LIAM CHAI

Albert Einstein said, “the first and most basic question all people must answer for themselves,” is whether the universe is a friendly place.

The question is about mental attitudes. It’s about how we react when a negative, or a positive event happens. It’s a question that we all have answered already, consciously or not. It’s a question that affects people’s reality and a change in the answer can change a person’s reality.

So imagine a sliding scale of friendliness and unfriendliness for the answer. Most people fall somewhere along the scale and as we live our answers shift towards friendliness or unfriendliness. Usually the shifts are small and not noticeable but by taking this question out and asking it to yourself you have a chance to make a big jump on the scale, be it friendly or unfriendly.

In an unfriendly universe someone might steal your wallet and phone while you were walking home. As a person living in an unfriendly universe you felt miserable for the rest of the week and started feeling fearful about walking home alone. Whenever you saw a dodgy looking character approaching, you crossed the street.

In a friendly universe someone might steal your wallet and phone while you were walking home. As a person living in a friendly universe you know the universe is friendly and so you aren’t dwelling on it. You know that thinking negatively about a perceived negative event would lead to more negative things. You see that being fearful about walking home alone gains you nothing. Ultimately you see that unfriendliness is subjective, so you have decided to make your subjective reality a friendly one.