Lehal Library

The way the term CIRCUMSTANCE is most usually used refers to "the sum of essential and environmental factors." In this sense, we usually see ourselves as independent among the circumstances, and as individuals having the power to make choices. In other words, our individuality is separate from the circumstances around us. Most dictionaries, however, give the FIRST definition of CIRCUMSTANCE as "a condition, fact, or event accompanying conditioning or determining another condition, fact, or event." accompany The two keywords in this definition are CONDITIONING and DETERMINING. In other words, circumstances are something which condition and determine other circumstances. If we extend this definition to INCLUDE people caught up within or sucked into circumstances, then we would have to consider that the circumstances condition and determine the circumstances of those individuals caught up within them. In this sense, individuals can become players or victims within the circumstances which incorporate them, or into which they have been sucked by virtue or merely being born. In this light, it is quite accepted that people get sucked into the on-going circumstances of, for example, poverty, money-making, or religious or philosophical activity -- and within which they either become players or victims, or some variety in between.