Do We Have Free Will?

[Spiritual Warfare]

Ahh, the perennial, “Do ‘we’ have free will” question:-)

It’s the wrong question. You could say, it’s already the next or second question. Based on the limited, duality & subject-object-based mind’s presumption that there is even a “we.”

The first question that must be asked is: “Is there really a “we,’ a ‘separate self,’ a ‘broken-off’ piece of Life that is somehow ‘separate’ from the rest of Life.

There isn’t. There is only Life.

Go looking for this ‘self.’ Really looking. Can you find it, anywhere? No.

There is only Life flowing, as a whole. Like a river flowing without its ‘drops’ having any ‘individual control.’ Over where “they” will go. Without River even recognizing any part of its water as ‘Drops.’

Once you’ve seen through the illusion of the ‘self,’ once you directly, immersively, irrefutably experience there is no “I” and never was, the question of free-will and choice becomes a moot point.

Just Life Life-ing. Every action & reaction, every thought and next thought, every habit that changes or habit that remains…is just Life Life-ing.

There is no illusory “you” that was ever doing that. That ever ‘owned’ or ‘ran’ a life. That was ever even part of the equation.

[Javfly33]

19 minutes ago, MarioGabrielJ said:

 

There is only Life flowing, as a whole. Like a river flowing without its ‘drops’ having any ‘individual control.’ Over where “they” will go. Without River even recognizing any part of its water as ‘Drops.’

 

Correct, but remember that every millimetre of Infinite Being or consciousness is INTELLIGENT.

Is pure Intelligence=Awareness=Consciousness=Mind.

 

So this Intelligence, if is currently realized, it can conduce properly every thought, action, or habit in a conscious way.

 

The human self or ego does not have will, correct. It is the Real that has all the will and therefore there is absolute will.

 

Is important to understand this because in any way 'Life' is creating reality. So you can unconsciously create reality or you can consciously create reality.

When you do the latter, we say you are moving towards a state of Being beyond the compulsions and cycles of the dream (samsara) and the Being is in an active process of Liberation and Emancipation from this forces (that it itself 'created' in an unconscious move from itself).

Edited August 1 by Javfly33

[UpperMaster]

@MarioGabrielJ  I really hate this sort of response. 

I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but your response isn't helpful for most people. At the start, before you have any experiences, the self absolutely exists; you are the center of your experience (that's where I am right now). In those early stages, you pretty much have no choice but to assume that the world around you and deterministic materialism are real. All this no-self stuff seems like spiritual mumbo jumbo to me—just a possibility until I experience it. Under the materialistic paradigm, there's absolutely no free will. Even from personal experience, thoughts just seem to appear out of nowhere.

I think many spiritual teachers fail in guiding the learning process. It's not enough to just say there's a possibility to experience no-self, which changes the entire meaning of the question. It's more useful to help people integrate their current understanding into their lives so they can progress in the future.

For two years, I struggled because I couldn't accept the idea of no free will. Now that I've accepted it, I'm more able to dive into understanding the self. The no-free-will existential crisis is terrible because it causes constant cognitive dissonance. You realize that whether you self-actualize or not isn't your choice, which really messed me up and made it hard to work productively for a long time. But now that I've accepted it as my current worldview, I'm open to new experiences.

It's crucial to help people understand and accept their current truth. If they don't, they'll seek evidence to support their existing beliefs rather than searching for the truth without bias. Accepting no free will, if that's your current understanding, is essential. Only by accepting it can one remain open to truly exploring and discovering the truth.

[Ishanga]

Yes we do, in the context that we can determine how we experience life within and our general destiny, most ppl are living via fate which is living by accident, like walking around a room in the dark, enlightenment is turning the light ON! Free will is our basic make up, we just have to strive to access it..

[Someone here]

I have become absolutely conscious and certain beyond 10000% that free will is illusory.  

Fate is real .everything is predestined from the get go .every hair on your arm has been calculated.not a single atom moves randomly. 

When you raise your hand or take a fart or think about what's your dinner gonna be tonight or about having anal sex with Donald Trump etc ..all of that happens without zero input from "you ".

And peace comes from realizing you don't control Jack shit .

[Javfly33]

34 minutes ago, Someone here said:

I have become absolutely conscious and certain beyond 10000% that free will is illusory.  

