TAIA

As a modern person, a millennial, I live surrounded by constant news of horrible things happening in the world. Sometimes bad things happen to me, too. The question is how I should behave, react, and be when horrible and heartbreaking things happen. In the Philosophy of Enlightenment, when I don’t know how to behave, what to say, on which side to be, or even how to feel, because I feel so confused and disoriented, I need to look inside myself and decide who I am. What do I stand for? What is my empathic stance on this topic, situation, or event?

I started to decide who I am, identifying with a beautiful, positive world. I am for love, for kindness, for a smile, for a good-spirited joke and laughter, for helping someone and being helped. That’s the world I want to see; I want to live, and therefore I am creating with my actions. I help, and I get helped. I get help from people without asking, I get help from nature, I get sudden thoughts that lead me to the right direction, to the right path. I get guidance from God or power above me that illuminates and enlightens me.

Of course, Christianity plays a huge role in who I am. I am created in the image and likeness of God. My God is the creator of the universe, including humans and animals. My God that I believe in said not to kill, not to steal, not to covet what other people have, not to commit adultery, and so on. My God said to love my neighbor. To treat others as I want to be treated. To make peace with my opponent while I am still on the path. The Christianity that I see myself as a disciple tells me not to see other people as Greeks or Romans or Jews, etc. They are either my brothers and sisters or potential brothers and sisters when their time comes. That’s who I am. The beauty of the philosophy of the Enlightenment is that you get to identify the best you can be where you are in the Garden of Eden.

I don’t want to be tarnished by the dark ideology of those who covet, kill, and steal; therefore, I follow another step of philosophy of the Enlightenment, which is to walk away from evil. From those who are evil. I don’t choose evil. I don’t have evil thoughts, I don’t say negative and destructive words, I don’t do evil actions, and I don’t support the destruction of humans in any shape or form. I walk away from religious institutions that teach the opposite. I walk away from people who teach the opposite of who I am, who go against the beautiful, positive world. I don’t want to be brainwashed or even tarnished by their destructive beliefs and ideas. I would rather be alone because, in reality, I won’t be. I’ll live in balance and harmony with myself, nature, God, and other positive people who are coming my way without me seeking them. While all the negativity, all the evilness, stop seeing me. The balance and harmony within me, with nature and God, cover me and protect me from evil.

The philosophy of the Enlightenment begins with me deciding who I am. What kind of person am I? What are my beliefs? How I think about myself, other people, nature, God, and more. Where do I want to live? In a beautiful and positive world, which makes me behave accordingly and be a creator of that world, or am I with the dark and negative matter?

The philosophy of the Enlightenment takes me deep into myself, to search for who I am and where I belong. It makes me find balance, peace, and harmony. It makes me acknowledge, be aware, and watch the negative and evil world, and at the same time know that my world is different.