Do you agree with the free will concept?

Originally Posted by SapphireBlue

According to this guy, over 90% of people don't have free will because they're living on autopilot and in their "island of comfort".

Indeed and its sad.... But I dunno if I believe we have free will either...
I think everything has been written and we are just mioving thru time...... (Otherwise how could physics know things if it didnt ever happen)
I would love to be wrong though!!

Free will exists. In fact it is incredibly important to spiritual development. Only growth happens through the exertion of free will. It is making the hard choices, where you may know you will suffer, but ultimately is either good for somebody else, a group or later for yourself.

[Unseeking Seeker]

Here are some great YouTube videos on free will:

https://youtu.be/VzbyeU3dK4g by Sarvapriya Nanda &

https://youtu.be/MEatCKgB6Qc by Eckhart Tolle

[lemex]

Originally Posted by Burntfruit

It is making the hard choices, where you may know you will suffer.

Much clarity. It is making the hard choices consciously and we deem them so. I would include this. Choice made by habit are not difficult. In the end you find everything works. Free-will works, and/or will (habit) works. In free-will we create our own reality. In habit we create our own reality.

It is less about reality as it is about creating.

[vortex]

if you live in the present the whole concept vanishes
but basically its up to you in what you believe

for me i choose free will, possibility, personal power, responsibility, creator, participation, adventure, discovery extra

no free will, narrow minded, entrapment, blame and excuses, conformity extra

the choice is yours

[Altair]

In a real and practical sense there is free will. If I were to say there's no free will I'm basically saying I don't wanna own my life and the choices I make.

There are materialists and spiritualists alike that take hardcore reductionist perspectives, saying either everything is a machine and control is a made up illusion of the brain, or everything is pre-planned with soul contracts, which would make you a funny bystander of everything happening to you. On the other hand, there are agency radicals that believe everything is possible right now if you just believe 'hard' enough or work 'hard' enough.

Agency is embedded in structures outside of our control but that does not mean agency doesn't exist. Structures in turn impose limitations on us even if we think we have a lot of control.

We have free will but that does not mean we have full control.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Altair

We have free will but that does not mean we have full control.

I think that says a lot.

[lemex]

Originally Posted by Gem

I think that says a lot.

I use to feel that this was good enough for me to. I use to say this to. It is truth, that is out of our control. But we (can) feel and say everything is out our control. We go with that flow. The mind also controls not just the outside. The mind can be a barrier. When speaking about free-will we include imo we are talking about that which is and is not predetermined outside of our control which is understandable when it is but we mean that which is within. So just saying there is more to it or the mind can stop there.

[Native spirit]

I have to agree with saying we have free Will but we don't always have control

that is so true



Namaste

[Gem]

Originally Posted by lemex

I use to feel that this was good enough for me to. I use to say this to. It is truth, that is out of our control. But we (can) feel and say everything is out our control. We go with that flow. The mind also controls not just the outside. The mind can be a barrier. When speaking about free-will we include imo we are talking about that which is and is not predetermined outside of our control which is understandable when it is but we mean that which is within. So just saying there is more to it or the mind can stop there.

There is a difference between being willful and being willing. In fact, they directly contradict each other.

Life is continuously changing and with the change there can be allowance, or willingness, or resistance as either craving or aversion. We typically mistake such reactivity for free will because we 'make it as we want it to be'. IOW what 'ought to be' is fabricated in mind in reaction to 'what is', and through that reactivity will is exerted. Because it's exerted in that way, will is never free.

Because 'this' is already 'as it is', it's either allowed to change or it is resisted. The former is willingness and the latter is willfulness. Willingness is cessation of willfulness - and it should be called 'free willing' rather than 'free will'.