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Karma, Destiny, Fate: is it the will of God or Spirit?...

Nichiren

先輩
21 Feb 2008
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HUMAN BEINGS HAVE LONG ASCRIBED TO FATE, destiny or even God's will problems they felt powerless to resist, resigning themselves to these perceived forces. The ancient Greeks envisioned three elderly goddesses-the Fates-who controlled people's lives. The goddess Clotho determined birth, spinning the thread of human life; Lachesis dispensed that thread, steering the path a person would follow in life; and Atropos cut the thread thus determining an individual's moment of death.

This attitude-that all in life is predetermined or inalterable-is not limited to people of old; it exerts an influence on the hearts and minds of many living today. Expressing frustration over this tendency, British author and essayist George Orwell wrote: "For the ordinary man is passive. Within a narrow circle . . . he feels himself master of his fate, but against major events he is as helpless as against the elements. So far from endeavoring to influence the future, he simply lies down and lets things happen to him."

The idea that something other than ourselves controls our destiny can in one sense be seen as a form of avoidance-a rationalization to escape facing and challenging real problems and suffering. It may also be an expression of a deep, subconscious sense of helplessness.

I'd like to hear your thoughts or insights on the nature(reality) of life on sufferings, destiny or fate. What causes human sufferings? what is destiny? I think this would be an important questions to each one of us whether u believe in God or not, theist or atheist.
 
Hind-sight is 20/20. People can give meaning to any event at any time, and honestly, I think that is wonderful. What is dangerous is when they decide to place themselves as chosen above others in some divine way.

If you are trying to start a thread on fate, that is fine, but it seems mostly like just another religion thread. I have no problem with that though, but really I'm kind of burnt out on that junk for now, so sorry for the short answer...

I'ma go watch me some Ghibili movies and get my Japanese language up.
 
Here we go, the perfect Tim Minchin song for this thread :p

 
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And he is trying to fix the problems by his songs..most singers sing about love,emotions..bla bla bla..but this guy is different ! I like his subjects !!
 
In general, I think Japanese people tend to be more fatalistic than Americans. Americans tend more to believe that you make your own future.

Jim
 
i also like his subjects....he is quite distinguish than others...i think he used to do it from his heart
 
From a certain point of view everything that happens is the will of God, good or bad. One can't say that God is all-powerful and yet deny that God is also the source of what humans call destiny and fate. However, if one doesn't view God as all-powerful, but merely as the source of laws that he doesn't actively control, then it's merely a bit of determinism, i.e. A leads to B and B leads to C. For example: A) Ed goes out to the bar and drinks a lot; B) Ed drives home drunk and crashes his car; C) Ed is arrested and charged with a a DWI.

Ed getting drunk was his own doing, not God's. Yet, some people will also say that it's God's will that Ed get drunk and get into an auto accident, citing his trouble as a bit of "tough love" from God so that he can straighten his life up.

Some have no trouble reconciling fate, free will, or whatever you want to call it, with God. Some do.
 
I don't think god - if exists - will care about what will happen to a human in all this universe. "Fate" is a way to reassure ourselves that we are protected by some means. A way to find ourselves a hope. That's all.
 
I'm certain many of you have seen a dead body. The person that inhabitated that shell is no longer there. Then, as you know, you look at someone sleeping, and you can tell whatever is animating it is still there, correct? I don't think the energy that animates our bodies is destroyed when we die. I think it persists, and I think there is such a thing as the human unconciousness which connects us all.

Destiny is in the hands of humanity. Fate is what we make of it. If you commit an act of evil, you will feel it. If you are normal as I am, you would feel horrible, perhaps just numb for awhile after doing something wrong. I believe in Karma.
 
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