WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

Philosophy is freedom, freedom from foolishness, hypocrisy, and for lack of better

words, idiocy. It is also a better way to attain peacefulness, love, oneness, joy, valid and

accurate reasons, certainty, and will lead us to brighter and more harmonious path of life. A true

life, a sincere life, as well as, a fruitful life, and a meaningful one. It also uncovers or unveil the

truth, and it allows us to view reality and not fantasy. It gives us greater understanding about the

purpose of our life in this world and best way to fulfill our goal. That is what philosophy is for me.

It makes impossible more obviously possible, makes invisible clearer, makes uneasy more

comfortable, and existence will go on as word of wisdom come to life.

We live in the world that full of uncertainty, doubt, and circumstances. It may sound

unfair knowing life is too short, human activities are limited, many laws and regulations to follow,

failures and disappointment are everywhere, have goals and lifelong ambition, but unfortunate

and hopeless enough to have it, we have many boundaries to consider, and along the way while

achieving your dreams, seems like whole world are against you. But what matters most in this

sort of exhausting life is how you grasp the nettle and deal with it. Me, myself I have been

wanderer, wonderer and curious about life. I keep on asking myself why I am always struggling

whenever I tried to fulfill my dreams, seems like problems are fully in love with me that it has no

plan to stay away from me. Maybe, I am that lovable enough by this world’s obstacles. Funny!

When I was on my younger days, I am less worried, I am carefree, all I want, is to go out and

play with my friends under the sun. I remember myself loving so much the life I had. I thought its

easy to live, its easy to find reason to be happy, and its easy to say I am okay though earlier

while running you hit yourself to the branch of tree, but it was absolutely not true. I may not be

fortunate like other kids out there having toys and unlimited food, but simply having cooked rice

and dried fish with vinegar and chili, a cup of water, together with my family makes me

genuinely happy.
 Everyday, I spent my childhood running like there’s no tomorrow, I play like its an end of

the world, but as I grow older and years are added to my life, reality are slowly, yet hardly

slapping me. I saw great turmoil everywhere, I don’t understand there’s war and chaos

happening, even saw my mother cried at the middle of the night, sometimes arguing with my

father. I was so innocent that time, I couldn’t even understand why they are acting like that.

During my eighteenth year, I gradually see the reality of being and its hard, every situation are

quite difficult to comprehend. I found out that in this world, looks always matter, no matter how

good your attitude is, they always look at you in physical. That’s a fact. Your success will base

on your physical appearance. Attractive people has always an upper hand over unattractive

person. I experienced that firsthand. Also, no one, as in no one in this world is truly altruistic. In

every relationship, there are always self- interest. I admit it and I know people are like that as

well. Another one, nobody actually has any idea what to do, like other person feels, I am

personally confused too, about what I want to do with my life. Before writing this here, I ask

some of my family who hold higher position and those who are at the peak of their success, and

they shared to me their experiences with that, and there I found out that before they reach or

even, they reach their current places right now, still they have no idea what to do.

And lastly, this world we are living right now is full of suffering. While it is certainly worth

trying to make things better, no one’s work will put a real dent in the pain and suffering people

experience around the world. Those are some hard truths about life that I know most people

don’t really like to admit, so do I, but this is life, we must accept it, because that’s the only way

to overcome trials, to face it and not to run from it. Because if we do, it will become our lifetime

dark shadow. As I started learning from life and educating myself, that makes me understand

and aware the reality of life. Its like how Adam and Eve ate the apple in the garden of Eden. It’s

wisdom that opens my eyes, aware my heart, and awaken my sleeping soul. Being a wanderer

and curious makes me understand the authenticity of life. Reality will slap you so hard, but
here’s Wisdom that will wakes you up. We will be given freedom to overcome our foolishness.

Being innocent is not bad, but too much of that compels you as an idiot. Wisdom improved my

life in all aspects: physical, emotional, mental, and now helping me financially.

