28 replies to this topic

[cluey]

Beany, on 01 April 2012 - 02:14 AM, said:

Has anyone seen this? What do you think of it? At one time I had a lot of resistance around rule 7; not so much anymore.

Rule One: You will receive a body. You may love it or hate it, but it will be yours for the duration of your life on Earth.

Rule Two: You will be presented with lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called 'life.' Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or hate them, but you have designed them as part of your curriculum.

Rule Three: There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of experimentation, a series of trials, errors, and occasional victories. The failed experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that work.

Rule Four: A lesson is repeated until learned. Lessons will be repeated to you in various forms until you have learned them. When you have learned them, you can then go on to the next lesson.

Rule Five: Learning does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

Rule Six: 'There' is no better than 'here'. When your 'there' has become a 'here,' you will simply obtain a 'there' that will look better to you than your present 'here'.

Rule Seven: Others are only mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.

Rule Eight: What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you.

Rule Nine: Your answers lie inside of you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

Rule Ten: You will forget all of this at birth.

so true...........i'm sorry...but rule 7 makes perfect sense........  : )

[libstaK]

Royal, on 01 April 2012 - 03:49 AM, said:

Hi Beany,As a whole this resonates as a sound philosophy,except if you are someone born with a disability.

Yeah it's hard to accept rule 1 as being particularly fair when faced with many unequal existential conditions.

Of course in this scenario it would follow that some people are on advanced curriculums and some are advanced teachers of the human condition too - I like to believe that most people I meet can teach me something.  

Regardless of the "soundness" of the hypothetical OP, the opportunity to learn is a sound one and it is a good choice from what I have learned to hold those with disabilities in high esteem - there are so many inspirational stories to be told.

*Proviso*
Along with the heartbreak and sorrow of course, I'm not pretending that doesn't happen, devaluing it,  or that I've learned it is fair for someone to struggle against so many obstacles - I doubt that would be one of the lessons so it's would not qualify as any kind of "fail" to rant against the injustice and inequality in human opportunity in this philosophy I suspect.

[DarkHunter]

I disagree with just about all of the ten rules.  To me that either fall short under logic or require a certain belief that I do not have.

1. This one is an interesting one, it is hard to refute this rule as anything but fact.  But with the advancement of technology the validity of this rule comes into question.  Right now we are able to change a persons body so much that even if they hate they can create a body that the love.  No aspect today of the human body is not up to change or modification, so being stuck with a body you hate or love becomes meaningless.  Some may argue that no matter how much you change your body it is still your body, that I think would fall under more under the Theseus ship paradox, but we are starting to already see the beginnings of not needing a body.  Right now it seems like it is only a matter of time till we get to cyborgs and/or other forms of living without having a body.

2. This one is much like the first, starting off what is more or less a statement about life in general.  But the last sentence is what makes it fall apart.  For this rule to be true one must believe in either reincarnation and/or a belief in the soul existing before the creation of the body.  This also implies that we all design our lives before we are born and have all our life experiences already planned out in advance of us being born.  There are many problems with this.  First it removes free will completely from life on earth since we have everything planned out before we are born.  Second the mere complexity of this makes it seem illogical.  With extremely limited numbers this may be feasible but with larger numbers the complexity of this rises to the level of an infinite complexity.  With finite minds, which we all have since we need to learn still, this becomes impossible.

3. This rule I also disagree with completely.  This implies that failures due not exist and everything is for personal growth.  This would effectively remove failure as a trait of being human and ultimately any responsibly in the case of failure since it is all just a lesson.  Personally, this seems to be a rule made by the same people that give out trophies at little kid sporting events to everyone just so no ones feelings get hurt.  

4. This rule I disagree with because it is for the most part an extension of rule three which I already disagree with.

5. This is the only rule I agree with and only because we are all of finite intelligence living a very short amount of time in a world so vastly larger then ourselves it may as well be infinitely larger.

