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Will - Worldview analysis | Will Dao | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Will - Worldview analysis
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Video Transcript
Hello everyone, my name is Will and in
this video I'll be reflecting on my
personal worldview and the belief and
values that really shaped how I see life.
life.
For your information, I grew up in
Vietnam for 22 years and is a culture
that deeply influenced by Buddhism and
the eastern philosophy. And so I just
came to USA three years ago. And so in
this reflection I will explore how these
experience influence my views about God,
reality, truth, knowledge, humanity,
ethics, evil, evil and beauty.
So first of all we're going to talk
So it has changed over time. So before
taking this course I describe myself as
an atheist. I believe there was no
personal god or higher being and that
everything could be explained by
science. But through the reading and
discussion in this course, I become more
open to the idea of dism.
The idea that a higher power might exist
and setting a universe into emotion and
that he left. So the shift really make
me reflect deeply in my cultural
background in the Buddhism because there
isn't a single creator god. They also
not denies of the other spiritual beings
that coerted with human in different rhymes.
rhymes.
And so yeah, I was hallucinated a little
bit for being inside too long by the
power of science to explain things and
to give everything a questions to give
every questions a reasonable answers.
Second of all, we going to talk about my
So I believe that reality has both
two aspects material and spiritual.
So on one hand I trust in what I can
observe the physical world the nature
the people and science and on the other
hand I also believe that there's a
spiritual side things like karma
or consciousness or the unseen spiritual
beings and in the Vietnamese cultures
the spiritual word coes with the human
beings as I said earlier and we have
some rituals related to honoring our
ancestor, you know, like suggesting that
even after that there's still some
connection around
and we usually act in accordance with
the spiritual realm. So to live in
harmony in both for example I give you
an example of uh what we usually not
doing at night is first of all singing
and second of all not wearing white
clothes walking outside during the midnight.
So what is truth? I see truth is
something that corresponding to reality
and I'm talking about like everyday
truth which is appeals to five sensor perceptions
perceptions
but as I say it's objective because the
truth for example when you're looking at
a star with your own eyes it's going to
be differs when you're looking through a telescope
telescope
and you know we can make different
statements that are still true at the
same time but They deny each other and
so if one can look closer into star and
they actually see more tinier details
they actually say the things that you
see in teleov's telescope is wrong. So
these statement
we make are relatively true and it
depends on our soul and perceptions and
the context
to see the absolute two requires a
different instrument. Um this is when we
have to develop a superior understanding
or as I say master the eight noble path
that is the eight noble path that is
presented in Buddhism.
And so as a STEM student and always
enthusiastic about science I personally
personally believed in the idea of
pragmatism is that true is to serve
meaningful purposes. So it is relatively
acceptable true but it's not an absolute true.
So it's contextual and you know not meaningless.
The next thing is going to be about knowledge.
Well, to me knowledge is also relatively
justified true beliefs and it also have
to serve a practical purposes
either physically or mentally or you
know in a more philosophical way
following the theory of instrumentalism.
And so how do we gain knowledge? I
believe is through a combination of
experience, reason,
reflection and also application because
it have to serve a purpose. And
And
I actually thinks that knowledge come
from seeing things as it is without any filtering.
filtering. Um
Um
I think this view doesn't really come
from my experience with religion but I
think it's from my years of education
when you know we have to
solve the other problem by using this
the other things that the other theories
and um let me see the scientific
mindsets as well as my religion in
Buddhism which Because
you know right scene is that we need to
gain knowledge by living mindfully
observing the causes and consequences
and also
remaining open to challenge our own
knowledge every time
because there's
usually really hard to obtain the
absolute knowledge and it's possibly impossible.
The next thing is gonna be about humanity.
To me, humanity is what separates us
from the other species, the other
animals both physically and mentally.
