What has after Life to offer me?

What has after life to offer? What is there beyond this temporary existence? These are some of the questions that not so often haunts us. It arouses arguments for Christians and non-Christians alike on their standpoint on after life. It displays the possibilities and the attempts of science to explain life after death. We often call it after life for most people who experiences this situation shows that they are on the verge of death or perhaps might have faced death itself but have managed to come back, live again and tell us the story of near death that gives us the impression whether it is true or not.

The impressive plot for each story we hear have captured our attention for they may have different ways of interpreting how near death experiences transpired but it all seems realistic and true basing on the effect of how they came to be after that experience. Most often they would share their crucial moment as being in a long dark tunnel that leads to a well lighted endpoint where they would see their loved ones or Jesus perhaps with elation and peace at heart. Others would say they saw blinding lights that flashes back their life and shows all the significant moment which made them assess on how well they came to live their lives. 

For some it is an experience of much joy in the presence of all their loved ones and a happy reunion with all those relatives and friends who already died. It has seemed to be a second chance, an opportunity that not all are given the privilege of. After the so called experience, they get to reflect on how much they have wasted their time on earth and would like to gain back life to change and correct all they have done wrong. Some would become very regretful of not having done the mission God has created them for and would like to fulfill it. 
It’s a realization point and perhaps an opportunity for change. The society can never deny the existence of this life after death as it has gained popularity through the many accounts reported all over the world with almost the same story. It has been the reason why many scientists and researchers are interested to find basis on this recounts of after life. As great ideas are to be challenged, many non believers raise questions to refute the validity of this phenomenon. Many doubters said this feeling of elation and unexplainable peace and happiness is the effect of having less oxygen in the brain while being unconscious. Now studies on this miracle rebutted by proving that most survivors of death had more oxygen in the brain as they go through that experience even if they are clinically dead that proves that the mind has a deeper state than just being a part of the brain’s actions.

It goes to show that studies on after life still has a long way to go to fully prove its validity of existence. In my personal view I believe there is after life and that near death experiences are just proofs laid to us for a better understanding of what’s in store for us after this time. We all know that we have a God and that he promised us a better place that we will be after our stay here on earth. It provides foundation to my hope of a happier world which is a reward for all the good deeds we do in these probationary grounds. If I base my assumption on science, it somehow gives a glimpse of its reality. 

I am not a scientist but still I’ll try to explain my theory. As my elementary science teacher has told me, our world is full of energy; Energy cannot be created nor can it be destroyed. It is everywhere so it’s as good as saying it is within us. Whether we are in a healthy state or be clinically dead, we have a mind full of energy that is a separate entity as the brain itself. Therefore, there is a greater possibility that because of the strong energy, the mind has created the scenario of these near death experiences. These experiences would not be formed if there is no previous or an envisioned happening. By science, I believe there are near death experiences and by faith I believe there is after-life. Whether it really is true or not, we cannot tell for we haven’t experienced it ourselves. All we rely on is the truth in the statements of each individual who have gone through that experience. It strengthens our belief in a greater place after we die; it solidifies our faith on the existence of a supreme being and it gives us hope for a second chance. 
Whether in time, science might prove the reality of after life to be a deception and that it did not exist; it wouldn’t matter anymore so long as we focus more on how we make most out of the life we have right now. When we all die, our bodies’ just decay, what we did may all be forgotten and we will then be left behind but God has seen what we have been doing all along; that’s what matters most. May it be in this present life, after life or on the threshold of death, we just need to stay grounded to our faith in God and do our best to become a better person in this lifetime. 
Come to consider this simple premise I have in mind; when we die, our date of birth and the day we die will be engraved in our tombstone, like January 1980 - October 2009, it wouldn’t matter what transpired during the day we were born, on the day we die or even on our after life, what is important is the dash (-) in between those dates. 
That signifies the most important dates; it may be a small mark on the gravestone but it is what gave meaning to our existence. Rather than we often keep thinking on what is beyond death or even death itself, whether there is an endpoint or there is still a continuation, we need to think more of how we live our lives now and what can we do more to make our sojourn in this earth worthwhile.

