Online Idea Repository

Vertical Distance: 341 m (4659 m)
Horizontal Distance: 2000 m (40000 m left)

Vertical Distance: 312 m (4688 m left)
Horizontal Distance: 2000 m (40000 m left)

Vertical Distance: 273 m (4727 m left)
Horizontal Distance: 2000 m (40000 m left)

Vertical Distance: 234 m
Horizontal Distance: 2000 m

Vertical Distance: 156 m
Horizontal Distance: 2000 m

Vertical: 117m
Horizontal: 800m

I’m beginning to understand more about how to live. Am I living the kind of life that is right? How do I judge right or wrong? I believe that I may have found an answer.

A few fundamental beliefs:

1. There has to be an existing role model or control for any basis of righteousness and integrity to be considered.
2. There needs to be a higher authority in one’s life that one looks up to for instructions on how to lead one’s life, so that such a life may be one filled with purpose.
3. Interpersonal relationships matter more than academic achievements or other worldly pursuits.
4. One has to be a selective conformist and evaluate the concepts and ideas received critically before adopting them. Sometimes one has to adapt the ideas to suit one’s purpose.
5. There is one ultimate purpose that we serve while we are on Earth. Until we fulfill this purpose, we will not leave this world through death. We will seek this purpose restlessly for our entire lifespan.

Through my short journey through life in Singapore, I have witnessed many purposeless lives: lives wasted away in the attempt to satisfy our unquenchable thirst for material possessions and self-pleasure. Am I really doing the right things? Is blindly obeying one’s parents, the Government, our textbooks, other people and worldly standards the correct way of life? How does one define correctness? Correct to oneself? Right in our parents’ eyes? The Government? In other words, correct according to other people’s opinions?

Am I thinking too much? Is there a “too much” in thinking? That’s another thought: am I doing what’s right in thinking about these things?

I believe that the answers to all these problems can be found by shifting one’s focus off oneself and looking at one’s life from a different point of view. That’s a fundamental problem with humanity: we are too self-centred. People talk about studying hard to get a good job and keep that good job. By subscribing to this philosophy, one becomes competitive with other people and this inevitably leads to the creation of a rift between people, due mostly to corporate backstabbing and climbing up the corporate ladder. Such a rift is definitely undesireable and thus this philosophy must not be adopted (refer to belief 3). Thus the new challenge that one faces is to boldly step out of this philisophy that so many other people blindly adopt and consider other ways of living the ideal life.

The material that you have read so far is completely in my own words; nothing apart from my own brain was referred to. This is a completely biased viewpoint so I am not surprised if you disagree with most or part of it. But please know that these beliefs are what I hold dear and they have survived much jostling and probing. I really, really welcome those of you who challenge these beliefs to comment by giving your own beliefs and justifying why you think that your beliefs are the correct ones and why mine are erroneous.

Lastly, looking at the way I conduct my life right now, you would think that I am a major hypocrite. Yes, I admit that I am not capable of exercising my beliefs right now, due in part to lack of courage and also to lack of maturity. As I continue to learn, both from school and church, I hope to eventually grow in wisdom and maturity and ultimately discover the purpose of my life.

Learned how to press the first 5 sections of the bass part of the song Exultate Deo. Not bad for a Grade 0.

I’ve decided to join an evening service on Saturdays at Payar Lebar Methodist Church, in addition to going to my church (Kay Poh Road Baptist Church) on Sundays. The sermons are on the Book of Ecclesiastes:

the Greek rendering of the Hebrew _Koheleth_, which means “Preacher.” The old and traditional view of the authorship of this book attributes it to Solomon. This view can be satisfactorily maintained, though others date it from the Captivity. The writer represents himself implicitly as Solomon (1:12). It has been appropriately styled The Confession of King Solomon. “The writer is a man who has sinned in giving way to selfishness and sensuality, who has paid the penalty of that sin in satiety and weariness of life, but who has through all this been under the discipline of a divine education, and has learned from it the lesson which God meant to teach him.” “The writer concludes by pointing out that the secret of a true life is that a man should consecrate the vigour of his youth to God.” The key-note of the book is sounded in ch. 1:2, “Vanity of vanities! saith the Preacher, Vanity of vanities! all is vanity!” i.e., all man’s efforts to find happiness apart from God are without result.

- From http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ecclesiastes

I really hope to mature someday.