thankful to Kuldeep for asking us a question that gives us cause to think about what we think.

My own happiness is not as important as the good of all. Jesus was a martyr, and although I am not Christian, I would give up my happiness for the good of all. I am willing to suffer, if good things come of it. I guess that in part is why I am not that impressed with Jesus martyring himself. This isn't exactly what you were saying, but there is a shared concern for the good of all.

On the other hand, I just experienced peace of mind in the face of adversity and it was wonderful. I am left thinking how right Kuldeep is about peace of mind being the ultimate. At least at this point, peace of mind is what I will attempt to keep in mind.

On the other hand, :) I think I am like the Indian diety with several hands.
What shunyadragon said made me think of the things I just read in the bible about a slave accepting this fate joyfully. :eek: So then I have to pick up on what Osborn said about liberty, and Patrick Henery saying "give me liberty or give me death", and back to the good of all. Our culture has prepare us to live and die for some values. To have peace of mind and tolerate injustice is, not a good thing in our culture. One might as well do good street drugs.

On the other hand :), to face adversity with peace of mind, makes one so much more effective. In many ways I feel like I am becoming a more effective person as I perfect the ability to maintain peace of mind. This is in deed how I want to be.