You have the choice to believe blindly or question everything presented by your parents or their affiliated group. Either way, as an individual, you decide with your free will, and thus the responsibility for your actions rests squarely on your shoulders, right? Not so fast—it’s not that simple. The reality is, a child is born with a clean slate. If parents and society engrave extremes onto that clean slate, the strong sense of belonging can brainwash the child because the knowledge comes from authority figures. How much blame should be placed on the follower? That is the question.
The generally accepted age of adulthood ranges from eighteen to twenty-one, so laying one hundred percent blame on young adults can be legally challenged. Young adults often follow the same paths as their parents and their affiliated groups unless they are provided early on with the wisdom of balance.
Recent news highlighted the case of a seventeen-year-old boy involved in honor killings, which may influence the case’s outcome for him. I believe what I am writing about is essential for people who come to Canada from different societies. If parents choose to leave their country, whether for peace, economic reasons, or any other, they make that choice. If they encounter problems with their children assimilating into the new society, the responsibility lies with them because the children did not make that choice.
The wisdom of being a CEO is necessary to grasp honor killings—the balance of the love triangle is decided by the individual, so he/she must understand where each corner of love stands. You cannot simply harm your loved ones based on others’ opinions. Others may have a place, but they do not have a say. Since the sense of belonging is the mother of ego, pride, and honor, one must balance this with the sense of freedom. Achieving this balance is challenging, especially when one has been indoctrinated by belonging groups. If the individual is strong and becomes a CEO, there exists a life beyond the boundaries of these groups.
This wisdom of balance has the potential to alter outcomes; otherwise, the fires of our conflicts will continue to be fueled by youthful vigor. Upon closer inspection, blaming young individuals for their actions becomes murky. The sense of belonging is so potent that even our wise ones have succumbed to prejudiced ideas or the belief in superiority over other groups. In fact, had they advocated for equal human rights for all humanity in the past, we might not be facing the problems we do today.
Two individuals received four years of jail time for transporting refugees from Turkey to Greece. Little Alan Kurdi drowned in the attempt to flee, leaving behind a legacy that altered world opinion about Syrian refugees. Personally, I believe the accused were merely trying to earn a few dollars, but the blame for Alan Kurdi’s death extends back to the Bush presidency, centuries-old Muslim conflicts, and societal indifference to animal life, depending on how deeply you wish to delve. It’s not just the causes that need addressing but finding solutions with compassion in politically tainted religions and the politics dominated by animalistic behaviors.
If humans individually flip the original triangle right-side-up, only then can we take responsibility not only for our personal lives but also for those connected to our belonging groups. When humans can manage both God and the Devil within, they can balance conflicting senses of belonging and freedom alike.
As a CEO of your life, you would treat all your belief systems—whether religious, national, familial, or instinctual and passionate love—as departments of life and speak out against wrongdoing regardless of who is responsible. For instance, in your personal life, if your mother and wife dislike each other, a common scenario, your love triangle pulls from all sides. Without being a CEO, you would not only be under extreme stress but also take sides based on cultural affiliation.
As a CEO, you would not prioritize passionate love over instinctual or universal love, or vice versa. Since ego, pride, and honor arise from the sense of belonging, you might prioritize your mother over your wife because your society promotes maternal love. However, your problem is not maternal love but rather the rules of belonging, so you must balance all three corners of the love triangle. If you explain this to your loved ones, you may not have to choose because they all have a place in your life, even if they should not influence your decisions about justice in all areas of life.
God, the Devil, family, nation, and religions—all require attention. Balancing these majestic polarities requires internal CEO skills. If you believe that humans are the third equation and have the capacity to shoulder all responsibilities, think again, as we are each at different points on the highway of individual evolution. Unfortunately, we all try to wrap our children in traditions, customs, nationalism, and religions, embedding our identities within our belonging groups, making unity among humanity seem like an unattainable dream in the face of past differences and animosities. If we cannot address the causes, we cannot acknowledge them, let alone overcome and unite humanity as a whole.
In this day and age, as individuals, we must transcend traditional education and cross the boundaries of egotistical politics that divide us. The more wars we engage in, the more individual insecurity we sow, making more individuals feel vulnerable, particularly when they have been deprived of love, driving them to belonging groups for solace, regardless of right or wrong. Their only justice is revenge, fueling more wars by increasing the number of those strongly identifying with belonging groups and jeopardizing those wanting to belong to humanity as a whole.
