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The question of whether we have free will or not is usually considered one of the biggies. But anyone who spends some time thinking about this will realize that it’s actually not that mysterious.
I’m not sure if there is still debate about this. Most likely there is.
If we’d all agree on the basic points of our existence then we’d soon have nothing to talk about, except small talk and how awesome cats are and dogs too.
That would probably bore us rather quickly.
Luckily, we don’t need anyone to agree with us because that’s not what this is about. This is about understanding reality and yourself more deeply and living life from this deeper understanding.
Anyway, free will. No, you don’t have it.
You as a separate individual self walking around in a space-time universe don’t have free will because you are not a separate individual self walking around in a space-time universe. (This is not something to believe but something to see and explore for yourself.)
If you think I’m crazy for saying that, then you must be new here. In that case, welcome! It’s good to have you.
The self that we usually believe we are is a Fata Morgana in the infinite desert that we really are.
Even if you truly were that separate individual — an object among objects in an objective world — you wouldn’t have free will. Free will in that sense simply doesn’t work.
Just think about all the influences, known and unknown, that go into making a simple decision such as what you’ll eat for dinner.
Have you ever chosen what food you like?
Have you ever chosen any preferences?
Do you have control or even awareness about all the factors that influence your thoughts, emotions, and decisions at any given moment?
For you to have free will you’d have to exist outside all influences.
You’d have to be completely uninfluenced yourself. You’d have to make truly independent choices. You’d have to be your own first mover and causer.
The most direct pointer is always the one pointing you back to yourself: Where and what exactly is that you that has free will?
The Illusion of Free Will
The notion of free will usually means something like, “I could have chosen otherwise.” “I did this but I could have done that.”
This kind of thinking is nothing but a nice idea.
I just remembered an example I heard Sam Harris make a couple of years ago.
Here it goes.
Think of a city.
Let’s say you thought of New York.
Obviously, New York is not the only city you know. You might have thought about other cities before settling on it. You might have thought about Barcelona, Berlin, Lissabon, and Tokyo.
But even then, that’s not all the cities you know.
You probably know a hundred cities or more if you take your time.
Did you have the choice to choose from all the cities you know at that moment of choice?
Evidently not.
So what made you choose New York?
You can come up with all kinds of reasons but the truth is you don’t know.
You might say that sure, there are all kinds of influences but it was still you who made the choice. But if the choice to pick New York was caused by you, then what has caused you to cause that choice?
There must be a prior cause, otherwise, the choice is random and randomness doesn’t allow for much free will.
So then, do you decide to decide?
Of course not because then we’d have to admit another decision that led to you deciding to decide. This would lead us down an infinite regression.
Let’s assume you are a soul outside the infinite regression. Let’s assume you make a completely free, independent choice (which would only introduce more problems).
How would that choice be different from a random one?
It wouldn’t.
The crux is this, either choices depend on something which means they’re not “free” or they don’t depend on something which makes them indistinguishable from random ones.
There is no other option here — either they’re determined or they’re random and both of these options point towards the same thing.
So, Is Everything Determined?
Does that mean there is no choice? Does that mean there are no multiple possible outcomes? Does that mean everything is determined?
Yes, that’s what it means.
We can experience choice but we can’t have it.
The idea that things could be anything else than what they are is a delusion.
Never have things been something else than what they are. The way things are is the only way they could be.
When we torture ourselves with regret, guilt, and shame about a missed chance, a wrong decision, a mistake, etc., we’re simply playing with imagination. We imagine a plethora of alternative possible outcomes and assume they could have happened instead of what is happening right now.
All of that is only in thought. It’s only a way of thinking. It doesn’t exist in reality. Our course of action was predestined.
Let that sink in.
Realize that nothing could be different than it is, and see the freedom in that. The incessant worrying about the past and the future can finally end. The obsessive thoughts around decision and choice no longer need to occupy our awareness.
We don’t need to stop making choices nor do we need the choices to feel any different. But all the peripheral baggage around the choices can drop away. Intention can step down and spontaneity can take its place.
Everything is unfolding exactly as it should and it’s as perfect as it can be.
Spontaneous Perfection
I am not suggesting that determinism as the conceptual opposite of free will is true. Free will and determinism are both sides of the same coin. So we don’t need to dismiss heads in favor of tails.
Yes, the world of appearances is on iron rails so to speak. There is no denying that. And the way we’ve been thinking about free will — as a free choice we have — doesn’t make sense.
In what way does free will make sense then?
Well, in the sense that we experience free will because what we are is free will. Free will is not a property. It is an essence.
Now we’re using free will as a synonym for all that is. And all that is is what we are.
Free Will = Consciousness
What we are is so free it is infinite. It’s beyond our ideas of freedom. Any attempt to conceptualize it is putting a limit on its freedom. And yet its freedom can never be limited. It’s so free it can appear as limitation.
The “will” part is not will as we usually define it.
It’s pure will. It has no preference, no agenda, no goal, no desire. It makes nothing appear as anything and it’s willing to appear as anything — cute puppies, brutal wars, traffic jams, and mangoes are all allowed.
Now let’s forget about free will and determinism for a moment.
If there are no thoughts creating a temporal context, then what?
Then a more suitable word for all this is spontaneity.
This immediate, intimate experience before “you” take hold of it is perfectly spontaneous and spontaneously perfect.
Have a taste of that spontaneous perfection right now. Then, reject or accept the notion of free will and see that the spontaneous perfection is perfectly unaffected either way.
Luka
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Beautiful perspective, the feeling is slowly sinking in , The spontaneity thing is a game changer, Thanks a lot
I’m glad you liked it, Mahendra!
This is just me intellectualizing: If there are no individuals, then there is no will. If everything is one whole piece, then there’s just one will. I’m going to bet the truth is stranger than fiction.
Yes, that sounds about right.
No, we don’t think you’re crazy,Luka. However the line seemed very spontaneous in a funny sort of way.
Funnier still is the sketch of the one saying “I don’t know. It was spontaneous.” I’ll test this out for myself by using this line on the rare-ish occasions when I lose my temper. I hope it works as neatly as it does here.
I appreciate it, Steph, and I’m glad you found some funny bits in there. 🙂
Haha sure, I too hope it works for you.
Thank you for your post! Nicely spaced lines and concise points. I refer to these lines: “ Does that mean there are no multiple possible outcomes? Does that mean everything is determined?…Yes, that’s what it means.” I tend to think there ARE multiple possible outcomes, but they simply exist in alternative, simultaneous realities, not this dimension. I say this because, I had a profound experience where I was experiencing an alternative, simultaneous dimension as well as living my life in this one. So it was a DIRECT experience of me in a different lifetime with a different outcome involving my… Read more »
Much appreciated, Angela!
I hear you on the alternative, simultaneous realities. That sounds indeed like a profound experience. Thanks for sharing!