It’s Your Destiny
Do you believe in destiny or are you in control of your own future? I’m not religious (well, I do lean towards Buddhist teachings) so I don’t see a divine being pulling my strings, but I do think that the universe (for lack of better term) puts choices in front of you and it’s up to you to decide which path you go down. I do believe that there are places we ought to be in life and people we should meet, but it’s through our choices whether we get there or not. I also don’t think there is such thing as a wrong choice. Through our mistakes or poorer choices, we can see how we got to this point in our lives and maybe how to get back to where we should be.
So I guess I see it sort of half and half. My life may not be written in an all-knowing book with me unable to deviate from the story. Maybe it’s more like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Where there is a one path that’s the best one for me, but I can make my decisions, and mistakes, to reach one of any number of endings. Including the best one in my own roundabout way.
Are you in control of your destiny or is yours already written out?
Play Asia
October 2nd, 2012 at 9:36 am
Well, being of the Christian persuasion, I believe that we’re given our own purpose, or role in life. How we get to that point or the details involved is mostly up to us, with subtle hints and clues leading towards a more ideal path along the way if we’re paying attention – with plenty of parallel paths and ways to get back on track regardless of how far we might stray.
October 2nd, 2012 at 12:18 pm
Currently my life feels directionless. Like a boat without a rudder. Its been a struggle to get some purpose back into my life rather than just pointless day to day existence. Regular employment would help. Having work to do really gives one a sense of accomplishment and goals to achieve.
October 2nd, 2012 at 7:46 pm
I’m more like a leaf blowing in the wind, but I don’t think any greater being controls that wind. I don’t think have to be submissive to it, but I’m not particularly ambitious or inclined to control situations, so it’s seems to be the nature of my personality that makes things flow that way.
Meanwhile, I’ve noticed something curious:
The biggest trials in my life always gave me some profound knowledge or discovery. Every time! And these insights have greatly shaped me. Logically, that either says something about me, or something about the trials.
But it’s fun to wonder if there’s a deeper part of you inherent in the things around you, influencing your life to shape who you grow into.
October 3rd, 2012 at 1:08 am
I actually believe in both. By this, I mean that isn’t it possible that our destiny is what all of our choices lead up to?
If there is a destiny, I believe this destiny knows which paths in our life we will choose, giving us the freedom to choose our destiny before we even make the choices that we will make.
October 9th, 2012 at 8:48 am
Well… yes and no. If ‘destiny’ means ‘there is some predestined reason or purpose to one’s existence,’ then no. If it means ‘there is some predetermined set of actions/events that one will be involved in and one has no control over the occurrence of said actions/events,’ then sometimes. In my more reflective moments on self and place in universe, I tend to think that we do not have free will in the traditional sense. ‘We’ may in some sense be ‘responsible’ for things that happen in our lives, but there is little reason to think that we have any sort of control that allows us to somehow choose between alternative future states. If this is true, then we may have a destiny in the latter sense.
On a tangential note, I was just having a conversation the other day with someone about Buddhism, and was struck by the similarities between his description of some of the teachings and some of the Epicurean positions on life. Mostly they related to the importance of eliminating desires in our lives to maximize pleasure/happiness. I’m pretty sure that you mentioned thoughts about death before, and Epicurus has some interesting things to say on that subject as well. You may want to check it out.