Free will - does it exist?

[illbeyourmirror]

I recently watched a documentary on the late Zen master Wu Bong, and in it he says, “You didn’t choose when you’d be born, and you don’t choose when you’ll die, so what makes you think you can choose what happens in your life?”

And I read a quote today by Sadhguru that went, “Your life, your making. God does not interfere in it.”

And in the video by Leo on self-love, he says that self love doesnt mean that you’re just totally passive - that you take care of yourself in a conscious, mindful way. Which makes me think that god is absent/hands-off most of the time, and that we are in control of our lives.

Being honest here - it seems like spiritual teachers / speakers use the idea of free will willy nilly and loosely. One moment they're saying that everything is an illusion and that the body is an imagination, and the next moment saying  our brains need to take care of our bodies

My idea up until this point has wavered between thinking that there is no such thing as free will (even actions you think you’re doing out of your free will are being controlled) to thinking that god - the force that holds everything in perfect unity - can catch you and fill you with its presence, if it’s right, when you’re truly falling.

Writing to get others’ thoughts on free will, and to see if Leo has talked about the idea more in depth in one of his videos.

[Inliytened1]

@illbeyourmirror there's a lot of posts on this.  Here's a link @LastThursday made to many of them.

[Sempiternity]

Watch this video. Short answer: No you do not have free will, as you are a dream character and are imaginary. You as God is dreaming all of reality. God has infinite Will. 

 

 

Edited March 10, 2021 by Sempiternity

[LastThursday]

@Inliytened1 thanks mate. These free will questions drive me to insanity. My personal opinion? No free will. More accurately, God has free will and you are God.

Edited March 10, 2021 by LastThursday

[PureRogueQ]

1 minute ago, LastThursday said:

@Inliytened1 thanks mate. These free will questions drive me to insanity. My personal opinion? No free will.

would not be your personal opinion then , would it? 

[LastThursday]

@PureRogueQ No, well spotted. It just arose from nowhere and subsided into no-nothing.

[Origins]

@illbeyourmirror

My position: Free Will exists and we have it.

Let me know if you’d like to know how I’ve reasoned this into existence other than sharing your thoughts.

Or if you’d like to have a discussion on just furthering those mechanics, or lack thereof which is my basic contention (the lack of mechanics beyond comprehension).

The crutch, you’ll have to ditch cause and effect thinking and embrace an awareness based energetic paradigm (hence why there’s a “lack of mechanics”) unless of course you can invent or at least demonstrate something better which I’d be more than open to hearing about.

And yes, for me I'd agree, all discussion on the topic is mostly either "willy-nilly" or trapped in cause and effect deterministic thinking.

Nuances here. But that's where I'd start.

[Origins]

@illbeyourmirror There's just freaky stuff going on in reality as well that you just gotta be open minded to.

For example... At around the exact moment I posted my thread (On Free Will - posted in the Self Actualization section) I got a spontaneous intuition about a thread on free will in the Meditation, Consciousness section, I thought the intuition was telling me to post it in there, but I thought no I'll leave it.

Hours later (10 minutes ago), I notice that your thread here was created pretty much at exactly the same time as mine (within the same 6 hour span).

That's unusual to say the least, I rarely visit this area of the forum as well so it was only by chance that I noticed it in the general Main Discussions area bumped to the top of course.

Reality is weird, we have to get used to that.

Edited March 10, 2021 by Origins

[AdamR95]

6 hours ago, illbeyourmirror said:

I recently watched a documentary on the late Zen master Wu Bong, and in it he says, “You didn’t choose when you’d be born, and you don’t choose when you’ll die, so what makes you think you can choose what happens in your life?”

And I read a quote today by Sadhguru that went, “Your life, your making. God does not interfere in it.”

And in the video by Leo on self-love, he says that self love doesnt mean that you’re just totally passive - that you take care of yourself in a conscious, mindful way. Which makes me think that god is absent/hands-off most of the time, and that we are in control of our lives.

Being honest here - it seems like spiritual teachers / speakers use the idea of free will willy nilly and loosely. One moment they're saying that everything is an illusion and that the body is an imagination, and the next moment saying  our brains need to take care of our bodies

My idea up until this point has wavered between thinking that there is no such thing as free will (even actions you think you’re doing out of your free will are being controlled) to thinking that god - the force that holds everything in perfect unity - can catch you and fill you with its presence, if it’s right, when you’re truly falling.

Writing to get others’ thoughts on free will, and to see if Leo has talked about the idea more in depth in one of his videos.

Only true free will is gods will. What people mean when they talk about free will is personal free will and that doesnt exist. Your ego doesnt have free will, your ego is  gods puppet . You have free will in a sence if you identify yourself as god but this free will  is different than what ego thinks free will is.

[AdamR95]

7 hours ago, illbeyourmirror said:

And in the video by Leo on self-love, he says that self love doesnt mean that you’re just totally passive

Being active doesnt require free will.

 

7 hours ago, illbeyourmirror said:

And I read a quote today by Sadhguru that went, “Your life, your making. God does not interfere in it.”

I think he meant that in relative sence. Even without free will its bad idea to have a victim mindset.

If god doesnt or does interfere with itself is about perspective you take on that.

Edited March 10, 2021 by AdamR95

[LfcCharlie4]

Awaken, and the question dissolves into itself. 

Consciousness = Absolute Freedom 

[Keyhole]

I always had my insights into freewill as being non-existent and that becoming more apparent when you get closer to source because you're stuck in place, no matter where you go in physical form, but are now aware of it - like a little bug stuck on the front window of a fast moving vehicle - they kind of look like lace angels.  
And before that, you are a slave to your ego and all that outer activity is an illusion.
So where does that leave room for free will?
The only freewill there seems to be is to accept it all as openly as possible.  That seems to be the only real choice available to us.

 

[AdamR95]

15 minutes ago, Keyhole said:

The only freewill there seems to be is to accept it all as openly as possible.  That seems to be the only real choice available to us.

Even that isnt free choice at all. Ego thinks it is his free choice but it isnt. Its only gods will if you do accept it or not.

If you identify your self as god then it is your free choice but at the same time "free choice" lose its meaning at that point.

Edited March 10, 2021 by AdamR95

[Someone here]

No. It doesn't exist. 

I did not choose to type this comment rn. It had to happen. 

Edited March 10, 2021 by Someone here

[Mason Riggle]

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'.   

[illbeyourmirror]

@Sempiternity Brilliant, I'll start here, thank you!

[illbeyourmirror]

@Origins And to add to the uncanny timing, I had wanted to post on the topic on this forum for weeks and had been procrastinating. It had been stewing, and  I posted when I couldnt resist scratching the itch any longer

@Origins Yes, please share more!

[illbeyourmirror]

@Keyhole lovely, thanks for the input

[illbeyourmirror]

@AdamR95 Can you expound upon, "You have free will in a sence if you identify yourself as god but this free will  is different than what ego thinks free will is." How to even make that distinction between ego free will vs god free will. Just saying you're god / exercising god's free will seems to be an egotistical endeavor

[freejoy]

I wonder if it's within God's infinite intelligence to create free will?