Mason Riggle

@snowyowl if 'you are doing everything', can you stop doing that? The thing is, there is no 'doing'. You aren't 'doing everything'.. Everything is happening. And one of the things that's happening, is 'you'. Recognize that 'trying to be like yourself' and 'trying not to be like yourself' are the same thing... They are both 'what you are doing', which isn't anything other than 'being yourself' (which you are ALWAYS doing, effortlessly, and couldn't be doing any other way than how you are). You are something that is, not something that does.. "I am..... Ohhhhh.. I AM!"- Leo Gura

Those are certainly all words.

Not nonsense. Intelligent organisms behave intelligently. They use language. They weigh options. They assess risk. Masters of survival. How cool! Can you choose that which does not occur to you to choose? Who chooses what occurs to you? Recognize that there are certain thoughts you can't even think because you lack the vocabulary to think them. You think in a language you didn't choose. Notice that even as you are reading this, thoughts are arising in your awareness. You are thinking about how to respond perhaps. Maybe other thoughts are arising.. a sound from another room.. did you remember to put the garbage out? Where are these thoughts coming from? From your perspective, you have no idea. They merely arise. You can't think your thoughts before you think them. Thinking is happening.

@Hanna Luna if you pay close attention, you can notice that you have no more idea what you will think next than you know what I will type next. Thoughts arise. What will your next thought be? You have no idea until it arises. But don't fret! You are lucky! Your organism is intelligent, and has intelligent thoughts. You have intelligent will. Even if you aren't you 'freely', you are you intelligently. Consider, if you were me, you would be doing what I'm doing, because you would be me. You would have 'no other choice'. Recognize that you can't 'do nothing'. This is because you, your organism, is something that's happening, and you're not 'doing it'. Your organism is growing hair. Your orgamism is hearing sounds. Your organism is thinking thoughts. It does this automatically. It's doing it now. Are you 'doing that'? How hard are you trying to 'be you', to grow your hair, to hear sounds, to think your thoughts? The answer is 'not at all'. Being you is effortless, because you're not 'doing it'.

@AdamR95 aren't we all?

@AdamR95 perspective is limited necessarily. Imaginary duality (limits) is how reality is created (imagined, perceived).

We might ask, 'am I the same me I was when I was 5?' We might use the word 'reincarnate' with 'awakening' or 'changing'. We (I, You, The Universe, God) are always (eternaly) waking up (reincarnating). What is occurring today is not the same as yesterday. Where did what happened yesterday go? Well, it didn't go anywhere, it reincarnated into today. It's no longer yesterday, and now it's today.. Where did the you from yesterday go? You reincarnated into who you are right now. This is the eternal 'waking up' that is who you really are.

@AdamR95 recognize that whatever you are experiencing (creating) is real, because you imagine (create, manifest) it. The duality 'real/imaginary' can collapse, and Truth remains. It's always now.

@AdamR95 If you become aware that you are dreaming, are you still dreaming, or did you 'wake up'?

If there was a button, that when pushed, I became you, and you became me, from either of our perspectives pushing the button does nothing.

@PureRogueQ because it's happening.

@PureRogueQ obviously it's because I want to. THIS is exactly what Consciousness, expressing itself freely and infinitely looks like.

What if the sky wasn't blue, though, but you thought it was, or it was blue and you thought it wasn't? Would it be worth bringing up the color of the sky then? I always find these types of comments here rather silly. @Moksha begins the comment 'I agree', and then continues to comment as if the 'I' who agrees isn't already in 'the trap' of implied individuality. 'I' implies individuality. 'My first thread..' implies individuality. As long as it seems there is a 'me' who is writing this comment, and a you who is reading it, 'we' are already in the trap. We could ask, 'why bring anything up?'. @Leo Gura might answer this way: 'Why don't you tell me?' (since there's only you.) The answer to 'why anything?' (why is there suffering?, why do I pee so often?, why are there sheep?) will always be, 'because You (big You) want to'. And from this 'ultimate perspective', this is exactly what's always occurring. When someone asks about 'free will' on a forum, and a conversation about it begins, that's 'Consciousness, expressing itself freely and infinitely.' When you are confused about this idea of 'Consciousness, expressing itself freely and infinitely', that's Consciousness, expressing itself freely and infinitely. When you understand it, that's Consciousness, expressing itself freely and infinitely. When I say something you don't agree with, that's Consciousness, expressing itself freely and infinitely. If I'm looking at a Sunset, that's Consciousness, expressing itself freely and infinitely. When I'm experiencing (reading or writing) this comment right now, that's Consciousness, expressing itself freely and infinitely. If you understand this, then it's rather silly to ask, 'why bring anything up?', because you must know the answer. It's like dreaming that you are asking someone in your dream, 'why are you dressed like that?'. If you know you're just dreaming, then you know the answer (because I'm dreaming you to be dressed like that).. but if you are explaining to the character in you dream that they are just a character in your dream, and wondering why they would ask such a silly question... then you are lost in the dream.

@Moksha ?

