Raising A Question: What Are You?

Photo taken at Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Matisse.


You make decisions every day---what time to wake up, what to order at a restaurant, what compay to apply to, etc. Even though the decisions may change depending on what you think, how you feel, and what you value at that moment, you would never think that there is no such thing as decisions you make yourself.

As long as you are born into any kind of systems or groups, which could be your family, school, workplace, culture, religion, country, or even the category of “human being,” you have inevitably been saturated and affected by values, rules, and standards of the system or group that you belong to. Ultimately, those values and standards become the mold of your thoughts, emotions, and criteria, all of which are the basis of your decision making.

If anything you think, feel, and value comes from outside of you, how is it different from being a puppet? Where is your own will? Where are your own decisions? If independence and freedom to make your own choices are the essential elements of human dignity, then where is your dignity?

I should ask more straightforwardly; “WHAT ARE YOU?”