Fate is real .everything is predestined from the get go .every hair on your arm has been calculated.not a single atom moves randomly. 

When you raise your hand or take a fart or think about what's your dinner gonna be tonight or about having anal sex with Donald Trump etc ..all of that happens without zero input from "you ".

And peace comes from realizing you don't control Jack shit .

Thats not a good attitude to break the karmic cycles.

You are leaving everything to the configured present compulsion

Hello reencarnation...are you ready to start all over again? 

35 minutes ago, Someone here said:

 

Fate is real .everything is predestined from the get go .every hair on your arm has been calculated.

Where is that thing that predestines things?

Say hello to It from my part?

[Someone here]

7 minutes ago, Javfly33 said:

Thats not a good attitude to break the karmic cycles

Say hello to "karmic cycles ".

8 minutes ago, Javfly33 said:

Hello reencarnation...are you ready to start all over again? 

There is no such thing as reincarnation . It's just a belief based on new age internet spirituality. Weak sauce. Or Buddhism or some kind of nonsense like that.

9 minutes ago, Javfly33 said:

Where is that thing that predestines things?

GOD. And you don't know what that is .

[Keryo Koffa]

If there is no self, then we don't exist and so there's nothing that doesn't have free will, so we all have free will 

 

[LastThursday]

4 hours ago, MarioGabrielJ said:

The first question that must be asked is: “Is there really a “we,’ a ‘separate self,’

Is a finger separate from a hand? A finger is just an arbitrary demarcation of the hand. The demarcation of the self is maintained by some mechanism, whatever that is (some sort of reflexive identity). But it seems like it's possible to change the extent of a Self or remove the demarcation altogether through meditation, drugs, sudden enlightenment and so on. So the self is real like a finger is real, for as long as it remains distinct, but its very definition is fluid. If a self can disappear, then it is not a truth.

[gettoefl]

everyone does what they want to achieve happiness

nobody has not behaved this way 

until you realize you are operating on behalf of the wrong person

you are not the person in the mirror

for the first time in your life you choose wrong self or right self, ego or spirit

choice now means something

[Ishanga]

10 hours ago, Someone here said:

I have become absolutely conscious and certain beyond 10000% that free will is illusory.  

Fate is real .everything is predestined from the get go .every hair on your arm has been calculated.not a single atom moves randomly. 

When you raise your hand or take a fart or think about what's your dinner gonna be tonight or about having anal sex with Donald Trump etc ..all of that happens without zero input from "you ".

And peace comes from realizing you don't control Jack shit .

Fate is only a Reality after the FACT! That means after the moment has come, then it was fated, as each moment is Inevitable to be the way it was, before the moment happens, its up in the air, anything can happen, when it comes to Interior Experience within Yourself, Your totally able to control it and that is the basis of Free Will, what is happening outside of You situationally, the best you can do is 50% control, unless Your a billionaire then You can control much more than that when it comes to your situation around You...

[Javfly33]

10 hours ago, Someone here said:

Say hello to "karmic cycles ".

There is no such thing as reincarnation . It's just a belief based on new age internet spirituality. Weak sauce. Or Buddhism or some kind of nonsense like that.

 

Cute. How do you explain then that you have a certain body then? 😂😂😂😂😂

10 hours ago, Someone here said:

 

GOD. And you don't know what that is .

Hahahah God...the Guy on the Sky controlling us...

 

And i Thought you guys wanted to AWAKEN to Who you are. 

[Princess Arabia]

All the responses in this thread is life lif-ing. We can't escape life. Life cannot escape itself. Doesn't matter the responses, doesn't matter if you agree or disagree with the OP, it's all life responding to life. So within the context of this post it's all correct. Can't go wrong.

[Princess Arabia]

16 hours ago, MarioGabrielJ said:

Go looking for this ‘self.’ Really looking. Can you find it, anywhere? No.

It doesn't really matter about this. Who are you asking to look. Who is looking and for what is it looking for. The self looking for a no-self. No one here can know that there is no self. Who is knowing. There's no separation, only what appears to be. All you're saying is correct, but there's no one that knows that, and a self that's not a self won't be asking other selves to go looking for a self. This is the cosmic trick. The magical nature of existence. There's no one that really knows anything. Knowing is separation and there's none. It's just thought going around in a loop, repeating itself.