If I would ask my Puerto Rican friend what his favorite dish--of all time--was, he would answer: whole roasted pig, a specialty of theirs.
I would then ask: Are you sure? Is that truly your CHOICE?
He would then, without hesitation, affirm his position.
But if I would ask my Saudi friend, what his favorite dish was--he may answer: roasted camel.
Is that truly his CHOICE? Why not roasted pig? That stuff is really good, I've tried it!
Okay perhaps I could express my point better with movies. My Indian friend's favorite movie actor: this BollyWood Superstar I've never heard of. My sister's favorite movie actor: Johnny Depp. And then maybe a year from now, I will find myself in the middle of the Panamanian jungle, visiting an isolated tribe and then asking one of them: By the way, who is your favorite movie actor? Oh, and do you like roasted camel?
His answer may be: What's a movie actor? What's a camel?
Why can't he make that choice?
So what is choice when the great majority of choices you are allowed to make are predetermined by opportunities beyond your control?
If the argument is that these very opportunities that are dictated by birth, then is choice then a pre-incarnative event?
If our higher selves have chosen these catalysts we encounter (in this life) and from these relatively limited opportunities (also pre-chosen), we make choices (in this life) based on our biases--biases that are an extrapolation of the sum of our experiences from previous also pre-chosen lives with pre-chosen opportunities, loaded with biases based on pre-choices and so on.
In this life, what is choice then?
I would then ask: Are you sure? Is that truly your CHOICE?
He would then, without hesitation, affirm his position.
But if I would ask my Saudi friend, what his favorite dish was--he may answer: roasted camel.
Is that truly his CHOICE? Why not roasted pig? That stuff is really good, I've tried it!
Okay perhaps I could express my point better with movies. My Indian friend's favorite movie actor: this BollyWood Superstar I've never heard of. My sister's favorite movie actor: Johnny Depp. And then maybe a year from now, I will find myself in the middle of the Panamanian jungle, visiting an isolated tribe and then asking one of them: By the way, who is your favorite movie actor? Oh, and do you like roasted camel?
His answer may be: What's a movie actor? What's a camel?
Why can't he make that choice?
So what is choice when the great majority of choices you are allowed to make are predetermined by opportunities beyond your control?
If the argument is that these very opportunities that are dictated by birth, then is choice then a pre-incarnative event?
If our higher selves have chosen these catalysts we encounter (in this life) and from these relatively limited opportunities (also pre-chosen), we make choices (in this life) based on our biases--biases that are an extrapolation of the sum of our experiences from previous also pre-chosen lives with pre-chosen opportunities, loaded with biases based on pre-choices and so on.
In this life, what is choice then?