-= Mark Anthony Doblas =-

Confessions of a Shopaholic

I had 32 hours straight time reading the book. I hadn't slept not until i finished reading confessions of a shopaholic by sophie kinsella. it was such a light book to read that you dont even want to put it down. I've been dying to read this book for ages but its only now that i was able to grab one (and it really isnt mine i just borrowed it from a friend). i've missed a lot of this shopaholic fever at the time it exploded. i plotted on my schedule the play date of Confessions of a Shopaholic to be showcasted on stage by local actors but sad thing, tickets were sold out and i wasnt able to grab one for myself before it ran out. not minding that, i just waited for the actual screening date of the movie itself and before it even closed on all cinemas, i never got the chance to watch. so this is the time to get myself on some shopaholic mania.

I adore the writing prowess of Sophie Kinsella for she writes as if she is just talking to you and she reallys gets into the persona of the main character. You can really notice how easy it is for her to write the book and how light her words are just as exactly how we all would love to read. Just by reading the book, you can assess what kind of person Rebecca Bloomwood is and how she gets to be a shopaholic. although the plot is so simple, the book was so engaging and is never dull. the issue on the story hits us all but we often neglect it. It's a story set for teens to love and for old ones to appreciate. managing your money is a worldy struggle but we all still cannot come up with a solution on how to fix our finances.

The production of the movie is a bit timely for the world is in such financial crises. Incomes are low but debts are way too high for us to manage. We have been a community of producers which morphed in a world of consumers instead. We simply love the feel in our hands when these glossy cards like AmEx, Visa or Mastercard runs through our fingers along with the packages we are struggling to carry in our shoulders.

We also spend more than what our income can reach that we end up piling all the bills from the credit card company, most often we get too nervous to even take a peek on what the total due would be. We have been living above our means for so long that we owe hundred thousands but we earn only nearly reaching 20 thousand. We just condition our minds its good to be in debted for we still will be paying for that in a monthly basis.

But would we then stop our crave to swipe those cards? Or we just continue swiping til the censor wont read the card anymore and our wallets are left with papers with no cash?

Confessions of a Shopaholic has proposed to us a lot of questions yet is a guide to finding the solutions to the current situation. I guess it is just a matter of self control and discipline, knowing your limits and to top it all, contentment.. It is a matter of introspection; to know deeper where we have all gone wrong, to know why the world is stuck now in this financial hurricane disrupting the scale of our economy.

The evolving disaster has not stopped and continues to this day enveloping the entire world of the eye-opener to a simpler lifestyle; We would then be happier to drive older cars or enjoy the company of a friend while walking for short-distance trip in the interest of fuel saving, we'll seldom have trips to the shopping mall and fewer credit card purchases, more meals at home rather than in fancy restaurants, fewer and more modest vacations, more saving, less debt and lower monthly payment obligations. It's undeniably true, it blows even bigger each day that most people today are increasingly worried about their personal financial wellbeing.

Like Ms. Rebecca Bloomwood, a self-confessed shopaholic, we all should make a stand on what to do with our lives and our finances. Planning to save for the rainy days and managing the resistance to the compulsion to shop.

We cannot save the Lehman Brothers out of bankruptcy but we still can save ourselves from debt suffocation. If we can't help the world then we better just help our own self. We can then appreciate the value of contentment coupled with thrift.

If w all start to save and not overspend, then it would never be impossible to reach the time when we all will be living debt-free and even find being thrifty to be cool…. ;-)

LOVE equals ACCEPTANCE

We are all flawed and imperfect...

Others are torn and broken..

We often commit mistakes and sometimes hurt other people unconsciously. There are things in life we stand up and will always fight for even if it will be contrary to the opinions of others. We break rules, promises and hearts. We lie, retaliate and speak our wrong thoughts out. These are negative aspects of our character that justifies our being human.. 

All of these are partial make-ups of the quintessence of our being which makes us different from the other.. There are moments that we just happen to ponder on our being who we are. we sometimes neglect it and more often than not, we tend to hate ourselves for who we came to be... 

Despite all of these, we all deserve to love and be loved. Did it ever cross your mind to ask if there will be someone willing to embrace our totality and not grumble on things we are not? when we ourselves at times hate the person that we are. 

We can never find a perfect partner just the way we want them to be. We cannot create a person we envisioned to have out of them. We might just end up creating a monster out of who they used to be. 

In the course of finding the perfect mate, it is important to consider the ability of your partner to fully accept who we are.. They need to love us not just because of the things that makes us lovable but also for the things most people hate about us... It is never a question of who will love us for the good that we are but most often, we will end up asking a more substantial question; who will stay and continue to love us after witnessing our imperfections?

