Life is a Privilege

Step outside beneath fluffy-white clouds and a vast azure sky.

Walk on a packed dirt trail through a lush emerald forest.

Breath deep the crisp air. Bask long in the golden light.

Appreciate each moment--and remember always:

This life is a blessing. This experience is a gift.

And if you squander this immense opportunity you've been offered, it might be forever before you get this chance again.

Right now there are billions of souls incarnate in this pretty garden planet.

But there are trillions and trillions more waiting in the spirit realms.

There they remain standing in line for a ticket on this incredible adventure you're experiencing. There they wait endless spans for the mere chance to hop on this amusement park ride of corporeal existence.

Thus when your time in this world is over--when your body fails and your incarnation here ends--you'll be back in that line waiting, waiting, waiting for another go-around in this amazing carnival of experiences. And how fast you receive another incarnate life depends upon how seriously you treated this one.

Did you care for your body with quality food and regular exercise? Or did you abuse it with poisons and sloth?

Did you birth positive energy into this world through kindness and compassion? Or did you spread copious amounts of discord and hate?

And most importantly of all--did you accomplish those life goals the designers of your existence set in place?

During your time incarnate, did you grow as a conscious entity and evolve?

Those are the things that will determine how soon you can hop back onto this rollercoaster of life. Those are the things that determine whether your next incarnation will be pleasant or challenging.

Treat your body well and you'll be rewarded with a better one next time. Bring positive energy into the world and your appearance will tend reflect the beauty you spread.

Accomplish your life goals as planned and the designers of lives will have zero trouble rationalizing the effort towards creating you a truly remarkable existence next time around.

Think of how hard the designers work to arrange your life--cuing up all the serendipity required to put you in situations from which you can learn, creating all the casual nexuses necessary to keep you on-track during your incarnation.

Imagine how much time and energy that takes--rewinding and replaying scenes endless times until the life appears perfect.

Now imagine how much effort they're willing to put towards designing lives for spirits known to be slackers.

The universe will never waste energy creating for you truly epic lives until you prove you deserve them.

It will never manifest you amazing incarnations until you show yourself worthy.

That all starts with appreciating and utilizing every opportunity you have in your current existence. That means treating your body well. It means spreading kindness and love.

And most of all it means remembering this:

Life is a privilege--not a right.

You've been given a body and gifted a life. With it comes amazing possibilities to enjoy and appreciate tactile sensations in physical form.

And with it comes incredible responsibility to take this experience seriously.

Make the most of this corporeal existence. Work hard as you can towards accomplishing your life goals and improving your inner nature.

Countless spirits worked incredibly hard designing you an incarnate existence that will help you grow and mature and evolve.

Remember that always, and treat this opportunity with the respect it deserves.

Go through this existence with healthy habits and a positive attitude--developing yourself always into greater and more moral forms--and you'll return as a hero in the spirit world. Then you'll be given a fast-track path towards another body, another life, another ticket on this ride.

Or squander this opportunity and abuse this gift, and next time around you might find yourself standing at the tail end of an incredibly long line.

Now let that fragrant air fill your lungs. Let that sunlight warm your skin.

And appreciate those things even more.

Life is a privilege--not a right.

Now get out there and prove you deserve it.

a reply to: Trachel

This is very disturbing.

Granted, I am (as usual) immediately politicizing this outlook.

If your life is not your own and is a "gift" from elsewhere. From whence does this gift come?

A creator? The state?

This position is in direct opposition to the spirit of our constitution and our civil society.

Your life is your right and nobody else's.

Nobody else's life is your right.

Do you think you want to believe you're a spirit living on credit so that you'll feel obligated to live life fully? If you don't live it fully, you'll be disciplined or you'll have to suffer some inconvenience in the hereafter. Or worst case, you're severely punished for your actions here in the physical realm.

Put another way, if life is atoms existing in a random universe and there's no spirit or corporeal realm or higher meaning than that which we directly experience here and now, do you think you'd squander this life, feel unmotivated and/or be unable to find meaning in it?

Your outlook on things is similar to Christianity, but less extreme. In Christianity, if a person does not follow god's law, they suffer. This life, as opposed to being something to enjoy, is more ackin to a test or trial. If you fail, you eternally suffer. So the motivation is not to fail.

In both cases, a person is threatened if they don't live by certain rules or meet certain standards. This serves as a motivation to do what you would otherwise not be inclined to do or would not do enough.

Some people would say that since our own society operates on credit (re: expectations) then the corporeal realm must operate similarly. This implies it's finite, since the reason we have expectations at all are because there're limited resources and everything ends up being shared, meaning other's actions have to be accountable to maintain some level of peace. So, if we're spirits, we probably must meet certain standards or rules. In this life, if a person commits crime they're punished. Similarly, in the spirit realm if you commit a crime then you're punished. As above, so below...

And what if those people are right? But to think you know what those rules are? Who should I believe? There're lots of people who think they know what the spirit rules are. The problem is the stories are varied. Why should I give any more credit to the OP than anybody else? What's special about you that I should think your interpretation is the correct one?

Sorry but until I can separate your interpretation from the commonplace irrational ones which everybody seems to have, I must remain dismissive. Everybody says they have the truth, including orthodox religion and various cults. Ultimately, I've concluded there's no truth, at least not yet, except the one existing around me. Science is the primary wielder of my truth. I do have some of my own thoughts or interpretations. It's impossible not to. Yet science is the closest thing I have to a bible or a ruleset.

a reply to: greencmp
Control freaks under the guise of divinity...

a reply to: greencmp

Your life is your right and nobody else's.

Can YOU keep your life?