Learning from my past experiences and the experiences of others and sharing that

wisdom to others are vital to anyone’s survival and the survival of those we share our wisdom

with. I thought having knowledge would help me to get rise and overcome, as well as pursue my

passion, I assumed that knowledge and wisdom are just the same but unfortunately, I found out

they are quite different in important way. Wisdom is actually the synthesis of knowledge and our

experiences into insights that deepens our own understanding of relationship and the meaning

of life. How did I acquire this? I just allow myself to get interest on trying new things and

reflecting on the process by learning as much as I can, analyzing experiences and putting

knowledge to the test, and there, with certainty, I became a wise person with less worries for the

future. Life is just not about embracing and just go with the flow, but also, we need to make wise

decisions and take actions guided by godly wisdom. Understanding, accepting, and working

with reality is both practical and purposeful.

Speaking of godly wisdom, one thing that makes me happy and forever blessed is

knowing God. I am a Seventh Day Adventist, patiently waiting for the second advent of my

savior, Jesus Christ. We share basic beliefs of protestant Christianity, including acceptance of

the authority of the bible, recognition of the existence of human sin and the need for salvation,

and belief in the atoning work of Christ. Going back when I was still a kid my parents always

taught me about goodness of God. Upon seeing those beautiful nature surrounds me, I used to

ask them with curiosity, when is the world created? How? And by whom? Is the world’s creator

also the one who creates human? And my father always answered me this, “Genesis 1:1, In the

beginning God created the heaven and earth.” And then followed, “Genesis 1:27, So God

created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he
them.” I was amazed and begun to wonder, then who created God? I saw my father laughing,

and then he answers my question using this book found in the new testament, the book of John

chapter one verses one to four,” In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him;

and without Him was not anything that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of

men.” Knowing that I was born not of blood, not of the will of flesh, nor the will of man, but of

God. There I realized that we are all blessed beyond measure. I am blessed beyond measure.

My parents always answer me biblically whenever I ask question about the world and about my

creator, God. They introduce to me our faith, before I ask them why we keep going to church

every Saturday that as I noticed, all my classmates are going to church every Sunday? And my

grandfather gave me his bible, and the same bible I am still using until now. My family allows me

to discover the truth by reading bible. They encourage me to know God through reading bible. I

remember my grandma telling me that bible is our first love letter received from God, And I do

believe her, because truly bible contains love from God.

My friends always ask me why Seventh Day Adventist like me go to church during

Saturday, or why Saturday is our sabbath day? And now I’m going to answer this question here.

The new testament never talks about the Sabbath as anything other than Saturday. The

seventh day, as seen in the fourth commandment found in Exodus 20:8-11, “Remember the

sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy works, but the seventh day

is the sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thy shall not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy

daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy

gates.” It was the day that Jesus always kept, too. “He went to Nazareth, where he had been

brought up, and on the sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he

stood up to read” Luke 4:16. The same with Paul who had same custom, “As his custom was,

Paul went into the synagogue, and on three sabbath days he reasoned with them from the
scriptures” Acts 17:2. For instance, on one Sabbath Jesus entered a synagogue and

approached a man with a withered hand, whom He promptly healed. Knowing that He would

face opposition, Jesus said to the religious leaders, “I ask you, is it unlawful on the sabbath to

do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” Luke 6:9. Jesus never hinted, either in this

account, or in any other one, just kindly see these books Matthew 12:1-6, Luke 13:10-17, John

5:1-10, that the book was anything other than seventh day, Saturday.

Indeed, why would He, God bother to teach the people what was proper or improper to

do on the seventh-day Sabbath if His intention were to change it to another day or to abolish it

altogether? The mere fact that He was accused of violating the Sabbath by healing shows how

the commandment had been perverted because nothing in the Bible forbade doing good deeds

on the sabbath. The only thing Jesus wanted to change about the seventh day was how it was

kept, nothing He said or did indicate that the day itself was to be replaced by another one.

