Benedict Lam Hang: The Philosopher King?

A method to his madness?

Well someone got me thinking... ;)

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto to you" Luke 6:31, Holy Bible.

In short, treat others as you would be expected to be treated yourself by other people. Before I do anything, I try my best to remember what would would be the implications on myself if the same thing were to happen to me. It's also good for someone like myself to look at things from the other person's point of view, see how they feel and react. From this you get some understanding on how a person, friend or family member ticks.

Patience

Patience is a strong virtue in more senses than one. Because for me, being there for your friends (or at least trying to), through thick and thin which encompasses patience. With patien essential to resolving problems that have been ce, there is a wait-and-see attitude is created reacting to off-the-cuff adversities. It's sometimes best to wait and see what happens.

Forgiveness

It's always best to submit and forgivesometimes... But this so much harder said than done. The off the cuff reaction is to get revenge and get angry but results from that are both parties being more hurt and thereby finishing a relationship for good. But if you forgive, you'll be a better for it. Even harder still is to forget it and that's the hardest part of forgiveness. "Turn the other cheek"

Honesty

"Honesty is the best policy" is another saying that sticks in my mind. As in "Do unto others as you would to them" I expect friends to be honest with me, as part-and-parcel of that is that I try my best to be an honest person back. A result of honesty for me is trust, a deeper bonding and a closer relationship with people.

Communication

"It's good to talk" - Bob Hoskins, British Telecom Ad Campaign (1995). It's always good to communicate in any kind in any kind of relationship, talking things through honesty even if it's as tiny as what you had for breakfast. It makes a difference, well to me it does. Communication can be granted very hard because sometimes you don't know what to talk about or what to say to someone. Or if you are like me, you are a private person and a little shy, it's hard. But I am trying :) It really hit home, one day when my housemates teased me about not saying thanks at certain times which I didn't really think about. lack of communication often gives the impression that you don't care, which is not the case. That is often a misconception. Another reason for lack of communication is when things goes wrong or if you know when you done wrong. When things go wrong, you tend to hide it away and when you are wrong, it's often hard to admit it. I try not to hide it when something goes wrong and I try my best to apologise when I am to blame. Again that's because i am a firm believer in "what goes around comes around" and "do unto others as you would have others do unto you" When I find out about something that went wrong and no-one tells me, I feel left out and get rather upset about it for not being honest. I don't like it when ssomeone is to blame and they don't apology for it and try to brush it aside and move on like nothing happened. I think this is a problem with most people but I have experienced that a fair bit in my family, perhaps because there would be some inferiority if you had to apologise to a kid and that's totally understandable as you are supposed to show kids the way. But that's still no excuse NOT to apologise.

Humour

I try to be funny even though some of my jokes can be corny. But that's another story. My philosophy here is to be happy. Humour is one way to put a smile on a person's face. Remember they can never take away your smile :)

Application

It's all good and well saying all this. As they say practice makes perfect.If I just said this, it would make a complete hypocrite and screw up everything I stand for;)

Religion

As you may or may not have noticed, quite a few of my philosophies come from the bible. Do I believe in God? Yes I do. Why? Partly history, partly someone or something to turn to and partly it is good. In short, reasons that people do or do not believe in God. For me, all this is a scary subject to be honest.

On one hand, you have people, non Christians, gentiles, pagans who shun you for even mentioning your faith. I've experienced a bit of that in High school. I get a little uneasy and defensive when the bible is bashed because someone doesn't agree with the teachings and meanings of it, it should be respected just like someone else's philosophies should be respected. That's why I get nervous when someone asks whether or not I believe.

On the other hand, you have avid Christians, who push the fact that you have to live by and read the bible thoroughly as well as believe in God if you want peace and harmony in the afterlife. For me, there's a certain unexplained appeal to that. They live by the bible or strive to at least. These are the type of people who would express "believe in God" or else to people in no uncertain terms! But look at it from their point of view, it's written in the bible that they have to "go out and make disciples if all nations" - Matthew 28:19. It says in the bible, you should not judge people (Luke 6:37) but that's not the impression I get from preachers and certainly church-goers. They say you know you ought to do this and do that which I don't wanna do. For example go out and bring a friend along to the group. In that way they make me feel guilty for having as little faith as them. I admit it, I don't have as much faith as an avid Christian. Just a simple faith from a simple person. They make me feel guilty for what I believe in.

I believe are people are free to decide to what to believe in, what philosophies they have, that you shouldn't be pressured and presuaded into believing that you are wrong for it. Granted everyone is free to change their minds about things and it does happen over time but that's because we are all open to it, not have it rammed down our throats. There's the differnce.

I think there is an in-between, a subtle peer pressure into joining groups that are sometimes alright but sometimes not good. The problem there is that we probably know little about these groups (cults) so it's best to know what you are getting into. Sometimes you don't know what you are getting into that's where the subtle peer pressure takes effect. Also any good group will be able to let you go. A sign of a bad group is that they will not let you go for whatever reason. That's against your freedom!