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: greencmp

Your life is your right and nobody else's.

Can YOU keep you life?

No one may take your life away.

a reply to: jonnywhite

Being born is like getting a ticket to Disneyland, with a ticket book of pre-selected rides.

originally posted by: greencmp

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: greencmp

Your life is your right and nobody else's.

Can YOU keep you life?

No one may take your life away.

Yet, it happens all the time.

originally posted by: windword

originally posted by: greencmp

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: greencmp

Your life is your right and nobody else's.

Can YOU keep you life?

No one may take your life away.

Yet, it happens all the time.

Unless they ask for it but, that is a voluntary abdication of rights by the aggressor.

a reply to: greencmp

Unless they ask for it but, that is a voluntary abdication of rights by the aggressor.

What????? What does "a voluntary abdication of rights by the aggressor" even mean?

Are you blaming the person who was murdered for "giving up" their life?

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: greencmp

Unless they ask for it but, that is a voluntary abdication of rights by the aggressor.

What????? What does "a voluntary abdication of rights by the aggressor" even mean?

Are you blaming the person who was murdered for "giving up" their life?

I mean:

You have the right to your life and no one else's.

You have the right to defend your right.

When someone attempts to violate that right in another through physical aggression, they abdicate their own rights as a result and can be lawfully subdued by whatever means available.

originally posted by: greencmp
a reply to: Trachel

This is very disturbing.

Granted, I am (as usual) immediately politicizing this outlook.

If your life is not your own and is a "gift" from elsewhere. From whence does this gift come?

A creator? The state?

This position is in direct opposition to the spirit of our constitution and our civil society.

Your life is your right and nobody else's.

Nobody else's life is your right.

Your life is a gift from God. Enjoy it.

originally posted by: Trachel

originally posted by: greencmp
a reply to: Trachel

This is very disturbing.

Granted, I am (as usual) immediately politicizing this outlook.

If your life is not your own and is a "gift" from elsewhere. From whence does this gift come?

A creator? The state?

This position is in direct opposition to the spirit of our constitution and our civil society.

Your life is your right and nobody else's.

Nobody else's life is your right.

Your life is a gift from God. Enjoy it.

Thank you, I believe you say it honestly and never doubted that.

I just had to point out the danger of the loss of autonomy that is presented when discussing holy or epiphanic selflessness.

Cheers!

originally posted by: greencmp

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: greencmp

Unless they ask for it but, that is a voluntary abdication of rights by the aggressor.

What????? What does "a voluntary abdication of rights by the aggressor" even mean?

Are you blaming the person who was murdered for "giving up" their life?

I mean:

You have the right to your life and no one else's.

You have the right to defend your right.

When someone attempts to violate that right in another through physical aggression, they abdicate their own rights as a result and can be lawfully subdued by whatever means available.

That's a pretty complicated and convoluted denial that life can be snuffed out extremely easily, by accident or on purpose. Lots of killers get away with murder and go on to live long luxurious lives.

originally posted by: windword

originally posted by: greencmp

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: greencmp

Unless they ask for it but, that is a voluntary abdication of rights by the aggressor.

What????? What does "a voluntary abdication of rights by the aggressor" even mean?

Are you blaming the person who was murdered for "giving up" their life?

I mean:

You have the right to your life and no one else's.

You have the right to defend your right.

When someone attempts to violate that right in another through physical aggression, they abdicate their own rights as a result and can be lawfully subdued by whatever means available.

That's a pretty complicated and convoluted denial that life can be snuffed out extremely easily, by accident or on purpose. Lots of killers get away with murder and go on to live long luxurious lives.

Which is to say that, for whatever reason, the rights of their victims were not defended.

a reply to: greencmp

So, a right is only a right if its defended?

You're insisting that only YOU have a right to your life, but then you give all kinds of exception on how one can lose that right.

If one can lose a right, it isn't a right, it's a privilege.

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: greencmp

So, a right is only a right if its defended?

You're insisting that only YOU have a right to your life, but then you give all kinds of exception on how one can lose that right.

If one can lose a right, it isn't a right, it's a privilege.

If you attempt to use violence to deny me my rights, you voluntarily renounce your own rights.

originally posted by: greencmp

originally posted by: Trachel

originally posted by: greencmp
a reply to: Trachel

This is very disturbing.

Granted, I am (as usual) immediately politicizing this outlook.

If your life is not your own and is a "gift" from elsewhere. From whence does this gift come?

A creator? The state?

This position is in direct opposition to the spirit of our constitution and our civil society.

Your life is your right and nobody else's.

Nobody else's life is your right.

Your life is a gift from God. Enjoy it.

Thank you, I believe you say it honestly and never doubted that.

I just had to point out the danger of the loss of autonomy that is presented when discussing holy or epiphanic selflessness.

Cheers!

There's zero loss of autonomy. I WANT to live the most clean most ethical most moral life I can as a method of improving myself and proving it wasn't a waste giving me this chance to be alive.

a reply to: greencmp

If you attempt to use violence to deny me my rights, you voluntarily renounce your own rights.

What kind of law is that? Man's?

The fact is, your life can be taken without your permission. You can't control your birth, nor when you'll die, unless you decide to defy fate, and purposefully take your own life. But even then, you have lost YOUR life!

There is nothing you can do to keep your life.

Sure, existence, in general, can be seen as a privilege... even to those born into abject physical and mental misery.

Perhaps there has always been something... some form of existence, rather than something springing from nothing.

In that case, perhaps oblivion, or non-being, is the privilege? Sometimes a rest sounds lovely.

Just playing Devils Advocate... literally, heh.