You have 100% free will and you also have no free will. The other side of the Paradox.

[AleksM]

Edit: It is not this or that, it is this and that. So You have 100% free will and also 0% free will. 

I have decided I will comment on all of Leos enlightenment videos in the next few weeks. I think that would be valuable for everybody since I became enlightened 4 years ago and also interesting. Of course that is also valuable for me, to create a better map for the territory, my mind still needs to create a good map for the territory....

I will address this no free will video first. Watched the video until 40 minutes, will watch the second part tomorrow.

Here are the notes from the first part.

Quote

 no free will= that you have no control over your life whats so ever even though it feels like you do. I am not saying you have 20% control or 1% control or 0,0001% control and the rest is mechanical and out of your hands.  I am saying you have 0% control. 

 

What does that mean? You don't control your thoughts, you don't control your actions, you don't control your habits, you don't control your desires or your motivation level or your success or your failure in life.

You don't control your emotions (most people find that easy to believe), you basicly don't have control over anything at all and this is because there is no self who can have control. The assumption in the free will vs determinism debate is that there is a self in the first place who have free will and this just isn't the case. 

 this is not something I want you to just believe, I don't want to take this on as a some sort of dogma and then go convince other people of this fact. No what I am claiming here is a empirically verifiable fact. I am not just saying that free wil does not exist I am saying that you can demonstrate it to yourself in extremely convincing way that free will does not exist and I will show you how to do that in a second. 

You don't know what your next thought is going to be - this is because I can focus only on the present moment, I cant know what my next though is going to be because I can know only what is now and what was before. The physical minds job is not to know how things are going to happen, this is the job of the higher mind.

you don't control your thought and actions

We say the ego is located inside the skull.

thoughts appear out of nowhere

instead of thoughts arising from a thing called you, thoughts are arising out of nowhere

most of my thoughts are being triggered by external stimuli

If I am not the cause of my actions, where do my actions and decisions come from? restaurnt choosing food ... aren't I making the decision? Who is making the decision?

what you really are is a distributed system, not a centralized system. There is no thing inside you that we can point at that we can call you you, instead it's all the parts of you. How many parts of you? Scientist say there are 37 trillions of cells inside you on average. Every single one of these cells takes part in the decision. That's more units than more people on the entire planet. Every single particle in the known universe is acting on every single cell in your body and every single particle i your body and is influencing in a tiny little way your decision to go with the cheese burger. But we don't think of it like that because it is so complex our mind can't deal with it, it simplifies it like there is just me choosing the cheese burger. 

What happens is that when you straighten your finger it appears as though you have control but actually what's happening is that a though is arising at the same time as the finger is moving and the though claims it has control over the finger, this is how the illusion is created. What you are, the thing we call you, this ego, what that is, it's not an input into the system it actually is an output of the system. That's crazy. You have to be careful to not confuse the output with the input. 

objection: But Leo your are just being mechanistic, you are saying that basicly I am just a robot, we're just robots and where is the soul, where is the spirit? You are not accounting spiritual things here.... and actually this is a huge misconception people have. Spirit is still in play, except spirit is not what you think it is. Spirit is not the you, the you is not the spirit, the you is an illusion. What spirit is is the actual thing that everything is made out of. So yes, you are a robot, yes you are a machine and this is something you really need to take on very seriously, because as long as you deny your machine like nature, you experience a lot of problems in your life. The more you start to see how mechanical you are, the more your life flows smoother. But what actually is spirit? Spirit is what scientist call matter. So the very rock bottom thing out of which all of reality is made out of, that's what spirit is. This is not what most people think spirit is. But this is what it is. And if you look at the buddha, jesus, other mystics and saints that have actually realized this, they are enlightened people, what they've realized is that spirit is everything. Spirit is like what existence is made out of. It's awareness, it's consciousness. That's what spirit is. But when they talk about consciousness and awareness, they don't mean the ego, the you that I am pointing at.

 

This is where it makes spirituality possible. Many confused spiritual people or religious people believe that free will is kind of where spirituality takes them. Actually it couldn't be further from the truth. What spirituality actually is is the recognition of no free will. That's enlightenment. 

