how much truth is in the statement everything happens for a reason?

Question

I was drinking coffee with a friend and she said live without regrets because everything happens for a reason. Personally I don't think I believe so much in fate or predestination. But I did have alot of things going wrong. She told me who cares just live your life. I think she was just trying to make me feel better but really DOES everything happen for a reason? Maybe this is a dumb question but it made me wonder...

Answer 1

I believe in fate. Things that are meant to be. Things do happen for a reason. I heard once that if you know deep inside that you are meant to do something & you avoid it, you refuse to make a change, then something will happen to force a change & it may not be quite how you expected or wanted, but it shocked you out of your rut...for instance: a girl plans to lose weight, she wants to get a gym membership, to eat healthy & exercise, but she keeps putting it off. Next thing you know, her car breaks down. Now she has to walk to work & take buses. She's trying to save money for another car so she stops spending money on fast food, she just buys basic necessities & cuts down on snacking. A year later she's lost 30 lbs, has saved enough for a better car & feels better than she'd ever felt. At the time it would have felt like everything was going wrong but it still led her to the result she wanted/needed.

I had a rough year a couple of years ago. Family troubles & stress & depression. I was moved to a different shift at work where I had to work harder for the same money because they were short staffed. But good things started to happen. I met someone who lived in a different community. They gave me the idea to look at real estate in their area. Things at home weren't good so it pushed me to get up the nerve to move out on my own finally. I ended up buying a new house in a new community and starting a new life. I began showing art work & singing at a local bar. Then I met a fellow songwriter at the bar & fell in love. I've been on the front of the newspaper as part of a big musical event. I'm performing at a concert hall on January 2nd. I'm working on a CD with my boyfriend who's also a brilliant musician and sound engineer. I'm totally in love (he's my soulmate. He said he knew the instant he saw me that i was the one.) So many little things had to happen to lead me to him. Many of them were unpleasant things (arguments with my mother, breaking up with my ex-boyfriend, difficult changes at work), stressful things. It felt like my life was falling apart in some ways. But it pushed me to make changes i had to make, to move out, to take risks, to follow my dreams and it paid off.

Sometimes terrible things happen. It may sound crazy to say that they were "meant" to happen. We don't always know why. But in some way, destiny is guiding us along. Whatever happens to us, we have to learn from it. Each experience helps us to grow as a person. If you take away the painful events of our past, we wouldn't be the people that we are now. The people that we are meant to be. Your life is in your hands. Decide what you want and go for it. When you take a leap of faith & follow your dreams, things will fall into place & the universe will help you along. If you don't follow your dreams, if you choose to hide where it's safe, you are denying yourself true happiness. Things may go wrong to give you signals that you're on the wrong path. Have faith & you will find the right one.

Take care. Good luck. Remember bad luck can't last. Wonderful things are just around the corner...

Answer 2

Koala, this is not a dumb question. There is some quantity of truth in everything. However, in this statement, I believe the truth is misconstrued. Things don't happen for a reason, but there is a reason for everything happening. If that sounds confusing let me explain.

Everything that has ever happened happened because something caused it to. There is no future predestined purpose, the reason for it happening is its cause.

Life is what you make it. And I have a saying that may help you. "Reality is not as important as one's perception of reality." People believe what they want so that their life makes sense. Your friend may have been trying to make you feel better, or she may really believe that, because believing that has worked for her/him.

There's a better saying that I like..."In the end, everything is OK, if it's not OK, it's not the end." I'm a firm believer that life is fair. Many people don't believe that, but I do. The thing you gotta do is recognize when things are going well for you, and know that that will be offset by the times when things aren't going well. You will never be higher than you are low, and you will never be lower than when you are high.

I've talked with several people who were depressed and that helped them. I told them sometimes you get the rough times first sometimes the good times first. If you're going through a rough time, just work through it and give life a chance to make it up to you.

Be strong, Koala. No matter what it is that's not working out, somehow it'll be alright in its own time. Hang in there. Hope this helped.

