Loosening and tightening

As we go through life in all its twists and turns, its ups and downs, its ebb and flow, we certainly need to do a lot of adjusting and adapting. We also need to do a lot of planting, cultivating, and cutting if only to avoid rigidity, a sure sign we are heading toward deterioration and death, and that we rather are growing and going toward our true destination.

If only for the sake of sheer survival, we need to be aware that there are certain things we need to tighten and other things to loosen.

That's simply because circumstances change, and yet there are things that should not change.

We have to learn what to keep and what to let go as we move along in life. And so we need to analyze things so we can distinguish between what is essential, necessary and indispensable in our life, on the one hand, and on the other, what is incidental, contingent and disposable.

Another way of saying this is that we need to know what our true ultimate end is and what are merely the means to it. Not that the means are unimportant. We just have to distinguish which is which, and act in accordance to that distinction. Sad to say, there is a lot of confusion in this area, the means often regarded as the end, and vice-versa.

For all this, we have to assume a metaphysical approach to things. And this is where our basic problem lies. Metaphysics is still unknown to many of us. And those who know it are often confined in their academic world of abstract ideas. There's hardly any effort to encourage people to think metaphysically.

Most people nowadays are contented to base their thinking mainly on what their senses perceive, and so their reactions are often knee-jerk, emotional and sentimental, shallow.

Influences coming from our culture, social background, etc., can also go into people thinking, lending some texture to our thoughts. At best, the sciences, arts and modern technology contribute a lot in shaping our thoughts. But unless our thinking is metaphysical, we would be missing the most important part of how to understand things in life.

The metaphysical approach certainly does not ignore how things are in their immediate and concrete reality. But it goes beyond that level.

It goes further than the sensible world to examine the ultimate causes of things. These causes are usually not seen nor felt.

It's an approach that enters into the ethos and the spiritual underpinnings of the concrete realities, and leads us to the supernatural world and ultimately to God, from whom we come and to whom we belong. That is the distinctive contribution of metaphysics.

If we can acknowledge a certain organic hierarchy among the sciences, metaphysics should actually occupy pride of place, since it integrates the inputs of all the other sciences and relates them to their ultimate causes and end. It respects an inter-disciplinary tack.

It is therefore a very important science. And it's just unfortunate that it is hardly appreciated as it is. Only very few are interested in it, and worse, those in it do not seem to know how to relate their studies and findings to the here-and-now world.

When we have a metaphysical mind, we would know what have absolute and universal value, and what have relative and variable value. This would lead us to know the exclusivity of truth and the inclusivity of charity, what to be strict and what to be lenient in, what to tighten and what to loosen.

When we have a metaphysical mind, we can be more broad-minded and avoid narrow-mindedness, we can be more open to the way other people are and avoid bigotry and stereotyping.

When we have a metaphysical mind, we would know that we should not be too attached to our opinions, our taste and preferences, our biases brought about by our profession and other conditionings, social, economic, political, cultural, historical, etc.

When we have a metaphysical mind, we would know what to tighten in the midst of a constant flux of life. We need to take care of our continuing formation, ever sharpening our dispositions so that we would always be eager to know and pursue our ultimate end.

There will always be certain things in life that tend to blur our vision of the fundamental and ultimate in our life. We have to be careful of the distracting effects of our concerns, problems, challenges and trials, plus the allurements in the world, not to mention the tricks and temptations of the devil.

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