That is one mysterious element of LOVE we all are experiencing yet we all take for granted. We must learn to accept the person as what he/she is. Loving is a matter of accepting. A matter of realizing that we are just humans and we sometimes fail. A even if we fail, that special someone would still be there, willing to take us no matter how unacceptable we may be in the eyes of other people. Indeed love is a many splendored thing, We just need to unfold each reality as we continue our quest in this journey to each others heart.

“Next-Level Mental Lifestyle”

Life as they say is a never-ending process. It continuously searches for something to satisfy the essence of its existence. It also has certain domains to feed, like that of the mind. The mind also has the undying crave for knowledge. It can be likened to scavengers, who continuously search for a prey to devour to sustain its life. As man unceasingly looks for meaning, it settles more on the gratification of its mind. Knowing it entails much attention, as it is difficult to achieve satisfaction. However, it is most often rewarding to having met the minds needs. According to Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, a child thinks from the simple thoughts and gradually ascends to complex matter as the child matures with age and as it continuously interacts with its environment. Furthermore, as they progress, they apply all thinking processes to new experiences; gradually, they modify these processes to better accommodate reality. This occurs not through direct instruction, but rather through the child’s own mental activity and internal motivation to understand. As we progress in life, we must also progress in the way our cognitive domain function. We learned how to be objective, became systematic thinkers, solved equations, analyzed problems, applied abstract ideas and deduced or induced concepts. We now should go a step farther ahead on the capability our gray matter could endure. As we grow older each day, we need to face the task of expanding our knowledge we all have gained through time. It is imperative that we learn how to think more than the usual way we are accustomed and by this I say, thoroughly thinking in a theoretical way.

Coming across an article entitled “Thinking Theory Thoroughly” by James N. Rosenau. It introduces us to the nature of the hardest intellectual feat that we consider as theorizing. As hard as we view it to be, Mr. Rosenau had formulated ways on how to acquire the skill of using our theoretical thinking abilities to understand complex phenomena. It also presents the loopholes of understanding situations the non-theoretical way and suggests the better and fulfilling way of abstracting ideas through theorizing. It even provided nine steps for us to grasp easily the idea on how to apply theorizing. Let me just consolidate the inputs I have gained through the course of reading this article. I have learned that one is to have a better understanding of what theory really means and how to use it to their advantage. We must know how to set boundaries in the use of definitions to avoid misconceptions and to gain clarity in our thoughts. It also evolves around the confusion whether to use empirical theory over value theory. It prefers empirical theory as it bases on the knowledge of facts through experimentation and observation of details rather than the mere knowledge on what is it about. It also opens the idea that events happen not just as a unique circumstance but it has underlying factors to consider that it is happening in an order. For us to understand this way of thinking, we must know how to generalize but somehow learn how to link the situation as to its cause and effect. An instance is a tidbit of a larger idea we must focus on. It entails us to draw a bigger picture, to think outside the box in order for us to know deeper the concept of a certain phenomenon. The fifth step, is to generalize ideas using simple explanations rather than worry on the detailed argumentation resulting to complex thoughts that might lead to misunderstanding the entire concept. It also prepares us to be tolerant and to accept that things are at first ambiguous. Though things maybe unclear, it opens the door to consider all probabilities why a certain event transpired. It also exudes our creative juices and imaginative thinking to make it run freely, to explore all possibilities, to take the path less chosen and to think in a way that is unnatural to an ordinary mind. This process should be taken to lay all the probabilities on hand even if the idea seems to be illogical or absurd. With all steps internalized, one must also consider to ask important questions same as being concerned of having correct answers. Rather than giving emphasis on the answers, we should be directed to ask probing questions so as not to limit our investigation of the phenomena. Lastly, it shows that a good idea is always challenged so one must be ready to face inquiries proving it wrong.

For us to explain this concept it entails us to think the way it is suggesting us to think. Making it more beneficial for it allows us to experience another way of thinking, another mental lifestyle. Because of this, it gave us an idea to think out of the box for us to grasp a concept more in-depth and thorough. It is mind-boggling that it initially gives us a headache but with constant use, it will surely sharpen our mind. The author is trying his very best to convey his message to us but I think because of the complexity of the topic itself, he has a hard time looking for the appropriate words to make us understand in our present level of thinking and mental capacity.

