Life's Mistakes vs. A Perfect Life.....

[BronzeDionysus]

I am a Buddhist and the first Noble truth about life is that is intrinsically tied to suffering. All people suffer in some way. So would I undo my hardships? Perhaps only one but it was not of my own doing that it came about. My cousin passed in a motorcycle accident almost 5 years ago. But my own mistakes... I cannot think of one which I would be better off without.

I am new to Buddhism but the basic principles are we need to knoww true suffering for what it is, identify where it truly comes from, see i we can remove those causes, and if we can forge a real path to removing them. That is how I look at my life now when I am having problems.

[Eryngo]

I would love to live in my version of a perfect life, I must admit~

[Rikkulockhart]

I honestly don't even think my life is headed anywhere good right now and everything I knew that I thought was good in my past has gone away and crumbled, so I would say yes and erase away all my mistakes...erase away the pain...erase away everything and just start a new life and get rid of my pathetic existence.

Sorry if I sound miserable, but I really am. I've gone through more pain and heartache than I can bear in the past year.

[Commander Sylux]

I'm not religious or spiritual, but I don't think I could be what I am today (for better or for worse) without the culmination of each life experience I've had. So, no, haha!

[Capo Mezzoforte]

I would rather have to deal with little annoyances, rather than have a perfect life. The reason being is that if anyone had a perfect life, meaning everything would go their way, then that person, though successful, probably wouldn't have the many different experiences. In addition, the person might end up not being happy.

the experiences one goes through help develop who exactly is, like character development in the plot of various anime/manga/poems/music/movies/video games, etc.

[Xephon0930]

Yeah,this has been something I have been struggling with for a while and I can see how if EVERYTHING had went my way,it would get stale. Although,that's not to say that having a do over on certain aspects of my life wouldn't be appealing towards me. There's quite a few things I wished I've done differently and still kind of regret to this day.

[DarkKnightGrave]

Let me answer that question with one of my own: What is life without mistakes? Boring. Life without mistakes is boring. Sure. You can erase all the mistakes you made in life and make yourself better than you are now....but through those mistakes, you have learn things haven't you? Your life is perfect then what? Nothing. Once something is perfect, that is it. That is why I like mistakes in hindsight. Sure, the moment you make them you feel bad and dwell on them for awhile but you have to think you learned something from it. You learn and become stronger more from losing then winning and when you finally win, it is just that must sweeter. Mistakes exist to humble us and make us who we are more than our victories even. So take the bad with the good. Good without bad is pointless just like bad without good is. Mistakes are a part of life and I am ok with mine.

[Trav]

To put it simply, this question is entirely invalid. There is no such thing as a "perfect" life. Or at least, the meaning of "perfect" is so utterly ambiguous and subject to individual interpretation there is no way to accurately gauge what is or isn't perfect. If you mean perfect in the sense of "one without mistakes" even that is nebulous. Consider that if one did go back and undo the "mistakes" they believe they have made throughout their life, the ensuing altered personality would probably see other events that occurred in the past as mistakes to rectify. Without maintaining our own positions and opinions relative to the events of our lives one would never be able to "fix" all of the "mistakes". This is a direct result of the inherent relative attributes of the word "mistake" and makes further exploration of this topic impossible until rectified.

[Xephon0930]

I guess the reason why I made this thread was originally a vent out of my own perceived limitations and how powerless I thought I was in overcoming them. Now this has become something as a learning experience for me as people have given their perspectives and their own wisdom on how to deal with life in general. I guess I could say that I am now looking at this thread to get a better ground for myself in terms of being a fully realized human being. An individual I can be proud of or content with,and maybe even grateful for.