 

Challenges of accepting there is no free will:

you have a very strong illusion of free will, we can't deny that, this is certainly in play. 

the ego really hates this idea, it's antithetical to everything that the ego is about. The ego is about control. The ego is the thing that thinks it has control and when we tell to the ego that it has no control, it goes nuts. It has an emotional reaction. Is it really bitter news? Well it is for the ego, but it's not for the higher self, now what is the higher self, that's something I can't cover here. See my enlightenment videos and I will talk more about that in the future. But for the ego that's an extremely bitter pill to swallow because it makes the ego useless and that's the thing the ego hates the most. 

If what I am saying is true, that means you have been wrong your whole life, because your whole life you assumed that you had control. Again for the ego that's very difficult to accept. 

This is very socially unacceptable and also culturally unacceptable. 

No free will does not mean what you think it means. Your mind is coming up with all sort of interpretations, your mind is confused right now and it's saying something like "okay so what does this really mean? This means then what? This and that and jada jada jada, ohh that's so negative". Your mind starts to go down this road and you start to come up with all sorts of ramifications about the idea of no free will and the challenge is that the ramifications, the actual ramifications are not what you think they are. The actual ramifications are very counter intuitive and paradoxical. 

 

Misconceptions about no free will: (47min)

 

 

 

Comment:

You mentioned that most people that became enlightened realized that there is no free will. I am one of those  rare instances that  would disagree.   You can be fully aware and it will seem like you have no free will, I know that, I have experienced this for a lot of time, that's why you have to become fully conscious to step into free will. That's why knowing the difference between awareness and consciousness is so critical. 

You have 100% free will. But I would not call this free will, I would call it Devine Will. I liked the point you made that is in bold font.

The non-physical aspect of you is making the decisions. The totality of your Being is making the decision trough you and as you. 

The ego is a story. A story can only exist in time. Time is illusory because, the only moment in existence is now. 

The ego thinks it has control over the future but actually, the future is just another instance of the now moment, so it is illusory. We have the neo cortex in the brain which grounds the ability of the mind to see into the future, but we have to realize that that future is not real, it is just a projected picture of what happened and of what is happening now.  Most people have an over active neo cortex and that is why most people think they have free will. 

Change can happen only in the present moment, in the now moment, in an instance of the now moment, because that is the only moment in existence. Time is an appearance, a phenomena inside consciousness, but reality and appearance is not the same, it's radically different. When you are fully conscious in the present moment then You can make a decision. But You can't make a decision in the future. Awareness is aware of the illusory timeline of the mind, but it needs to ground itself into the now, that means it needs to be conscious. You can step into full power only when in the present moment.

The problem is most people are separated from that now moment. Separation means being in the mind, being immersed in the thought stream and that happens when a lot of beta brain waves are present.  Yes You can be aware of the thought stream, but that doesn't change anything, awareness has no free will. Don't allow the mind to make it seem like it is running your life. Shut down the gateways of the sense world, become conscious of the present moment, fully grounded in the experience of this moment and then you can use Devine will to change everything.

95% of of all the things you do is subconscious, so that means you are running on autopilot most of the time. When you are running on autopilot, you are not fully present in consciousness and this means manifesting what the consciousness (Soul, True Self, Being) has created in the past, so you are experiencing the past in the now. I know that sounds crazy but whatever. That is not bad, but when the reflection (outside) is showing you something that is out of alignment with your True Self, that means you'll be experiencing negative feelings and that means it's to to change it, to act aratinal, to ground yourself in the present moment to change it. 

You have to ground the energies in the present moment first to make a change of energies, to use free will. Yes change is happening all the time, but You can manifest the same thing over and over again, without bringing You a new experience. This is done by shutting down the sense world. The senses will collide with the True Self (Being, Soul, consciousness) if you don't close the gates of the sense world. The change will not be able to take place, you will only be able to stay aware of it like a witness but not fully grounded in the present moment. When you are fully grounded in the present moment, no thoughts are present, like ZERO and so the God, that is all that is, can work trough you and as you. The True Self uses a program, this is the ego to ground itself into the experience of this physical reality, the program is not making choices, the user that is using the program is making the choices. A WHAT uses and works trough a WHO. The mind is the WHO, the mind is a projector, You are the projectionist.