6. I disagree with this rule also.  Just because a better place may be a better place does not mean all places are equal.  The best way I think I can explain this is mathematically, 5 > 6 > 7, just because 7 is bigger then 6 it does not mean 6 is not bigger then 5.  Just because any place can be infinitely better does not mean everywhere is equal and there are clearly some better and worse areas, I doubt anyone can truly say being in Somalia is just as good as being in the USA which this rule seems to imply.

7. This one is mixed in my disagreement and agreement of it.  First I do not believe others are only mirrors of myself, that seems to me to fall under either a very Solipsistic view or a view more inline with the Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, or Sikhism, where everyone is just a single part of a deity and will and some point become part of that deity again.  I can agree with hating/loving others based on aspects of ourselves we see in them but I do not think hating/loving others is just limited to what we see of ourselves in others.

8. This one I strongly disagree with.  Not everyone is born with all the tools and definitely resources they need.  Many places in the world have little to no access to education so advancement to a better life is either limited or impossible.  Then there are about equably about of places without enough resources to even sub-stain their own lives, let alone make their lives whatever they want them to be.

9. This rule I also disagree strongly with.  First this rules works best with either a belief in reincarnation or a belief in the soul before the creation of the body.  Second it runs into the problem that we are finite minds, already reinforced by rules 2-4, so how can we have the answers inside of us.  Either we are finite minds and do not have all the answers or we are infinite minds which would contradict rules 2-4, either way a rule or three rules in invalidated.

10. Once again this rule is only valid if one believe in reincarnation or the soul existing before the body.

[Beany]

I think rule 6 is another way of saying the grass always looks greener on the other side. For me, it speaks of being able to appreciate the "here", wherever that is, of appreciating what we have here and fully exploring that, instead of wishing we were elsewhere. In many ways that count, in my life I've found happiness by focusing on the here & now. Those times when I've yearned to be over "there" were the most unhappy because I failed to realize that the locus of happiness for me is internal, and if there is an aspect of disatisfaction in my life, that I have the power to change it. Finding another job, moving, beginning or ending relationships, etc. I do believe we always have choices, although we may not care for the choices.

However, as you pointed out, many of us in Western society have a pretty good life, unlike those born in 3rd or 4th world countries, for whom life consists of trying to simply survive. I've often thought that our ideas, philosophies, religions, etc. are a luxury not afforded those who spend their days & nights looking for food, firewood, avoiding life-threatening violence. I wonder if any of our kind, thoughtful ideas would be helpful or enhancing to those whose lives are all about basic suvival.

[DarkHunter]

I can see how rule 6 can be interrupted that way, my main problem with it though is that it leads to stagnation.  We are where we are now because people have always tried to reach something better, just being content with where we are will stop the chance of any further progress.  History and science has shown that all cases of stagnation always lead to death or destruction.

[Arpee]

I don't really like the "Earth is a school" idea. I am not a slave to any assignment I am a FREE human being.

[Beany]

I don't think rule 6 necessarily means stagnation. I've spent the greater part of my life moving from one place to another, and I liked it. New experiences, new faces, new things, new jobs, etc. But now I've stayed in basically one place for 15 years, which is a first for me, and I've had my current job 11 years, which is also a record. And because of this, I've had new experiences to do with connectedness, being an important part of community, growing attached to the natural world outside my door, figuring out how to keep my job fresh & interesting, time to grow a garden & watch it mature... In the past I moved because I got restless, now, if I move, it will be by fully choosing to do so, rather than being compelled. I've always known what it was like to move on, never knew what it was like to stay, and although I get antsy every now & then, I like the experience of staying.

[DarkHunter]

Beany, on 08 April 2012 - 02:29 AM, said:

I don't think rule 6 necessarily means stagnation. I've spent the greater part of my life moving from one place to another, and I liked it. New experiences, new faces, new things, new jobs, etc. But now I've stayed in basically one place for 15 years, which is a first for me, and I've had my current job 11 years, which is also a record. And because of this, I've had new experiences to do with connectedness, being an important part of community, growing attached to the natural world outside my door, figuring out how to keep my job fresh & interesting, time to grow a garden & watch it mature... In the past I moved because I got restless, now, if I move, it will be by fully choosing to do so, rather than being compelled. I've always known what it was like to move on, never knew what it was like to stay, and although I get antsy every now & then, I like the experience of staying.

