Christine the Lioness (3122)
Christopher the Pyro (1985)
ProphetJoe the Irreverent (1228)
Trouble the Pirate (600)
Keith the Director (573)
Mara the Peacemaker (530)
eric the Lil' Devil (351)
AJ the Zen Master (305)
Ben the Kingpin (213)
Haas the Addict (187)
Christine 2 the Mercenary (131) Lei the Mercenary (124) Katie the Mercenary (115)
Ben2 the Soldier (56) Christopher the Pyro thought this
I was obviously seriously smacked out on multiple drugs when I did my life plan.
Christine the Lioness quibbed this
Whatever. You chose to be an obnoxious, outspoken, misguided Republican with a sexy smile because you knew that’s what I’d be attracted to. After all, you had almost four years to study up on what I’d chosen before you had the chance to choose yours. 
Mara the Peacemaker up'n wrote this
That sounds like the kind of seminar I need to attend as I am currently in the midst of a spiritual/religious revolution, if you will.
ProphetJoe the Irreverent uttered
Um… it doesn’t affect me because I get a do-over in the next life… is that the right answer?
Seriously, was he helping you to find self-realization (we are, in many respects, the sum of the choices we make), or was he trying to test your belief in free-will vs. predetermination, or was he getting you to consider reincarnation??
ProphetJoe the Irreverent up'n wrote this
OK, it does sound like a bad dirty joke: a baptist, a daoist and a buddhist monk walk into a bar…
Christine the Lioness quibbed this
Well, the beauty of that kind of question is that it’s open to interpretation. With that said, he wasn’t trying to convert us to Buddhism or get us to consider reincarnation. Forget that he was Buddhist. It’s irrelevant essentially.
It actually has nothing to do with that or free will and predetermination. And it’s not about us being the sum of our choices– as that implies we are born first, then make choices, then become something formed by those choices.
If you put some thought into it, I think you’ll kinda get the implications a little better of how that sort of thinking can change how you go about living your life…
Haas the Addict penned this
I still do that from time to time 
Maybe its the age of discovery, Im 23 and for me those questions have become a part of my life for almost 2 years now, I find it impossible to go a week without thinking about it.
My latest quest is love… Any inputs there?
Christine the Lioness stated
You certainly like opening a can of worms, don’t you, Haas?
Christopher the Pyro hunt n' pecked this
Hass want unconditional love… buy a dog.
alphasapien the Virgin remarked
The real question is, if you knew you needed to learn something……. wouldn’t you already know it?
Christine the Lioness got all philosophical
If you found out you had to know Quickbooks for your next job, does that mean you suddenly know Quickbooks? Sometimes we know we need to learn something, and then… have to… LEARN it. Am I right?
And Haas, don’t listen to Christopher. He’s just never been loved unconditionally, so he’s bitter. 
Ivy the Soldier pontificated
well the question states that you know everything you know right now before making your decisions.
Anyhow knowing all that.. It still doesnt affect me much.. As i’m still responsible for my actions and my choices and there is no one else to blame if things either go well or badly.. In the end we are each responsible for our choices in our lives. If things dont go our way.. shit happens.. ya know.. At some point we made a choice somewhere that led us to whatever happened.. For instance.. I wouldnt be in the mess i’m in now had I not married hubby.. but thats neither here nor there.. There is a long line of what ifs in every situation. It doesnt change much knowing because you are stillr esponsible for your actions and choices in life.. Knowing you could have chosen differently.. really doesnt change much in the long run. Hell there are a trillion things we could have each chosen differently in our lives but didnt. why? because at the time they worked for us some how.. the only thing we do not have control over is outside forces in our lives.. (other people and their circumstances) BUT we have control over how we react to the way they affect our lives.. regardless of if its positive or negative impacts they and their circumstances/actions make.. Anyhow.. I might have totally taken the “question” wrong.. but thats whats great about philosophical questions..