Answer 3

I don't know how old you and your friend are, but she sounds wise beyond her years. Yes, things do seem to happen for a reason. We might not find out why we go through things at the time, but later on we often see a reason. I am fifty now and see things which happened years ago in a much clearer light. I have been going through cancer treatments about the time I had a book coming out(a book I wrote when I was between jobs), and when my daughter was expecting my first grandchildren(twins). I also have gotten to where I don't worry as much about what happens and I think it makes me feel better. The old song by the Beatles is right: "Ain't nothin' to get hung about"
Sometimes when things go wrong it is time to try something else. When the plant closed down where I had worked for 22 years a lot of people thought it was the end of the world, but the world went on and so did we. I wouldn't have written my book(The Ghost of the Cavalier, in case you wondered)and many others I worked with went into other careers. Something they wouldn't have if we'd stayed were we were. So Yes, I believe things happen for a reason. Just live your life and don't worry like your friend told you.

Answer 4

I think there is always a reason for everything that happens, but these reasons are of varying significance, and are often predetermined by past actions. There is a reason I ran out of toothpaste this morning- I used it all up. There is a reason I was stuck behind that really slow driver this morning- I turned onto the street after they did (although I could tell myself it was also because there was a cop just down the road, waiting with a radar gun). There is a reason I got the flu last year- I contracted a virus. And so on.

Answer 5

From a scientific standpoint, it's absolutely true. Everything happens for "a" reason.

The question (I think) is really whether or not these "reasons" collude to make a coherent and beneficent plan. That's not a dumb question at all. The best minds in all of human history have wrestled with that one...and generally the battle has worked out to a draw.

As a Buddhist, I generally believe that all things unfold as they should.

Answer 6

Not a dumb question at all. I believe that we all have our purpose in life every day, even if it doesn't appear to be so. This began to weigh heavily on my heart a short while ago when I realized how much a person's smile meant to me when I felt so low. From that point on, I try to be more positive and give of myself every day, even if it is only to share a smile, a compliment, a word of encouragement. You never know what difference you may have made in a person's life.

Conversely, when things happen to us, they have their effects and what those effects are will be dictated by your disposition. Negativity breeds negativity, so when something bad happens we usually grow bitter and resistant. Positive breeds positive, so we learn from the bad situation and move on. Sometimes it is a person we meet during adversity. Sometimes it is knowlege we gain. There is always something there that we can be enriched by should we choose to find it.

Answer 7

It is not a dumb question.Every thing happens for a reason.
The reason is ourselves. we initiate an action without realising that action will produce a reaction also hope you know Newtons3rd law which says "every action has an equal and opposite reaction or the action and reaction are equal and opposite" This is exactly is what is called as Karma theory.
We are guided along the path which we call destiny to meet certain reactions for the actions initiated by us in the past.
Time is eternal and all actions are stored in the womb of time
Birth and death are cycles which a jeeva has to undergo to meet the reactions in the time scale.

Answer 8

A better way of expressing this?? There is no such thing as coincidence,accident,or luck, everything that happens in ones life is but Cause and effect. Desire and Karma,actions in thought word and deed are the cause of your life circumstances and your destiny. All this is on a level of law. once you experience your unity with God in unconditional love within your heart you will be lifted out of law into spiritual life, Doing Gods will expressing Gods love, no longer caring as you friend said.

Answer 9

It is not a dumb question. I have heard this a lot the past few years, and believe it partially but not wholly. You can direct your life in the choices you make, but i know I have personally experienced series of events that have fallen into place with no logical explanation.

Answer 10

We all have bad things happen to us. When the bad things happen we say, oh that shouldn't be happening to me. But when the good things happen we don't even think about them, cuz we just think that's what should have happened. it's a karma thing, so try to do more good things so that's what you get in return. But the next time something good happens try to pay more attention to it, and enjoy it alittle more, because the next bad thing is right around the corner.