Self Help Sanctum

Tag: fate

  • Can I Change My Destiny?

    What is Destiny?

    Our destiny is the tentative future path that lies ahead of us at any given now, subject to everything that affects us continuing along its current trajectory. Of course, we cannot possibly know our destiny even if that condition of continuance were satisfied because we cannot possibly know about everything that affects us.

    What Determines My Destiny?

    Spiritually we are part of an infinite existence, of which our current incarnation forms but the smallest step. Before beginning the journey known as life we agree, with our guides and helpers, what the overall purpose of that adventure will be, ie the experiences we will seek and the lessons we will try to learn. But to have any meaning whatsoever we are also endowed with free will. (more…)

  • Good Karma, Bad Karma

    Karma is one of the West’s best known Eastern Mystical concepts, even featuring in popular songs by John Lennon (Instant Karma), David Bowie (Karma Man), and Culture Club (Karma Chameleon) among others.

    Some years ago the then England football manager Glenn Hoddle, a genuinely Spiritual man, was fired for an ill-considered remark that disabled people were paying for the sins of past lives.

    A Definition of Karma

    Karma is simply the process of cause and effect. If you do A, B will happen. If you plant tomato seeds, and water and look after them, tomatoes will grow.

    whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap St Paul, Galatians 6-7 (more…)

  • Fate vs Free Will

    Predestination, Free Will, or Both?

    Are we victims of inescapable fate, or do we really have the power to create our own destiny? That is the age-old question.

    The Scientific View

    In the 17th Century Isaac Newton formulated his laws of motion and gravitation which gave rise to the concept of a mechanistic “clockwork” universe in which everything proceeded deterministically. Everything that happened was no more than the inevitable consequence of all it followed, including human behavior. God and the soul were redundant.

    The clockwork universe was shattered in the 20th century. First Einstein discovered neither time nor space are as we perceive them, but are intertwined in a 4-dimensional continuum. Next Quantum physics found that, far from following principles of cause and effect, reality at its fundamental level is inherently indeterministic.

    Yet the prevailing view of science as expounded by the likes of Richard Dawkins is that life (including humanity) is no more that sophisticated machinery. (more…)