@Moksha the realization of no free will can be a stepping stone to realizing oneness.

There are implications to realizing that we have no free will. For one, it renders ideas of retribution absurd. When it's realized that no one has free will, it can be understood that people are how they are the way volcanos are how they are. It makes no sense to 'get back at' a volcano for destroying a village. It's worthwhile to note that pragmatism remains, and we can still behave pragmatically, without acting retributively.

'Flowing with it' is always the case. Any attempt to change how things are occurring is just more 'how things are occurring'.

Then simply choose to agree with me. You should be able to, if you're correct and I'm wrong.

It can be recognized that there is no 'doing', only 'being'. We are confused by language. Consider, your organism is growing hair right now, it's making red blood cells, etc.. and so we might say 'I am growing my hair', but notice that this is a mistake of language. 'You' are not 'growing your hair'.. if you were, you could stop, but you can't, because you're not 'doing it'.. growing hair is happening. The same is true for 'thinking'.. you aren't 'thinking your thoughts'.. thinking is happening. 'Agency' is an illusion we trick ourselves into with language. There really isn't any 'doing'.. only 'being'. We can imagine a volcano erupting, and think about the lava shooting out, and use language to say 'the volcano is spewing lava'.. but is there really a 'volcano' that's 'doing that'? Show me the 'volcano' that's 'separate' from 'the spewing of lava'. Is it the rocks? Is it the magma? Is the volcano the heat and pressure? The volcano is something that is 'happening'.. not something that 'does things'. The same is true for your organism. It's not 'doing anything' other than 'being how it is'. Consider, how hard are you trying to 'be you' right now? Well, you're not trying at all. You are you 'effortlessly'. Can you stop 'being you'? You can't, because 'you' aren't 'doing' anything. It's all 'happening', and no one is 'doing it'.

@freejoy okay. What would it mean to 'freely' choose an action? Even if you could choose anything you want, you don't choose what your wants, and even if you could, how would you choose what you want? By wanting to?

Imagine that you happen to be the type of person who absolutely loves wild life, the beauty of it, the majesty.. You see a powerful Lion, and recognize the sheer beauty of such an awesome, powerful creature. You want to protect the lion from extinction, because it is beautiful in it's own way, even though, given the chance, it will eat you. You love the Lion for what it is, and perhaps recognize that even though he wants to eat you, he is just a lion, doing what lions do. You love yourself also, so you protect yourself (behave pragmatically) around lions, while also loving the Lion.

@freejoy explore what you mean by 'free will'. That seems a bit like asking if God can make a round square. Squares are, by definition, not round. Consider the word 'will'.. can anything that 'will' happen, happen 'other than' how it will? What could 'free will' mean, if doesn't mean something 'other than' 'what will'.

Again, I think you miss my point. My questions are rhetorical. When I ask something like, 'can you think a thought, before you think it?', for example, I already know that the answer is 'no you can not', but I ask because others may not have thought to ask themselves, not to find an answer for myself. I only 'rhetorically' care what the answer is, so it's a little silly to me to be asked, 'why do you care?'. If I had to answer the questions, "why [does] "Little you" care? Are you going to live your "Little you" life any differently based on the answer?", the answers are obviously, 'because I love you.' and 'yes' (I will not 'live differently from how I was going to live my life', I will 'live differently from how I was living.').

Perhaps someone here can explain what I'm missing. The simple analogy I will use for 'Self-Help/Self-Improvement' is this: 'a shorter/more efficient route to work'. I am granting, for the sake of this conversation, that 'a more efficient route to my job' IS 'helpful' to 'me'. Consider (and again, this is an analogy for life).. you are driving to work, the way you know how to get there. There is a shorter, 'better' way to get there, but you aren't aware of it. Could you discover this 'better path' any sooner than you do? Just try to imagine the different ways you might discover this 'better path'. You could stumble upon it by accident. Someone could tell you about it. But that's about it. You can't 'cause yourself' to know about it, any sooner than you know about it. You will only ever discover the shortcut, IF and WHEN you do (you may never discover the shortcut). Now, the most common response I get to this, goes along the lines of 'you could look for the shortcut..', or 'if you focus on finding the shortcut..'. But allow me to explain why this doesn't actually solve the dilemma. Why would you 'look for a shortcut' or 'focus on finding a shortcut', unless you knew (already discovered) that 'finding a shortcut' would be helpful to you? In this way, 'knowing about shortcuts' is in itself another 'shortcut' that will only be discovered IF and WHEN it is. Does anyone see the problem here? "Self-Improvement" seems to be an automatic thing, that happens exactly as it does, if and only if, and when and only when, it does, rather than a 'self-caused' thing. Am I missing something?

Trying to change how things are is just more 'how things are'. The only thing you ever do is 'be yourself', and you're always 'doing that', effortlessly, because "you" are not really 'doing things', you are 'occurring' (being). Consider: 'trying to be like yourself' and 'trying not to be like yourself' are the same exact thing... they are both 'what you are doing', which is always 'being like yourself'.