Christine the Lioness uttered
Obviously, there’s no right or wrong answer… To a degree, I agree that, yes, the question does help you put into perspective that you can’t blame other people for what happens to you, and if you are some one who is constantly feeling victimized by circumstances, then considering the question would probably have a significant impact on your life. However, the question isn’t just about that… Ivy, you’re suggesting that it shows we have to take responsibility for our actions and realize that every decision we make leads us to the situation we’re in now. But in your last comment, you didn’t address the other part. The scenario suggests that not only are we responsible for what happens and our decisions, but we aren’t just accepting that and reacting. We actually chose to put ourselves in those situations knowing what the consequences would be. That’s different than not knowing, and just making the best decisions we can at the time and then accepting the outcome. For example– and this is just one of many so I’ll use an easy one– before birth, you had the choice to be a man or a woman. You chose to be a woman. Under the scenario, you picked the female gender because it would help you learn “this thing” you need to learn in life better than being a man would have helped you learn it. So if you ask yourself why you chose to be a woman– knowing everything you know now about womanhood (physical differences, gender inequality, romantic relationships, gender roles, pregnancy, parenthood, etc.), why does being female help you learn that lesson better than being male?
I don’t know exactly what your situation is with your husband, so I’ll use myself as an example. I was engaged several years ago and after 3 1/2 years we broke off the engagement and split up. I learned a great deal from that experience and it was a very difficult thing to go through. However, under the posed scenario, I knew before being born that I would meet my ex, get engaged, and then break off the engagement. I chose to go through that experience because it somehow would help to teach me the thing I needed to learn while on the planet. Not things you learn like– I shouldn’t make that mistake in a relationship again, or I shouldn’t trust so easily, or I now know better what I want in a life partner… I’m talking about a bigger question. Sure you do learn all that stuff too, but it’s minor compared to the other.
Pauline aka God the Father the Virgin spake, and sayeth
I suppose every opinion counts.
Pauline aka the Lion of Judah the Virgin asserted
I suppose it depends how you look at it.
Pauline aka Mary the Virgin spake, and sayeth
Well I don’t suppose it’s any of my business.
Pauline aka Plato the Virgin thought this
Oh you boys, you make me so mad. You make me blush.
Pauline aka Chris aka Bull in the Labyrinth the Virgin thought this
I’m a safe-cracker with a heart of gold. I just want someone to love me - the real me. Noone understands me, but I understand them; oh, but if only they’d let me love them. My adulthood has robbed me of my heart of gold; big nasty adulthood. Nothing’s sacred anymore. Why why why do we have to grow up?
Yo momma the Virgin scribbled
Nasty nasty little boy.
Christine the Lioness asserted
Uh Pauline… exactly which of your many personalities are you hoping they’ll love?
Pauline the Virgin got all philosophical
Stop it, or I’ll get my friends on you.
Christine the Lioness uttered
LOL!
Pauline the Virgin commented
I don’t mean to make jokes about people with multiple-personality disorder, but hey… I think it’s quite disturbing how ignorant people can be, especially when they mix up illnesses (like thinking schizophrenics have many personalities). But they say it’s quite common for close family and friends to have a problem with denial due to guilt, etc. Still, it’s horrid how people generalize.
ProphetJoe the Irreverent thought this
Christine wrote: “For example and this is just one of many so Ill use an easy one before birth, you had the choice to be a man or a woman.”
So the question is not only philosophical and hypothetical, it’s also fictional? I realize I haven’t taken a biology class for several years now, but when I was in school, the zygote didn’t have “the choice to be a man or woman”. What are they teaching you kids these days?? 
Christine the Lioness scribbled
Oh PJ… I think you’re completely missing the point, darlin’. See… often, philosophical questions are just designed to make you get out of the paradigms you’ve developed and help you look at things in a new way… nevermind. I’ll just stick to the posts about how men fart more than women.
*sigh*
Aivar the Groupie got all philosophical
I guess it makes tough times look less bad and everything less hopeless and well be happier about your life if you think like that. I don’t bash myself at all for any failures anymore for over 2 years and try to take all failures as learning expeariences. I think all the things have been through have shaped my character and i think and hope in a good way.
There are things that you know and what you really know. Some things you might think you know but really dont put into use unless you have been through something that makes you really understand it.
Quite often all the advice you get from older people wont be put to use even if you think its rational and good advice and then later you think that “fuck if i just had listened”. I bet everyone has been through that 
ProphetJoe the Irreverent spake, and sayeth
Christine… I *do* get it. I took several philosophy classes in college and 1-2 classes on world religions as well. Philosophy is the study of, or pursuit of wisedom — some have said the search for truth. I would submit that religion is the study of, or pursuit of faith.
