At the beginning of the quarter I had little information about my own beliefs and religion, I just knew the aspects of Buddhism and Hinduism felt right. I was always that one kid who was living inside his mind, and so it just fit. When the quarter began and I started doing these different assignments and modules I felt like I was gaining something, I was rewinding my mind into going back and being my old self where I questioned everything, and was aware of my own biases, and tried to underplay them because that’s who I am. During the summer of 2015, and last year I really got cocky and confident with myself, and started doing my own thing without caring about anyone else’s opinion, or how they would react to my actions.
This course made me realize how wrong I was because while reading about these different religions something inside my brain ticked. We are all humans. It’s what everything falls back on, we are all humans. It may sound extremely simple and arbitrary, but it really made me open up my eyes. I am forever grateful to this course; I’m a junior, and took this to fulfil my missing humanities requirement. It’s more than just a course respectively, I actually was excited for the module assignments and what not even though the first 7-point module assignment really surprised me. Back on topic, the learning outcomes of this course and where I was in the beginning of the quarter up until the end.
Evaluating myself proves that I am aware of my own biases. At the beginning of the quarter I lacked critical thinking skills; meaning they were sufficient or where I would like them to be. I too was simplistic. I lacked interest in almost anything I read or did because it didn’t feel right, or I was lazy. I was not uninformed per say, I’m very articulate with the information I gather, and collect; be it the different resources I decide to take of advantage of when inputting it into my knowledge base (brain). I can’t say I was prejudice before the course, considering I’m a very loving and welcoming person at heart. So throughout the course I lacked critical thinking; I never questioned anything with real questions or end goals. It was more like questioning just because I felt like I had to, and or face to for a grade. I am completely the opposite now because I question my own thoughts sometimes. As well as everything me and my friends talk about are philosophy and religion.
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The other day we had a deep conversation about our own personal beliefs, and certain scenarios in which you have two decisions to choose from, either A or B. Both consequences of each action are negative outcomes, but you have to pick one. Conversations like those started to pop up more, and I found myself more verbally confident in what I was saying because I knew what I was talking about.
My simplistic view, and sense of vision is gone too; instead of saying, ‘ok’I try to expand what’s happening into a greater picture. I would also like to say that I’ve been a victim of the new-age movement. Instead of just thinking it was cool and interesting, I actually dug deeper into what I was getting myself into. Most of it is random people making up the rules as they go, I wouldn’t criticize their ways of perceiving these mystical ideas; I’d rather just not have them hinder the open-view of it for new-comers like myself. I decided to take it a step further by reading old Hindu scriptures known as ‘Vedas’. I may not be completely done with them, but its interesting reading about different deities, and their emotional levels.
To top it off, I’m not bored with this in any way possible, nor does it seem too much. It’s the right amount, and whenever it’s reading time, I go at it, and always take it in because I love knowledge. But the love for knowledge goes beyond with the teachings and old Hindu sacred texts. I believe I told a white lie above, about not being prejudice. I always thought of Christians to be irritating, and forceful people majority of the time. The preacher on campus next to the PUB during spring quarter of 2015 didn’t really much help my view point. After completing module R through X I realized none of that matters. It’s the persons own choice of religion, and how or what they decide to do with it.
Instead of thinking about the preacher individual as a crazy lunatic, I told myself, ‘in his mind he believes in what he is saying, even though it seems radical, and forceful.’ It’s how he chose to express it, and that’s his business, but I am not saying I accept what he does. I just take into account what he believes in, and what he believes he’s doing. Instead of having just one direct view point of the situation, I’m seeing what he sees through my own eyes. Altogether, I make less assumptions, throw out stereotypes, and preserve unbiased action toward anyone I meet. I am more in charge of my mind then I ever was because I know what I want and choose to be a part of.
Being a self-thinker really shows you how this world sometimes seems like a game, and you’re the character living by each decision you make. But that isn’t the case majority of the time, instead its living day to day knowing I’m alive, knowing I hold people dear to my heart, and knowing that I can walk down the street without being invaded by immoral thoughts. I can’t say I’m always unbiased but I try to be; because again, we’re only humans living our human lives.
