Fate and Destiny: a philosophy thread

innerSpaceman · 12-13-2005, 11:16 PM

While I don't exactly believe in fate or destiny, I think our souls are drawn to certain life experiences and to certain other souls such that certain elements of our lives can be seen as preordained.

I think that each of us is creating the universe around us with our thoughts and words and actions, and that to the extent the world seems solid and unchanging - with the freeways, for example, right where we left them yesterday - it is so because of the shared force of all our consciousnesses on a sort of agreed-upon reality.

In this metaphysical view of the universe, much of what happens can be seen as both fate and completely free willed, all at once. It doesn't help to straighten out matters that I believe all of time to be happening at the same time. That events of a thousand years ago and a million years hence are all happening at once, and are all happening right now. Now being all there is - and time, just like everything else in the physical realm, being merely an illusion. Though, from our perspective as humans, a damn convincing illusion.

I think we pick our parents before we are born, and so perhaps the type of upbringing we have and the resulting type of person we are can be viewed as a type of self-created destiny. I also believe that certain other spirits are drawn to us lifetime after lifetime - in this one as our lover, in the next maybe as our child - such that these meetings and reunions are also a type of destiny.

But I don't think there's anything we are here to DO, or that we are here to learn anything in particular on our journey through each lifetime. It's all free will - with the power of our will to create - and that we are creating our reality all the time - whether we do so consciously or not, whether we are meaning to or not. And so, we are free to create for ourselves a destiny, if we so desire. And we are free to create a fulfillment of fate - - even if we are the ones who created that fate to begin with.

Edited to add: I do believe in karma, but perhaps not the type of karma that is popularly imagined as one life being filled with the results of the past lifetime's deeds. That being said, however, I think there is something to the concept of what goes around, comes around. And I also believe that we tend to become that which we judge.

Perhaps the goes around, comes around is a result of our own consciences, our own guilt - and that maybe people without any remorse whatsoever dont' create the universe where they get what's coming to them. And perhaps the becoming that which we judge is simply a matter of wishing to experience all aspects of being, and not some sort of cosmic retribution for the sin of being judgmental.

In any case, these forms of karma can be independent of us or can be created by us. Perhaps some of the karmic forces are a result of the mass consciousness. But again, it's all a hopelessly tangled combination of free will and destiny at work.

12-13-2005, 11:16 PM	#1
innerSpaceman Kink of Swank Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Inner Space Posts: 13,075	While I don't exactly believe in fate or destiny, I think our souls are drawn to certain life experiences and to certain other souls such that certain elements of our lives can be seen as preordained. I think that each of us is creating the universe around us with our thoughts and words and actions, and that to the extent the world seems solid and unchanging - with the freeways, for example, right where we left them yesterday - it is so because of the shared force of all our consciousnesses on a sort of agreed-upon reality. In this metaphysical view of the universe, much of what happens can be seen as both fate and completely free willed, all at once. It doesn't help to straighten out matters that I believe all of time to be happening at the same time. That events of a thousand years ago and a million years hence are all happening at once, and are all happening right now. Now being all there is - and time, just like everything else in the physical realm, being merely an illusion. Though, from our perspective as humans, a damn convincing illusion. I think we pick our parents before we are born, and so perhaps the type of upbringing we have and the resulting type of person we are can be viewed as a type of self-created destiny. I also believe that certain other spirits are drawn to us lifetime after lifetime - in this one as our lover, in the next maybe as our child - such that these meetings and reunions are also a type of destiny. But I don't think there's anything we are here to DO, or that we are here to learn anything in particular on our journey through each lifetime. It's all free will - with the power of our will to create - and that we are creating our reality all the time - whether we do so consciously or not, whether we are meaning to or not. And so, we are free to create for ourselves a destiny, if we so desire. And we are free to create a fulfillment of fate - - even if we are the ones who created that fate to begin with. Edited to add: I do believe in karma, but perhaps not the type of karma that is popularly imagined as one life being filled with the results of the past lifetime's deeds. That being said, however, I think there is something to the concept of what goes around, comes around. And I also believe that we tend to become that which we judge. Perhaps the goes around, comes around is a result of our own consciences, our own guilt - and that maybe people without any remorse whatsoever dont' create the universe where they get what's coming to them. And perhaps the becoming that which we judge is simply a matter of wishing to experience all aspects of being, and not some sort of cosmic retribution for the sin of being judgmental. In any case, these forms of karma can be independent of us or can be created by us. Perhaps some of the karmic forces are a result of the mass consciousness. But again, it's all a hopelessly tangled combination of free will and destiny at work. Last edited by innerSpaceman : 12-13-2005 at 11:26 PM.
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