Jesus, both by example and by command, showed that the Seventh day, Saturday, is still the

sabbath. It’s a truth as obvious as the earth moving around the sun. Talking about sabbath is

quite long discussion but that’s what makes us unique. Unlike most other Christian

denominations, We, SDAs attend church on Saturdays, which we believe, or I believe to be the

sabbath with accordance to bible interpretation. And that makes us Seventh day Adventist, we

are sabbath keeper, and waiting for the second advent of our redeemer, Jesus Christ. Well, as I

said we have freedom to learn. I personally study bible since I was a kid, because I am quite

curious about things, I don’t believe things easily unless me, myself discovered it with my own

eyes and experience it with my own self. At the end of the day religion can’t save us, it’s just an

instrument for us to be guided. God’s word says that salvation comes from grace through faith in

Jesus Christ. What is important right now is to be more vigilant and to spread love and respect

for everyone’s perspective and stand about faith. That is another benefit of learning, and
another way of attaining wisdom, is asking it from God, for us to be guided and to see the truth

of life.

Same as we talk about politics, I am not actually interested about it, but I believe I

should, knowing we are actually part of it. I am not that supportive, but I don’t disrespect

leaders. I don’t understand why people keep on bashing our government and end up

questioning their personal life, in fact at the first place we are the one putting them there, we are

the one who gave them power to lead us. Why do people keep on demanding better life from

the government? Seriously? Why do people always rely on the government? Well, our politics

particularly our politicians are not that genuinely or sincerely devoting their self to the people,

but not all. We Filipinos are good in noticing mistakes, undesirable act of our leaders and

forgetting the good deeds and services they provided to us. It’s easy to see the failures of our

government but why is it so hard for us to appreciate their efforts too. I am still asking why

people are ranting on social medias wanting to oust our President Duterte. Why is it easy for

those people to use #oust Duterte? I don’t know or even to understand their intention. I can’t

imagine how painful it is for our President to see the citizens he was trying to protect keep on

bashing him after all the things that he has done for the goodness of our country.

He doesn’t deserve all of that, he deserves respect and support from us. And what

makes it funnier, those people who haven’t done anything yet to the country or help people in

need, are the ones who are noisy and spreading bad vibes in our own home. They talk

nonsense things acting as if they helped at least one Filipino amidst these adversities. What

makes it worst is, whenever someone express their support in Duterte’s administration in social

media, they automatically bashed them, and when it happens, they are the one expressing their

comments that goes beyond the boundaries, they always highlight the word “freedom of

speech”. Seriously!? The more toxic people bashed him, the more I praise this kind of leader

who continuously trying his best to help us despite a thousand of Filipinos against him. The
current administration is not the real problem of the Philippines, hence its the people itself.

Instead of wasting time on bashing, why don’t we just start appreciating his efforts and support

him for good. Interestingly, I am not against with how our government run our country while

currently facing this pandemic, but honestly, I am impressed. Especially, on how our current

leaders do their best to overcome this current rife. I can say we are so fortunate having such

strong and brilliant president leading us, leading our country into excellency. Again, people have

different insight and perspective about it but for me, people must learn how to control their

emotions especially if they have not enough basis about their stand.

As I say, Philosophy is a freedom. Freedom from foolishness, hypocrisy, and idiocy. It

belongs in our lives. It helps us deal with our problems, and it helps us make better decisions by

developing our critical thinking especially right now we are in the age of disinformation. I believe

philosophy has something better for us. It’s just that we need to exert effort knowing things

around us and not to settle for opinions easily. We are given freedom, but we are personally

responsible for the consequences of our own actions. Indeed, as what I mentioned earlier

Philosophy makes impossible more obviously possible, makes invisible clearer, makes uneasy

more comfortable, and existence will go on as word of wisdom come to life. Its not easy to live in

this world, but if we are guided by divine wisdom, being faithful, more responsible, and

courageous we will surely overcome everything this life has. From trials to triumph, and from

mess to message.