When you are fully present, then you don't need anything from the outside to fulfill you.

When you are stuck in the mind you think you have control over the future.You can't make choices inside the illusion of continuity. When you are stuck inside the mind, whether it be the conscious mind or subconscious mind then you can't make choices. You must first ground yourself into the present moment. That is not being aware, that is being conscious. 

So after you close the gateways of the sense world you can use Willingness and act in the present moment, that activates the universal law of cause and effect and so the thing you were willing to act on manifests.

What you focus on manifests. Observer effect. Collapse the wave function. You have to be aware of a new construct of the mind that's inside consciousness. If the mind is not  yet formed, it will, trough the use of Devine imagination. First you imagine it, then beliefs form, and after that the thing materializes. Mind over matter.  

You don't know how the thing will manifest, you just have to know that it will, and when the previous version of the program manifest (a hidden program from the unconscious come to the surface=) act arationaly and know what you are, stay self-aware and the reflection will change.

A habit becomes a choice once it becomes conscious. - Bashar

You are creator, that means you have power to create. You have to find out how to access this power, not just to find knowledge about how to access it, but to actually prove it to yourself that you have the ability to manifest,

The body is running unconsciously, the vessel is asleep. You have to bring consciousness back into the vessel so you can step back into full power.

full power = fully conscious

You can be aware even if you are unconscious. To be conscious means to know your Truth.

Quote

The greatest gift that creation has given is that life is meaningless, there is no build in meaning to situations or circumstances, they are just neutral props.You are aware to a certain degree that any given situation can actually produce even opposite results, or opposite perceptions. You can look at any situation and you could see a positive outcome or you could see negative outcome - of the same situation. Well that actually shows you that there is no build in meaning in a situation. - Bashar

 

Quote

It is determined by how you see it. So if you decide a that a situation will have a negative effect on you that is the effect it will have. if you decide a that a situation will have a positive effect on you that is the effect it will have. The situation doesn't come with a build in parameter that says that it will affect you positivelly or negativelly. That is in your hand to determine. - Bashar

Quote

   So nothing has build in meaning and therefor that's why we say the circumstances don't matter, only state of being matters because it's the state of being that allows you to determine what meaning you will asign to those circumstances that are fundamentally neutral.

but if someone is in harm, how can you see that in a positive way?? When we talk about positive and negative we are not talking about subjective good and bad, we are actually talking about an actual mechanical description of a of energy. That which is negative in a that sense is that which segregates, separates, shall we say isolates, disconnects, forms experiences of disconnection.

That which is positive forms experiences of integration, unification, bonding, oneness. The idea being if you allow to operate on a fear based definitional system, more often then not you'll experience more emotions of disconnection and greater fear thus you are seeing that the mechanism is simply generating an expanded version of itself by perpetuating more doubt, more disconnection, more fear or misalignment within your belief systems from your core.

The fear itself is the expression of negatively aligned belief systems, does that make sense? The idea being when you see someone operating in a negative way or when you see a situation that you are saying someone is being harmed in, you can recognize the mechanism that might be involved maybe negatively based, never the less, you can also recognize as you can in many situations in life that that being that person while not necessarily excusing the negative behavior might also allow other to learn something positive from it or might give someone else a positive effect..

 

example:

 

we understand that it is negative when someone abuses another person that is a negative act perpetuated by negative beliefs, it is segregative, isolating, it is disruptive it is disconnective. Never the less if you came upon the situation where you are seeing someone being abused and you come to their assistance and help them, then you are putting positive energy into it and if you  say "in seeing this I am now inspired, passionately to do what it takes to make sure this doesn't happen again on our planet, anywhere, then you ar going to generate a positive effect of what essentially started as a negative experience. So it's how you use it. And that's why we simply say circumstances don't matter, not to discount them but to let you know it's what meaning you decide to give them that determines what effect you can extract from them and apply to your reality. Remember: everyone that is having an experience is fundamentally an eternal infinite spirit. Ultimately everyone is just fine. You are created in unconditional love and that is the only place to go back to. Now individual being might learn, that they didn't necesarily want to operate a certain way because it might have created a negative experience for them that is more negatively oriented then positively oriented and they might learn to do something about that from that experience. That's up to them. The point is that when we say circumstances don't matter, we're simply attempting to let you know that they are fundamentally neutral and that you can decide how they will actually effect your reality, what you'll do with that experience.  Just because an experience might start negatively doesn't mean that the only experience you can get from it is a negative one, you can actually use it to learn a lesson and actually create a very positive reality from that experience. Also when we say circumstances don't matter but only states of being do we are making a play on words matter. Circumstances are not what materialize your reality, it's your state of being that materializes reality experience for you. Circumstances are simply neutral props that allow you to decide wether you are by reflection in alignment or not. 