So the intangible aspect of humanity is
the virtues the quality that possessed
by an ideal human being which enable us
to live a happy life without conflicts
and reaching our full potentials but not
only for us for the whole community. So
it's not a selfish act and our purpose
is to you know reduce the suffering on
ourselves to live ethically and avoid
coursing suffering to other human being
as well as helping them to reduce suffer
and this is really really heavily
influenced by Buddhism and so growing
the it community focused cultures like
Vietnam I also learned that the identity
of myself is also also deeply tied to my
family, my community and my ancestor,
not just the individual cell. And so,
for example, we we have to share the
food during floods
because I I live in a region that is
heavily flooded during the months from
September to November. And so we we love
each other as a community and we share
food with each other whenever there's a
disaster like that or even we we make a
visit to someone's funeral to reduce the
suffering of the other person. So that's
what I see as humanity both physical and mental.
mental.
The next one will be on evils.
So evil is the immoral ways of thinking
and action that actually bring harms to
the other person
and the root cause of evil I believe are
in three reasons
and it's called ignorance greed and hatred
hatred
and so to respond to evil but we must
realize these appearance
the qualities, the things that is
driving it and to change from it. And
this I this real actually I get it from
Buddhism is that is
we all being governed by some selfness
coming from ignorant ignorance, greed
and hatred. And so evil is savable. It's
moldable. So it can be changed and in
practice Buddhism I think that the idea
we forgive the other evil act and so
teaching them a way to improve in
themselves is a must. So rather than revenge
the next things I forgot to put it on
here but it's going to be on the ethics.
Um so ethic is determined
not in the action but my I think is on
the thought themsel that can potentially
bring forward the action
and so ethic what is guiding the wrong
and right action
and it can either give the other
happiness or bring the suffering.
So reflecting to what I learned back in ethics,
ethics,
I would say unit utilitarianism might be
the closest one to me. But to determine
the benefit, it has to be in consensus
with happiness other to reach the state
of not suffering. So that's only
different in the in the util utilitarianism.
And for example, if you take um
prostitutions or striping club and one
new physical body to bring pleasure to
the other, I would say it's still
considered helpful for the one paying
for the services because it's bring on
the extreme sexual pleasure that would
later keep them away from the actual
peaceful state of mind. And even though
I do not deny that pleasure is a part of
being human,
this kind of action will actually made
us to chase the this kind of pleasure
and you know it will later bring on the
bigger urge and it will keep growing
that would make us human depends on it
and thus is really helpful.
And so the last one not the last one the
really last one I'm going to talk about
Okay. So to me beauty some say beauty is
great but I would say beauty is the
deception of perceptions
because you see beauty in the
extraordinary of experience or the
unusual harmony of sense that bring the
sense of pleasures or satisfaction.
So in that way I think beauty is subjective
subjective
as we human at as every individual
experience a different extent of beauty
being exposed to the same thing.
So to me beauty is beauty. No need to
glorify or demonize it. But if the
beauty bring benefits to human society
yeah it should be promoted. And if it's
notm we should be banned.
So the last one I'm going to talk about
today is my view on nature.
And nature to me encompass everything
that is not human paid including how um
creatures within the wildlife works
together in a really complex
relationship that we cannot know. And we
always thought about letting natures uh
be intact but not disrupting ecosystem.
And I think what it mean is that we need
to reduce our tremendous human impact on
the ecosystem without hurting or
diminishing the role of the other
species that you know hasn't been
evolving as much fast as I mean sorry as
fast as human did.
So um in conclusion my my work view is a
blend of a Buddhist community a
Vietnamese cultural tradition and also
the personal reflection from years of
education you know studying in both
country in Vietnam and in the USA and
also a STEM lover yeah a science a
scientist in training
um I don't really practice Buddhism
really strictly but you know I found the
beauty in applying some core principle
of Buddhism as I can the um connection
between those ideas with the surrounding
word and so is workable
and it's also to say that my word is
also evolving and it maybe in the next
few months if you ask me the same
explain these videos again I might it
might not be the same answer you hear in
the video today and so that's my motto
always be a better version of oneself
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