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Purity
Posted: Sat, 19 Mar 2022 15:26
Last edited: Thu, 28 Apr 2022 20:05
Tags: philosophy religion
I was discussing some things with a fellow King today and he said something that made me realize a thing. I have recently thought about the concept of purity. Let me explain.
The word purity can be applied to a lot of things. Purity in itself means that something is not contaminated or not mixed with other things. Contamination means that something is where it is not supposed to be. Generally we want to get rid of contamination and keep things clean and pure. If you take gold for example it gains more value the more pure it is. If you think about your body you will be healthier the less contamination there is. If you think about your mind, you want to keep good and clean thoughts and get rid of bad and stressful thoughts. We can apply the concept of purity to a lot of things.
| It could just be me that have watched too much anime again and think that a character is cool. But when reflecting on myself and my recent behavior changes I think I can link it to the concept of purity. In Shintoism, purity and purification are some the main concepts. Your soul and body can get contaminated and you need to clean it. By default humans are pure, but can get contaminated by different things. I am not an expert in Shintoism but I would consider bad thoughts, behavior and not taking care of yourself as impure. If you eat processed foods you contaminate your body. If you stress at work you contaminate your mind. If you don't sleep enough you contaminate both. |
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- Read labels on foods that you buy. You don't want to eat bad things.
- Avoid medicine unless needed. A lot of people eat paracetamol or ibuprofen to remove headache to work. Listen to your body instead and rest.
- Shut off electric things. They make sounds and constantly enter your mind.
My fellow King made a rant about how people always take the easy route to deal with their problems. "Why eat healthy? Take all these vitamins.", "Why exercise and go outside? Take these painkillers and mood altering happy pills.", "Why just rest until you recover from the sickness for weeks? Take these drugs and you'll be well in days!" People are contaminating their bodies as a way to remove impurity. But instead they contaminate it even more.
Something that help me every day when making decisions is to think something like "Will this contaminate me?". It may be silly or some may think that I am over thinking things, but it lets me do a second evaluation if the thing I am about to do will contaminate me. Both mentally, physically and spiritually.
In the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, he explains that you can more easily become the person you want to be by identifying yourself with it. I decided to identify myself as a purified person. I can at least say that it has helped me a lot in becoming a better person and getting me closer to the person I want to be. There is still a lot to be done but I am on the right path at least.