Life Vectors and their Architectures

I'm blogging earlier than usual this week, on a Sunday before the start of the week. Right now I'm comfortably seated at Starbucks, 1 Utama Shopping Mall, sipping my Americano with my laptop and a good internet connection. I've already done some amount of work-related stuff. Looks like it is a good time to take a break by offloading my thoughts onto a blog post.

We live as thinking and feeling creatures. Thoughts and emotions: these are the two main activities of the human mind and body. We act based on what we think is rational and what we feel is right. Thinking and feeling animates us and that is reflected in our actions. Action is a vector with two dependencies: thought and feelings. Thought gives us the direction or purpose, feeling gives us the magnitude or strength. It is completely analogous to a mathematical vector, which is defined by direction and magnitude.

Thought gives us a direction and when a thought is energized by passion, action results. Every moment of our lives are defined by these 'life vectors'. When our life vectors are well aligned, our lives are purposeful and meaningful. Achieving the defined purpose of our lives make us 'happy'.

But what determines the direction and purpose of our lives? How should our life vectors be aligned? Do we even have control over them?

Let's examine the two parameters of the life vector closely. Thoughts seem to randomly appear in our minds. Feelings arises, based on what triggered them. We feel sad, happy, angry, inspired or motivated based on what we see, hear, taste and smell and also the thoughts that we either deliberately or accidentally introduce in our head. Sometimes, when we have a mission--like a job that needs to be done, we introduce specific thoughts--an action plan--that needs to be executed and we pursue them with deliberate action, driven by feelings of different qualities, depending on the situation. If the plan is important--perhaps even a matter of life and death, then the feelings that accompany our actions could be fear and stress. If the action involves doing something that we have a clear liking for, then there's motivation, joy and excitement.

How successful we are in aligning our life vectors to our overall goal in life, determines how happy, successful and meaningful our life is. But what determines this overall goal or purpose that we want to direct our lives toward? We feel very uncomfortable and even unhappy when we are aimless. When we do not know where our lives are heading. When there's no clear idea of the path that lies ahead of us. We try our best to define this Purpose, for without it, life vectors become very random. Thoughts and feelings arise driving us hither and thither. We feel tired because energy is dissipated everywhere. This wastefulness of energy makes us feel weak and dispirited.

Like a machine of which every part has a purpose and function, life needs a well designed architecture. An architecture provides 3 important qualities: predictability, efficiency and coherence. Let's examine all three of them.

We want to be clear what to do in life. That's what I mean by predictability. I need a daily ritual: wake up, shower, pray maybe, go to work. When encountered with certain situations in life, I know exactly what to do because I have clear guidelines or rules--a code of ethic for my conduct. This code will also help me to make decisions in life. I know exactly what to do because I have this algorithm with all the rules embedded. I do not need to a lot of deep thinking to figure it out.

As a result of this ease of action, I never need to waste time groping around for the right solution. I charge ahead in life with purpose and confidence. I feel strong and vigorous because all my actions are clearly aligned and precise. No energy is wasted in deliberating, exploring, experimenting through a process of trial and error. I achieve optimum efficiency.

There's coherence in my life because every aspect of my existence, social, moral, intellectual and emotional support each other and are part of a harmonious whole. That is what an architecture provides. Coherence is what gives us a sense of meaning and beauty. Life is beautiful when we see all the components of its machinery working in harmony, each an equally vital cog in the overall scheme of things. Isn't such a life ecstatically beautiful?

Now that we understand the need for a Life Architecture, let me give you the most common candidate for it: Religion.

It is our unconscious yearning for architecture that make us susceptible to religion, or any other ideology for that matter. Religion is a collective, organic architecture that is easily available and widely adopted by many of us to give us the predictability, efficiency and coherence that we yearn for so much. Is it the best solution for humanity and are there alternative architectures that are better suited for us?

I shall leave that question open for now--a life vector that I am injecting into the mix, to stir up you existing architecture, whatever it may be. Sometimes architectures morph into new ones when internal and external changes are introduced.