Social glorification of group politics and its accompanying ego, pride, and honor will never allow us to live in peace. It’s not about winning or losing but rather about hindering our evolution and our pursuit of potential. Just imagine if most of us were killed in a nuclear war, leaving a few survivors in the depths of the Amazon. They would evolve to our level centuries later, just as we study traces of ancient civilizations and history. We cannot become CEO of the godly human if we are constantly embroiled in internal and external wars. There is no time for soul-searching; the demands of belonging-related egos are so great that we lose the inner battle and reduce ourselves to mere cogs in a machine instead of individuals.
God blessed humanity with free will and the potential to decide how to use it. By granting us free will, God engages in a game of life, even putting Himself in a vulnerable position because loving unconditionally exposes one to vulnerability. Therefore, humans bear the responsibility and determine how this lifetime is spent.
To lead a successful life, one must first understand their place in the grand scheme of life. As a CEO, you have the ability to filter out negative influences, whether personal weaknesses or disguised and uncontrollable senses of belonging.
What we perceive as God has always been and remains elusive, as we cannot fully utilize our brain power. Every religion demands blind faith in God from individuals, followed by unquestioning adherence to its rules. For the average person, comprehending God isn’t easy. People often accept these rules because they offer a sense of belonging to something majestic and powerful, satisfying the innate need to belong. Personal insecurities dictate how strongly individuals gravitate toward group membership. Sometimes this sense of belonging overrides individual judgment, making belief in God’s existence secondary. Indeed, God’s existence has never been conclusively proven. Personally, I believe each of us carries a speck of both God and the Devil within. The proof lies in one person’s prayers being answered by another, suggesting divine intervention, while most actions of God and the Devil involve human beings. Most political systems diminish our worth, yet we remain God’s most crucial ally, containing both extremes within ourselves and capable of either extreme or balanced wisdom to do justice to all aspects of life.
Nothing is devoid of meaning or purpose, but sometimes subjective intellect conflicts with natural intellect, which aligns with external circumstances. We cannot detach ourselves from the world around us. Even a worm in the ground aids plants and birds in their existence. Viewing life in this way allows us to grasp the true purpose of our individual lives. If we deviate, we disrupt the natural order for all organisms, including ourselves.
Free will empowers us to choose between good and evil. Humans have the power to choose, yet we often behave like puppets, believing we act independently. Each time we uncover a layer of truth, our understanding of good and evil evolves. What should we do? Should we kill based on our evolving knowledge? Clearly, the answer is no; no one should kill, especially when the ultimate truth remains elusive and our understanding incomplete.
Truth can be as simple as using free will to choose good over evil. We must strive to make the best decisions with our current knowledge. As we evolve, our choices may evolve too. Asserting that we possess the entire truth is extremism. Individual free will is challenging when influenced and coerced by strong group affiliations. Despite what we believe about the soul, its nature remains uncertain. Its origins and fate are speculative until we reach our full potential.
In my view, when we die, our soul departs the body to reunite with the ocean from which it emerged—what I call God. The soul represents intelligent life that remains part of the source, regardless of its label. Yes, this means all negative aspects, including the Devil, serve as God’s wisdom to teach humans to choose. Without evil, we cannot appreciate good, just as without good, we cannot understand evil. Human importance transcends our comprehension.
When faced with incomprehension, we should critically analyze knowledge, rather than view it as a failure. Our endeavors will eventually uncover current misunderstandings. As we ascend the ladder of our potential, we gain deeper insights into previously inscrutable matters.
Religions teach us that death signals the end of earthly existence. This belief comforts people and enables them to carry on with life. Knowledge-based wisdom that proves practical becomes reality, though it should not be solely responsible for shaping ideas. Half-truths have always existed. Compassionate rules and courtesies, while seemingly unrelated to reality, are vital components of our belief systems. If we believe our breaths are numbered, it imbues life with quality. Knowing that life is temporary encourages us to make efforts to enjoy it. In our pursuit of enjoyment, we may devalue actions like maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The wisdom required to balance quality and comfort in our temporary lives is as crucial as the effort to extend and stretch towards our potential. If everyone started skiing down the highest mountains or jumping out of planes, the number of accidental deaths would rise correspondingly. We cannot live our lives in constant fear of death or act recklessly. As the third equation, we bear the responsibility to make choices, regardless of being caught between good and evil.