The non-physical aspect of you creates the idea.

non-physical, higher consciousness you creates the choice of having physical life, a physical reality. Your physical mind creates many methodologies of choice, , the manner in which you fulfill the non-physical choice to have an experience. How you go about it is the majority of the free choice you experience in physical reality.  The fact that you will explore certain concepts is the choice of the OverSoul. And the physical mentality will not be able to not explore those ideas, except in one circumstance - suicide.  You ,in your non-physical state, will determine to experience a certain conceptz or idea. The physical mentality will be the determinet of exactly how you will experience that - what symbols you will create, what situations, what kinds of relationships.  - Bashar

 

You are always in control of how you view a situation.

So you have to deconstruct the subjective construct by bring yourself back into the now, to become fully conscious. When you are fully conscious you are in neutral zone and then you can redefine your experience by looking at it differently. How you look at things is ALWAYS in your control.

@Leo Gura @Nahm

Edit: This is not the full  finished post.  Better things came along. But I will describe a big epiphany I had after reading the comments and fully integrating this paradox.

Just find the comment in this thread that will go into that. I will write about this in the following days.

Edited November 23, 2017 by AleksM

[Nahm]

@AleksM Thanks. I’ll be reading this quite a few times.might have some questions. ❤️ Also, this feels like the much anticipated ders. ? Probably just one of many. You rock man! 

Edit:

After a few meditations, and in & outs of the void, all I’ve come up with is that this is a persepective based on believing in the  illusion of existence, and what I am does not exist, and does not not exist. Making this distinction can only be done relative to an illusion. So there can be an illusory experience of free will but it is on the foundation of perceiving the illusion as real, or seperate, which in reality, it is not. In actuality, there is nothing seperate, because anything perceived is illusory. What is perceived is of  what’s perceiving. There is nothing to make choices from, nothing seperate, nothing not seperate. The trouble with talking about free will, is, I’m talking to myself. 

I don’t know this though, because there is nothing to know, ultimately.

Even talking to you right now requires me to believe in at least some facets of illusion. 

When I look to the illusion, I only find more of me and find the divine, and when I look through the divine, i only find i am free because I am nothing. Nothing. 

This is right here, one atom away, because it’s not. 

Your’re my Shiva though, and I love you.

[mp22]

At least you acknowledge that the brain exists

[Shin]

Learning non-duality as a newbie:

 

• You don't exist ----- You're everything
• There is no self ----- There is a true self
• There is no free will ----- You have 100% free will
• The obstacle is the path -----You have to follow the eightfold path
• There is nothing you can do ----- Meditation/Self-inquiry/Retreat/Yoga ...
• Don't chase enlightenment ----- You have to desire enlightenment really bad

 

 

[Nahm]

@Shin that’s hilarious cause it’s true....wait no it’s not....lol 

[Forestluv]

Seems like semantics to me. The meaning of “you” is being redifined by the OP.

I could make the statement “You are a giraffe” true by changing the meaning of “you”.

[Leo Gura]

No free will = divine free will = 100% free will = 0% free will = fate = inevitable

All of these are dualistic concepts so of course they must ultimately collapse or circle back into one another.

Such concepts can be debated for hundreds of years, as is done in all the religious sects. The key is to understand that a teaching is only a tool, always imperfect, always just scaffolding.

For someone who believes in free will, it is good to tell them: there is no free will.

For someone who believes in no free will, it is good to tell them: there is free will.

We're just trying to use words to pry the mind loose of its positions, that's all. That's what all these videos are aimed to do.

