Nothing is meant to be.
There is no predestination.
In ancient texts, the idea of predestination is very strong, but the usage of the the term is purely metaphorical. People in the past used the word to express feelings of affinity for a place, a time, or for others. But nothing of the future is set.
There is no cosmic puppeteer at work. We are solely responsible for our own actions. It is true that we can become mired in circumstances so strong and so far reaching that they will continue to have ramifications far into the future. For example, if we construct circumstances right, such as starting an organization to help others, then the good will last for a long time. However, if we fall far into debt and do nothing to help ourselves, then the bad will also last a long time. Yet in both cases, our lasting situations are results of our own actions. This is not destiny. It is causality.
Causality is from the past, and nothing is acting from the future. There is no script, no pattern to walk into. Everything has to be created, and we are the artists.
Those who follow Tao endeavor to have as few restrictions placed upon them as possible. By completing each action, they minimize causality. By living fully in the present, they absorb the best of what each day has to offer. By understanding that there is no literal destiny, fate, or predestination, they keep the future as free and open as possible. That is truly the openness of life.
“The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy,
but the best weapon of a democracy
should be the weapon of openness.”
—Niels Bohr
Show me one who boasts continually of his “openness,” and I will show you one who conceals much.
— Minna Thomas Antrim (1906 – 2001) US writer
We tend to be so bombarded with information. . . This is antithetical to the kind of openness and perception you have to have to be receptive to poetry. . . . poetry seems to exist in a parallel universe outside daily life in America.
Rita Dove (1952 – ____) US poet, educator
In “New York Times,” sect. 4, p. 7, 20 Jun 1993.
“The brain’s calculations do not require our conscious effort, only our attention and our openness to let the information through. Although the brain absorbs universes of information, little is admitted into normal consciousness.” — Marilyn Ferguson
“I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable.” — Joseph Addison
“The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.” (John Steinbeck, Cannery Row)
“Ineffective people live day after day with unused potential. They experience synergy only in small, peripheral ways in their lives. But creative experiences can be produced regularly, consistently, almost daily in people’s lives. It requires enormous personal security and openness and a spirit of adventure.” — Stephen R. Covey
I try to leave my time as open as possible. I guess that seems strange in our society where everything is so scheduled and planned to the last minute of the day. But for me, dropping the dayplanner from my life when I’m not consulting was the best thing for me, so the Covey quote is a bit ironic. . Scheduling is reserved only for the things that have to be organized with other people, and the rest of my time is as free as possible.
The funny thing is, the things you really need to get done are done, and the things you think you need to do but don’t really – get done, too. Somehow, in not scheduling time, there becomes more time, because you aren’t constantly thinking about what you “have” to do, and don’t end up feeling tired and overwhelmed by everything.
I do a lot of my “time management” by ignoring things. My house isn’t alway spotless anymore, but if no one is visiting me, nobody here seems to mind. And when unexpected guests drop in, they are typically more comfortable because they feel “at home”, and not ashamed of how messy their own place is. If I apologize for messiness, the usual reaction is, “you ought to see my place!” I have someone in to deep clean every three weeks or so, and the rest of the time, if the laundry and dishes are done, and the bathroom and kitchen are reasonably clean, we’re doing all right. The best way to keep things clean is to get rid of stuff, so there’s not as much to take care of anyway. We live in a small home and there’s not room for a whole lot of crap to build up. The kids’ rooms are their own, and they are responsible for making sure we can walk through without injury. Beyond that, we just ask them (or bug them) to clean up once in a while.
The garden stays gorgeous because I am in it at least once a day or so, and whenever I see a weed I pull it – without feeling like I need to clean up all the weeds in the yard. When I am in the mood to pull weeds, I do as much as I feel like doing and leave the rest.
I’m not especially concerned about completed action in most cases. I’m pretty good about finishing tasks, but, being a mom, I’m also good about getting interrupted and still remembering what I needed to do. If you don’t handle interruption well (like my husband), then you need to be more concerned about finishing fully. But I think I’m at a place now where this is becoming more important in my life. I need to complete what I am doing or thinking instead of leaving things undone to be finished later.
I don’t believe in predestination, but I do believe in karma. There is cause and effect between what you do, how you treat others, and how life responds to you. People usually think of openness in terms of having nothing to hide from other people. If you think of your life in terms of cause and effect, though, and realize that what you do comes back to you, then you act without intent to harm others, and have nothing to hide. Then you can be open not just with your time, but your feelings as well.
3 Responses
Past, present and future all exist within the now, and the now exists within each. Our memories and dreams and perceptions are all entangled at a deep quantum level, cause and effect are instantaneous but not experienced all at once. What each of us do affects us all, what all of us do affects us each. To raise your own consciousness is to raise the consciousness of humanity, not because one follows the other but because they occur together.
I don’t believe in predestination either.
My days are wonderfully unplanned. Plans scare me. They oppress me with their sense of future time already used up before it gets here.
Ooo, Michael, that’s beautiful. I developed a saying a long time ago that expressed that for me, “The future reaches back and touches the past”. I actually tried to draw it out one time, and ended up with a drawing that resembled a bunch of hexagonal soap bubbles. I tend to think of consciousness as holographic, so we are just a tiny piece of it but we contain the whole thing somehow.
And I get what you mean about oppression, gerry. The days I have anything planned seem to be more stressful for me, and I couldn’t quite understand why.