Science, on the other hand, is a fence that surrounds and attempts to constrain these 2 classical disciplines. I was attempting to interject science into your philosophical question for 2 reasons: first, because it throws a little monkey wrench into your classic conundrum, and secondly, because it illustrates that science (while it may be able to answer the “how” questions of the universe) it does not answer the “why” questions…
Don’t ask a Prophet AND a Zen Master a classical philosophy question — it’s uncouth!
ProphetJoe the Irreverent said this
Oh, and women fart WAY more than men, but they are discreet about it, whereas men kind of flaunt it as a pseudo-sport. I do have evidence to support my claim — how many men do you know who eat green vegetables — it’s all the women getting the gas!
Christine the Lioness spake, and sayeth
LOL, PJ. If you fart in the woods and no one hears it…
ProphetJoe the Irreverent stated
…would it still smell as sweet?
Ivy the Soldier got all philosophical
“. So if you ask yourself why you chose to be a woman knowing everything you know now about womanhood (physical differences, gender inequality, romantic relationships, gender roles, pregnancy, parenthood, etc.), why does being female help you learn that lesson better than being male? ”
lol I guess i’m looking at this pretty black and white because to me its just obvious that it still doesnt affect you. Because if you know all this before hand.. Then its not going to affect you any differently. IF you know your “life path” before hand.. Then there is no surprise and you know whats going to happen because you need to “learn from it” I mean you did choose the things listed because you knew taking that path would help you to the “bigger question/picture”. Well then you have to assume you know what the bigger picture is right? And all this will help you accomplish that.. All the heart ache and the little questions through out life.. All those life experiences are going to help you and you know this going in.. So to me it would just be obvious that the choices you made arent going to affect you knowing that you could have chosen differently.. Because you knew that going in.. To me in the end.. its no different than at the beginning.. You know ahead of time your options..
Ivy the Soldier said this
oh and becuase i cant edit my comment.. I cant answer why being a woman over a male would help me complete my “mission” because I dont knwo what my “mission” is.. (i’m assuming if you were to be making the choice to be woman, etc, that you would know or have an idea of what your “mission” was and that would be the reason you would choose those things.. but because I dont have a “mission” I can’t exactly give an answer to why one would be better htan the other.. I mean it is all a hypothetical question.. IF this and this and IF that and IF that.. BUT its none of that.. SO how can I give that answer?
Christine the Lioness said this
LOL…
Okay, maybe I should clarify. You DON’T know what the “thing” is you’re supposed to learn. That’s why you are here living life… to figure out what that thing is. What you knew before hand was all the stuff that went along with your choices (ie– if your parents were low income, you knew about all the hardships or benefits that go along with being low income, etc.) You chose those things because it would help you learn what you needed to learn… but once you were born into the world, you obviously didn’t retain any of that and you don’t know what the “thing” is you’re supposed to learn. You obviously weren’t born knowing everything you know now and you don’t know now everything you’ll know by next week.
It’s not a riddle to solve. It’s designed to make you think about how you can change the way you live your life by going back to the root of your existence.
Here’s a highly simplified example. Suppose you are a very impatient person and the thing you needed to learn was patience because you spend most of your life trying to get to the next milestone without ever really enjoying where you are. I’m using this example because I can relate. I tend to be this way. So… before you were born, you knew that in this lifetime you needed to learn how to be patient and accept that happiness lies in living in the present. So then you started picking out all the things you had to pick out before you could be born… and you chose to be in a car accident when you turned 19. The car accident was bad and it took you a year to rehab your injuries. Theoretically, you chose that car accident because forcing yourself to have to slow down and use crutches or a wheelchair, etc. for a while helped you realize that there’s nothing you can do to make yourself speed forward even though you’d like to. You had to deal with being slower than everyone else. Once you learned to accept that, it was a step toward learning patience. Okay… so that part is simple. But here’s where it gets complicated… every single thing about your life– every event, every characteristic, is (philosophically speaking) leading you to one SINGLE lesson that you need to learn. So what is that lesson?
The point is not to answer the question as quickly as you can. The point is to ponder that question because the more you think about it, the more self-awareness you tend to achieve because each time something new happens to you, you have to figure out whether it works with the answer you think is right, or whether you need to re-evaluate it again and come up with a new answer.
ProphetJoe the Irreverent commented
The answer is simple — to succeed. The problem lies in defining success.
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