How To Reconcile No Free Will And Action Taking ? - The Worst Limiting Belief Ever -

[Pristinemn]

The science is clear, we don't have free will. As far as my conceptual understanding of enlightenment goes, you can also discover that there's no free will experientially.

I have known for years know (intellectually) that there's no free will. It made me extremely powerless. It sent me deeply into a crisis of apathy because everything is predetermined anyway, and there is no 'you' that can change anything. I want to resolve it now.

The limiting belief I have right now is disempowering to the extreme: 'I have no free will, and therefore have zero control over my decisions, actions and life. I don't have the power to do what I want to do, to be disciplined, to change, to achieve anything, to increase my baseline of happiness, etc'.

The worst part: this belief is not just a belief. It's a factual truth (at least the no free will part).

How to reconcile no free will and taking deliberate action ?

Let me be very clear: I don't need to hear The Truth per se right now. I need to hear something that makes me have power over myself again (or at least gives me that illusion).

Edited September 28, 2017 by Pristinemn

[ajasatya]

16 minutes ago, Pristinemn said:

The science is clear, we don't have free will.

how can you be so sure?

be more assertive and sincere. if you choose to move your arm, you can do it right now unless you're quadriplegic. still, you'd be able to blink your eyes and communicate with them.

this will sound silly. to the ground. 10 pushups right now. do it. seriously. do it.

you want distance from Truth because you can't take it yet. and you're right. become healthy and functional first.

[aurum]

@Pristinemn

Your mind has cleverly used a high level spiritual belief in order to rationalize feelings of victim-hood. It's very good at that, especially when it comes to the part of keeping you blind to it.

But every concept you've ever read or heard about enlightenment is not the full truth, including the belief that there is no free will.

Spiritual growth means realizing that you are the creator of your reality. You are not separate from the Source that creates everything, and so you can write any story you choose.

The only way someone could believe they are powerless is if they still believed themselves to simply be an isolated ego, struggling to win the war against life.

[Toby]

The pointer "there is no free will" is usually used to express that there is no "I" that could or could not have free will. And this is also what science points to.

Edited September 28, 2017 by Toby

[Leo Gura]

@Pristinemn That's what happens when you take on truth as belief. The fact is, in your direct experience you feel and act like you have free will. The only reason you say you don't have free will is because you're parroting some words you heard someone else say. So you didn't actually have any true insight into the matter, you're just pretending like you have. And of course, by pretending, you've now shot yourself in the foot.

A pretend insight != a real insight

You assume that power and free will are necessary "to do what I want to do, to be disciplined, to change, to achieve anything, to increase my baseline of happiness, etc." -- but this is a false assumption. EVERYTHING that's ever happened to you was done without free will. So there's no problem. You can climb Mt Everest will no free will. You can win an Olympic medal with no free will. You can decide to shoot yourself in the head with no free will.

Rather than adopting new beliefs which clearly are not true in your experience, be honest about whatever you most feel is true in your direct experience. Which means, go back to thinking you have free will, because that's what's actually true for you. You act like you have it, so stop lying to yourself about that.

Self-honesty is the first step to eventually reaching Truth.

Stop bullshitting yourself. You believe you're a self! You believe you were born and you will die. Start by accepting that! For you, "no-self" is just a fantasy idea. Something you read in a book. If you read a book that told you you were a kangaroo, you'd be here lamenting, "Oh no!!!!! Woe is me! I'm a kangaroo. How am I supposed to live with myself now? Please help, I'm having an existential kangaroo crisis. How am I supposed to hold on to a job if I'm a kangaroo???"

Bottom line, stop trying to act enlightened if you ain't actually enlightened. The path to enlightenment is quicker when you admit to yourself that you're an egotistical bastard and you're damn proud of it, and you know nothing else.

[AlwaysBeNice]

The science is not clear, it comes from a gross misinterpretation of the Libet experiment, which just shows that:

When you are asked to press a button at X moment, a part of the brain goes into readiness potential before that moment.. So you get ready - the brain gets ready, nothing new here. In fact, of course, they could also chose not to press the button still.

Aside from that, yeah, no separate you exists as a separate intelligence that has it's own separate course (or is there also? Who knows?)

Because there is intelligence and creativity of the Self, what you are.

-

Anyways the real solution is to abandon this egoic mind field full of self deluded importance that brings nothing but misery and to enjoy the Self and love this joyful play for what it is, a gift to enjoy. Not some place where you gotta get trophies and struggle and fight for love and happiness.

[WaveInTheOcean]

You have no free will. But there also is no you!

Believing you exist combined with believing you haven't free will = emotional disaster ofc.

Realizing you don't exist combined with seeing that it doesn't even make sense to talk about free will or no free-will = enlightenment.

It's true; from a scientific perspective, of course you cannot have free will. Everything is determined by casual links and quantum randomness; the univerise is a physical machine! 

In any case, 'you' dont have a free will, cos 'you' dont exist. 

But You - the real you - decides how to interpret everything in life. So in that sense, you DO have full control; it's just a matter of being aware of it or not. When you play a game, like a board game, that's really interesting and really takes you in, you could also forget that you're playing and believing that the it actually REALLY matters who win the ludo-game. That's what makes it fun. In the same way, the real you is having so much fun right now, pretending it's a poor little sepearte self, Pristinemn, who's sad because it doesn't believe it has free will... haha, what a story!:D 

with 'real you' i mean God, Awareness, Absolute Infinity, Consciousness, Nothingness, etc etc, in other words: the REAL YOU!=)

Edited September 29, 2017 by WaveInTheOcean

[Nahm]

Just doubling up on Leo's statement. Until you expereince the pure void and see that there is nothing to be done, nothing to gain or lose, just enjoy the illusion and put honesty above all else. WRITE DOWN WHAT YOU WANT TO DO

[Forestluv]

I've gone through difficult periods with ego and free will. My mind tried to sort it out and make sense of it. I had similar thoughts as in your post: "This is unacceptable because. . . ". One big thing for me was the fear: if there is no free will, I could act on subconscious harmful impulses. Some reckless mysterious source would be controlling me. My ego wanted to create a narrative in which it was still relevant.

For me, an Ayahuasca retreat blasted through all of this. My ego struggled to maintain control and steer the experience. My ego lost all control and painfully died. It was the most terrifying experience of my life. My ego returned, yet is no longer the "tough guy" it used to be. Three months later, I'm still feel shaken at times about that experience.

[Pristinemn]

Thanks for all the replies. It clarified a lot, mainly by confirmation.

I think it was clearly communicated in the post that I know that I belief in the existence of me. Sometimes it can be alluring not to draw from own experience if an idea seems to make sense on an intellectual level.