If you knew what life is about and like before you were born,

would you have rejected birth or approved?



If I knew what life is about and like before I was born, clearly I would have rejected birth.

 

I was never born.

 

"There is no beginning. There is no end. Its never born and never dies--there are no edges. There is no sides. Ah yeah...you just don't win. Its so far out, the way out is in. Bow to God, and call Him, 'Sir' and if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there." - "Any Road"- George Harrison

 

Pita naiva me naiva mata na janma - I have no father, no mother, for I was never born -(so where is the question of death?)

Adi Shankara (nirvana shatakam)

 

You can say that you know what life is about now??? If there is ANYTHING that you can say you know right now, please share.. because I've pretty much come to the conclusion that we know nothing... and prob. never will.

 

Can't answer this question appropriately right now.

2 years ago I'd have rejected birth.

Now, I'm not so entirely sure.

Hopefully in 2 more years, I'd have approved it.

 

I really do not know. I'm going to think about it.

 

A few relevant verses from Bhagavad- gita As It Is:

Chapter 2, Verse 14.
O son of Kunti, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

Chapter 2, Verse 20
For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.

Chapter 2, Verse 22.
As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.

 

Since most mystical systems say the soul is not the body, mind or personality, it's only by virtue of being born as humans we have developed these things. To imagine 'you' or 'me' as existing as we do now before birth seems a mistaken view.

 

I believe that I did indeed choose to come back. Not because I knew what life is about, but because there were still lessons to learn through living.

 

My reply could be the exact same as Hikaru's. 5 years ago it would have been absolutely no, I'd have rejected it. But now, I'm more leaning much more towards accepting it (some days more than others). Being so young means it's really hard to know, because we don't know how our lives will turn out or if it will be worth it in the end. Which is good of course, makes it interesting, but really, who knows? If we really can find happiness amid all the world's turmoil, then yes, definitely it's worth accepting, even if the chance is small.

 

If I could choose right now to never have been born, I would choose to be born. Ask me again if I am having a bad day

 

Yes I love life.

 

There's no choice in the matter:

Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Chapter 2, Verse 27:

For one who has taken his birth, death is certain; and for one who is dead, birth is certain. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty, you should not lament.

 

actualy there is a choice. it is called mysterious unexplained crib births and miscarrages. i remember being very hesitent to allow myself to become addicted to the idea of living, knowing that it would be a finite condition that would involve eventualy, sooner or later, in some sense dying.

i might actualy have been a bit less hesitent had i forseen that i would be seeing so many strainge and interesting things in the proccess of living.

not that my childhood, and many other years of my living, haven't been just as painful as the more or less average of anybody else.

=^^=
.../\...

 

"i remember being very hesitent to allow myself to become addicted to the idea of living"

Please elaborate on this.