As the cycle of life continues, the quest for knowledge lingers. We all should learn how to use this theoretical way of thinking to our advantage. I do agree with the author when he said that indeed theoretical thinking is a talent, for some it may be acquired early in life but for others it can be taught. It is a good thing it has been introduced to us but it is better to somehow be able to apply it in our daily experiences. But I do stand on my point that It may be possible for me to learn theoretical thinking, I may learn a lot from the author and incorporate it in my mental lifestyle and enhance my way of thinking but you cannot totally adapt it. Thinking is a way of life itself and you choose what is applicable to yourself. It may be a tough way of learning things but the effort is worth the feeling of accomplishment once you’ve completely fathom its deepness. As we continue to grow in our lives, let us not stagnate to the usual way of thinking but venture on the higher ways of learning. I could say that the ultimate end of thinking is when man is brought to his eternal destiny. So grab the chance to grow, learn and think theoretically for us solve the deeper mysteries of what lies ahead.

-= Mark Anthony Doblas=-

“There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

This is a common slogan you see in Atheist buses in London to promote and propagate the sense of “No God”. As a child, I was born and raised as a devoted Catholic by my mom who is very devout and pious. Since that is the kind of mindset instilled in me and same as with the rest of the Filipinos; I could not help but raise an eyebrow when I got a glimpse of the slogan and what it was about. But as a teenager who has been exposed to a lot of what the world is like, it somehow made me think if they really have a point of stating there case. Since I came across this premise, I also was boggled so I did a little research but I ended up thinking I’d be wasting my time for the answer to the questions I had in mind is already at hand.

As we mature intellectually, we come to think logically. I propose; If I am just a nobody, and there are people greater than me so it would be as good as saying that there would also be someone greater who created those who are greater than me. That is where we have come to think that there is a supernatural force beyond all this that exists and that is what we call our GOD. We believe in God’s existence for we believe that there are just certain things that are magnificent enough for us to be left in awe. Thus, there is someone greater more worth of our awe that created us all. Though we may not see him but we believe he exists. We believed He exists because we are moved by faith not by any lame reason. It is our faith that made us see God not because there was a tangible proof but there is a mark left in all our hearts.

On the contrary, they also have their own premise. The Atheists would also assert that why would all of us bother to have religions and follow doctrines when it’s just a waste of time. They believe we are just fooling ourselves because we do not even know who we are worshipping. They think life would be a less troublesome existence if we worry on things that matter day by day not those things for the benefit of afterlife. They pose that we all should just enjoy life as what we have now without being bothered by certain supernatural being who, may assess if what you are doing is right or wrong. They want us to be good not because it’s what God wants us to do but we all should be good just out of the fact that we want goodness to rule.

They may continue to preach on what they believe is right about having no God but all the people who are intelligent enough would be able to assess that they are just proposing a notion with no strong foundation. We all can claim on what we believe but all would be left in the air if it isn’t proven; that’s how science think things ought to be handled. And to see is to believe is there battle cry. We all have been trying to prove both sides of the coin. We all have our own stories to tell. If we come to think of it, we do not need to question if god really existed if we believe that there is a certain level of superiority among each of us. If we would then discover who is greater than whom, then we end up with someone beyond our own imagination could surpass. It is a strong force invisible to nature, a being superior to anyone and a God who manages all that exists, seen or unseen. We also have scriptures dating ages ago to prove the faith we all have. We are moved by faith not by any amount of reason. They gained strength when things are now showing up, trying to prove how the world has started. Science is proposing the possibility of multiple universes and a lot more just to refute the existence of God. Since they all believe in reason, they also must need to make a better foundation on what they wanted us to understand. They are searching for natural explanation to all natural occurrences in this world. Couldn’t they just stop and understand that it is something supernatural that handles all; beyond what is natural and beyond what exists now.

We couldn’t care less. We can’t just stop and say we live life on a day to day basis without worrying of what lies ahead. We continue on with our lives thinking that we are doing things for the greater glory of our creator who, in the end, would be the master of our life and would be the judge for our second life. We may not see the importance of our good actions and kind deeds today but we surely would appreciate that if we let the hope in our hearts that there is a God continue to shine on. And besides, we can enjoy life even if we believe there is a God. We can continue on with a happy life knowing we are leaning on our creator. We just allow those people to continue what they probably think is right for them that there is no God and they shouldn’t worry on stuff that they should just enjoy what they have. In the end, no amount of religion can save us but it is actually us and our faith. Believing in God should provide us no hassle and we should be worry free for we have a God that provides and supplies all our needs. We do not need to worry on what to eat for tomorrow for tomorrow is another day. Enjoy and take the most of what you have now. All you have to do is believe that we have a God who is more than enough and would be there for us through all adversities.

-= Mark Anthony Doblas =-