i used to believe that everything happens for a reason and that the reason was greater than all of us as individuals. i used to believe that we wouldn’t ever understand the reason for why things happen until what was meant to happen had already happened. only then would we be able to step back and directly piece together the chain of events that led us to where we are and why certain people left our life and why certain people entered it and why we suffered so much, or so little, along the way. i used to believe everything was meant to get us to the exact place we are in as the exact person we are.
i don’t see it exactly this way anymore. i don’t think everything happens for a reason in a spiritual, or higher purpose, sort of way.
i believe, in the most literal way, that everything happens for a reason, and the reason depends on which actions were taken beforehand.
i believe that our destiny is in our hands, at our will, at our discretion.
many people attribute these higher forces to a deity, or god, and they reserve the right to do so. however, i don’t feel that way.
in fact, i believe some people don’t give themselves enough credit.
to say that you worked your ass off to achieve a goal and successfully did so because of a god, or a similar force, would be to rob you of your own credit.
to say that you fucked up and completely failed at achieving something because of a god, or a similar force, would be to rob you of your own accountability.
this is detrimental to our own growth. a huge part of learning and moving forward in life comes from being able to recognize where you went right, or wrong. this means that you have to know what was influencing that situation or decision to fully understand it, so you can logically attribute praise or fault to whatever went wrong or right. when you bring a god or a deity into the picture at this point, you run the risk of falsely attributing certain things to that god or deity, which then robs you of your own ability to fully understand and learn from any given situation. this robs you, and others, of the opportunity to hear fair constructive criticism that could be a valuable lesson to carry for the rest of the journey in life.
the reality is that we create our own reality.
our thoughts, for example, create our reality. while we can’t choose what thoughts we have, because our thoughts are not truly ours to begin with, we can choose which ones to accept, to deny, to act on, to affirm and reaffirm continuously, to base decisions around, and so on and so forth.
but what do i mean? how are our thoughts not ours to begin with? have i gone mad? well no, they’re not, but yes, perhaps i have. i’m open to anything.
this is how i see it. and this is how modern day cognitive behavioral therapists see it.
we are vessels who share the same physical bodies, not in the exact same ways, but we are all animals of the human species who evolved to have the same basic biological features that we currently have. we have these physical bodies, or vessels, but “we” in the mental + spiritual way, are not these bodies. we just exist in them, live in them, and use them to get around during our time here on the physical planet. so, then who are we? well, we are the observer of our thoughts. we are not our thoughts, because we are the ones viewing them. we receive these thoughts from our external influences, such as what we’ve heard from family + friends + entertainment + social media + stranger + coworkers + bosses + leaders + political figures + so on. it’s a lot of information to process, but we do it all the time, for our entire lives. we filter these thoughts from all of these groups; thoughts that we label as facts, feelings, conspiracies, opinions, rules, social norms, and so on. we categorize them, filter them, sort them, rank them, repeat them back to ourselves, deny them, spread them to others, explain them, intellectualize them and so on. you know what this means? and it’s kind of hilarious. it means none of us truly have ever had an original thought. this also establishes, to some degree, why i don’t believe in a deity or god. you hear plenty of people talk about thoughts and ideas that a deity or god “gave” or “sent” to them. the reality is that anybody could give be giving, or sending, us any of these thoughts. this is because we are sponges who falsely attribute credit to the wrong sources, or wrong memories, all the time. it’s a part of human nature. this means we truly are the guardians of our mind, and therefore the guardians of our reality. we ultimate choose what we do with all of these thoughts from other people and sources. we ultimately choose what thoughts from other people align the most with what we feel to be true, which become the thoughts that form parts of our identity and how we see ourselves. this is what i mean by our thoughts are not ours, but they still create our reality. although none of these thoughts are originally ours, we still use them to shape our life in the past, present, and future. to me, this is how we are the masters of our reality, despite living in a world that tries to attribute the fate of our lives to all of these other sources. whether the reasoning is to fit into society, please our family, be more agreeable with others, escape accountability, or to explain certain achievements, ultimately, we are the creators of our own destiny.
If there are no more original thoughts, then that brings out a new question. When did humanity stop having original thoughts?