I can accept that point of view, even though to me it seems that you are still progressing but in different areas of life, and thus avoiding stagnation.  Might be due to my young age that I am so opposed to staying in one place and want constant change.

[A Shadow]

Beany said:

Rule Four: A lesson is repeated until learned. Lessons will be repeated to you in various forms until you have learned them. When you have learned them, you can then go on to the next lesson.

What if one figures it is a lesson but decides not to learn it. What is left with no lessons? A lesson in a lesson from a lesson ignore from the lesson.

[cluey]

A Silent Shadow, on 08 April 2012 - 06:06 AM, said:

What if one figures it is a lesson but decides not to learn it. What is left with no lessons? A lesson in a lesson from a lesson ignore from the lesson.

The sader are the ones that fall short when continuous lesson are shown bit nothing learnt.....................  : )

[Beany]

DarkHunter, on 08 April 2012 - 03:40 AM, said:

I can accept that point of view, even though to me it seems that you are still progressing but in different areas of life, and thus avoiding stagnation.  Might be due to my young age that I am so opposed to staying in one place and want constant change.

When we're young, constant change can be a good thing, it's how we learn & grow, and get to know what suits us and what doesn't. I have friends who've lived in the same place their whole lives, and not such great places either; it just isn't in me to do that, I'm too curious. It's just good to seek change deliberately, instead of being driven by it, or compelled. And have fun while we're doing it!

[Beany]

It's been my experience that lessons are repeated until they're learned. Think of someone who has a history of choosing to be in relationship with abusers, or addicts. For me it was alcoholics. My dad was an alcoholic, so I had experience in dealing with that, I was familiar with it. So I married a man who was an alcholic, and life was good for a while, then not so much. Then one night I sat up in bed, and said, I don't have to do this. I realized I had choices as an adult that I didn't have as a child, and I chose not to live with an alcoholic. I felt like I had learned my lessons around that, and around being responsible for my choices instead of blaming someone else for my unhappiness. I like the idea of seeing things as lessons, instead of crisis, because that implies that as pupils we have a more active role and more control, instead of being passive or victims. I'd rather be a student than a victim.

[A Shadow]

cluey said:

so true...........i'm sorry...but rule 7 makes perfect sense........  : )

I do not see this for all. Imo, some people don't reflect anything.

cluey said:

The sader are the ones that fall short when continuous lesson are shown bit nothing learnt.....................  : )

Sad for who exactly  

Beany said:

It's been my experience that lessons are repeated until they're learned. Think of someone who has a history of choosing to be in relationship with abusers, or addicts. For me it was alcoholics. My dad was an alcoholic, so I had experience in dealing with that, I was familiar with it. So I married a man who was an alcholic, and life was good for a while, then not so much. Then one night I sat up in bed, and said, I don't have to do this. I realized I had choices as an adult that I didn't have as a child, and I chose not to live with an alcoholic. I felt like I had learned my lessons around that, and around being responsible for my choices instead of blaming someone else for my unhappiness. I like the idea of seeing things as lessons, instead of crisis, because that implies that as pupils we have a more active role and more control, instead of being passive or victims. I'd rather be a student than a victim.

If one in such a place is aware of what you say but still decides to stick around and play the victim. They chose to play this part for the rest of their life. What then happens to this lesson? A fail lesson? The lesson was fail on purpose and defeats itself, no longer in play.

[Beany]

I don't know what happens. I can only speak for myself. Those people who choose that or are trapped in that, that's their life, not mine. Do you think there is anything a person can learn from staying in an abusive situation? Some people eventually come to learn that if one wants a different result, one must do something different, in fact, I would say most people. It does take some people longer to get there than others, though, just as it takes some people longer to heal from it.