We constantly make decisions with our limited knowledge, some of which are extreme. For example, a vegetarian might argue that no one should eat other living creatures because it goes against the order of life. Throughout time, predator and prey have existed. Prohibiting all killing, even for survival, is an extreme stance. Imagine the chaos on Earth if no creature killed anything. Think of the diseases spread by cockroaches, mosquitoes, and rats, threatening human survival. Without predators like lions and wolves to control herbivore populations, vegetation would not hold back mudslides. It’s hard to imagine the disorder. I once saw a documentary about traffic jams caused by cows in India. While not disparaging religion, it is impractical and dangerous to enforce such rules for human survival. Remember the Zika virus, linked to birth defects? I believe even God values healthy human beings, regardless of religion.
Our wisdom dictates that survival overrides all other instincts, no matter how intellectual. Practicing your beliefs is fine, but imposing them on others by force is problematic. In nature, a life lived is a life sustained. There is a purpose, difficult to grasp, but essentially a continuous life cycle. This cycle exists both within and outside organisms. Every organism thrives on life-giving nutrition, suggesting that every living thing has intrinsic value. The complex wisdom of God manifests through one creature offering sustenance to another, so if God resides in all creatures, God’s offerings are made to God.
The drive to reproduce is so powerful that every creature, including humans, follows it blindly, as if hypnotized. Who is the hypnotist making creatures dance to their command? The responsibility to guard and nurture offspring is powerful, initiating the hunt—life for life. There are no winners or losers because it’s not a competition; it’s a game of survival.
As we evolve, our knowledge leads us to more orderly and civilized living, governed by rules against individual disorder. Despite all rules, self-defense has never been a crime. However, killing an innocent person remains punishable in all human societies unless it’s in war. We are continuously evolving towards our potential, which includes understanding spirituality. In spirituality, innocent blood is unacceptable under any circumstances. God may permit the life-for-life philosophy in oceans or forests, but after granting free will, the responsibility falls on individual humans. Human societies have their rules and manifestos. Our rules clearly state that innocent blood is not an option.
Due to our evolution, we have rapidly developed technologies, including weapons of mass destruction, yet we are not socially advanced enough to ensure they won’t be used. This imbalance in our development is evident. We have already used these weapons to destroy and kill indiscriminately more than ever before.
Regardless of our past, nature, and technological advances, we are in a critical transitional period, extremely dangerous because the stakes are so high. We need to evolve socially at the same pace as our technological growth. This balance will enable us to possess weapons of mass destruction without using them, to have the capability to destroy yet choose not to. You can harbor the Devil within and still live a Godly life. This is the potential God has intended for humans.
If God is the intelligent life present in every living being and life form, then each of our cells is connected to God. When we die, only our body perishes; the part of us that is God continues. If every living creature died simultaneously, would God survive? Possibly, but it would be beyond our understanding. Each human being is like a cell of God. From God’s perspective, an individual death is like a cell’s death. Life is never wasted but regenerated, continuing the cycle of life.
Free will has given us the power of being the third equation, enabling us to make choices that should always benefit humanity, despite our destructive tendencies. This can only happen when we elevate ourselves to the level of a CEO. As individuals, we have the responsibility to seek our highest potential, making decisions against our violent instincts and evolving with spirituality and humanity, rather than being bound by politically tainted religions. The root of our violence lies in the love triangle we are all entangled in. One corner is passionate love, another instinctive love, and the third is universal love. When any corner of this triangle is disrupted, we feel pain. Emotional pain is the least respected and most underestimated by people worldwide. We indiscriminately rob others of love and expect no reaction. From everyday relationships and court cases to wars, hurt individuals seek revenge on those who caused them pain. This fundamental cause of our conflicts, whether personal or global, is the pain of love loss. In my opinion, if we understand and respect others as we do ourselves, we wouldn’t rob others of love because the cause of extremism is the pain of love loss. (Read the love triangle.)