September 17, 2011
Free Will 0
We live in a society and culture where the idea of a free will and free choice is very strong, especially in the western world. But what if this idea is just that, an idea, a thought with very little significance in the reality of life. What if life operates perfectly well without a free will and what if it’s actually a huge relieve to give up the very idea of someone having a free will?
Ok, so now the mind probably goes; “If I give up free will then I will be forced into situations I do not want!” … or … “I do not want someone else to decide for me what to do!” … or … “I want to be free to do what I think is important, enjoyable (fill in the blank)” … or … “What’s the point if there is no free will, people will end up as coach potatoes waiting for someone to tell them what to do!” … or … “The world need free people to stand up and speak against tyranny!” … and so on so forth.
So, first of all, the tendency of the mind is always to split up reality in two opposites and then hit the like button for one of them and dislike the other. Not much to do about that, it is how the mind is programmed to work. But we do not need to take it to be true! It is simply away to handle and sort impressions. It is for sure functional when it comes to survival like; “Don’t stand in the fire or don’t pet a poison snake”. It is less functional when it evolves to a more or less constant and ongoing like and dislike fight with life as it is in every moment.
It is also seems impossible to actually find an isolated point or event of free choice in life. We think there is but if we instead look and investigate without so much thinking we can’t really find it. We can create a story in the head but where and when is that point of choice to be found in this very moment? It seems to me that life is more like a weave of billions and billions of threads where one cannot really be separated from the other. I can think I made a choice in a specific moment but if I look closer I can see all these threads, an ocean of life events, which creates that very situation. Some I call “mine”, some I call “others” but not even that I find to be true. There is simply one giant weave of life unfolding and it has nothing to do with a “me” having a “free will”. This can of course be quite disappointing to the thinking mind.
Lately, the driving force to unite head and body has been quite vivid in my life. It seems that the matter of free will is closely related to that. It is like the tendency of the head, the thinking mind, is to separate it self from what is, the body, and that is called “free will”. Usually like a subtle process of reaction to what is in the form of like and dislike. In moments of freedom and clarity there is no such separation between will and what is. There is simply life unfolding without anyone having a free will or doing something. Still life flows on and things get done as usual, as it always has. It is not a matter of free will or surrender. It is simply a matter of what is. Slow down, be present, let the mind slowly settle and see what comes natural.
Richard