[Monkey-man]

@Leo Gura what does Sadhguru mean when he says that people do not have control over their body and mind until you raise consciousness or become enlightened - only then you get control over your body and mind

does it contradict what you said about realising absence of control once enlightened?

[Shin]

43 minutes ago, Monkey-man said:

@Leo Gura what does Sadhguru mean when he says that people do not have control over their body and mind until you raise consciousness or become enlightened - only then you get control over your body and mind

does it contradict what you said about realising absence of control once enlightened?

How could you have free will if you don't control your thoughts and you're identified to them ?

It's just conditioned behaviors at this point.

The thing is that you can only acknowledge that once you've raised some awareness, otherwise you'll just think it's bullshit or some metaphors.

[Ascend]

You became enlightened? Or you had an experience of enlightenment? 

[Ether]

@Leo Gura But we make a hundred choices a day, the truth is the truth

[Shin]

8 minutes ago, Ether said:

@Leo Gura But we make a hundred choices a day, the truth is the truth

Ahah no, you think you do

[Zephyr]

56 minutes ago, Ether said:

@Leo Gura But we make a hundred choices a day, the truth is the truth

But who chose to choose those choices you made? 

[Principium Nexus]

@AleksM You forget that your background shapes how you think and act. Even if you fully distance yourself. The environment where you live in controls you whether you like it or not. You are forced to act if something happens that could harm or kill you if you want to stay alive.

There are many subtle things that influence the subconcious mind and we think this is our own control. Magicians use it to introduce specific choices, like reading a number and color from someones mind.

Plus if you believe you have free will you basically say that you are seperate entity with total control detached from external influences. But this goes completely against non-duality? So is free will therefor not something the ego creates and clings too? The ego "wants" to be free, to have true identity, but this is only a mere illusion. We are one big living organism, we have shared identities that are formed through relativity.

Our actions and thoughts only exist because of this relativistic model of reality. If everything is interconnected, then free will is an illusion.

[AlwaysBeNice]

10 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

No free will = divine free will = 100% free will = 0% free will = fate = inevitable

All of these are dualistic concepts so of course they must ultimately collapse or circle back into one another.

Such concepts can be debated for hundreds of years, as is done in all the religious sects. The key is to understand that a teaching is only a tool, always imperfect, always just scaffolding.

For someone who believes in free will, it is good to tell them: there is no free will.

For someone who believes in no free will, it is good to tell them: there is free will.

We're just trying to use words to pry the mind loose of its positions, that's all. That's what all these videos are aimed to do.

Well said, in other words, WHO ARE YOU?!

Edit: I still think it's weird to say that there can be 'no free will', things can happen without thinking, but they still do spring from the source of YOUR being, always.

Edited November 22, 2017 by AlwaysBeNice

[AleksM]

@Shin LoL that was funny, thank you @Leo Gura That reminds me of something Bashar said. "It is not this or that, it is this AND that!"  That makes a lot more sense now since I am all that is. If all must come full circle then that means at some point you will need to cover the other side that makes this paradox. I know your message is meant for  your target audience but there will come a time to address these paradoxes.

[Leo Gura]

@Monkey-man Sadhguru is not contradicting what I said.

Yes, in a sense, when you are max conscious (enlightenment) you have max control over your mind and body.

You have to understand that the same words are being used in different ways to make the same basic point.

Consciousness makes you aware of how infinite intelligence courses through your body and mind and causes everything you do. At that point, you literally are God controlling the body like a puppet, and you're conscious of it (unlike now).

But in another sense, you still have no free will, because you understand that the entire universe inter-causes itself. Every molecule in existence is acting on you. And at the same time, you ARE every molecule.

[Leo Gura]

@AleksM Yes, the paradoxes will be addressed. I have a juicy topic already lined up on things going full-circle. It's a really profound and beautiful topic which I've been collecting deep insights on.

[AleksM]

@Leo Gura Great news! Btw: I will expand on the topic tomorrow anyways. This discussion cleared up this paradox but still I want to better articulate and expand the side of Devine will. Did 7 hours of walking meditation today so I need some rest.

[Psyche_92]

22 hours ago, AleksM said:

I became enlightened 4 years ago

How?

12 minutes ago, AleksM said:

Did 7 hours of walking meditation

What's the point of meditation after enlightenment?