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18-02-2012, 03:45 AM
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Master
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 22,111
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Saspian
Osho referred to God as a leela, or bit of a joke.
In my view his pushing of philosophical concepts via hedonism, all those rolls royces, free sex etc, while perhaps cathartic in the short term,lacked deep credibility.
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LoL, I've refered to Osho as a bit of a joke before too.
__________________
Radiate boundless love towards the entire world ~ Buddha
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18-02-2012, 03:57 AM
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Ascender
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 762
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I think to say we don't have free-will is to shun from your responsiblitliy for your actions. We may to a certain extent be restricted by our circumstances and physicality, but we are still able to exercise our volition within the parameters of our lives. If you want to 'end suffering', simply keep your thoughts and actions as pure as can be.
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18-02-2012, 06:02 AM
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Guide
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 496
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You most certainly do have "free will". Not free will as in you can do and/or have whatever you want... but free will as in you are free to choose to do whatever is within your "decision space".
Decision Space being that which is available for you to do which you realize.
For more information about this, look up Tom Campbell. I fully concur with his findings.
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18-02-2012, 08:33 PM
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Master
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: here... now...
Posts: 11,896
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In my view, there's a great deal that is established and beyond our ability to change --- the structure of the universe, our inherited body-mind forms, circumstances and events of the past.
There is also a range in which we can make choices... to change our view point and life experience through learning, releasing and healing old mind patterns, and shifting our attention to a preferred way of experiencing reality... through such things as meditation practice
In short -- our free will gives us the ability to shift our awareness and determine our experienced reality of any moment.
Try it and see for yourself.
Xan
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Go within, beloveds. Go deep within to the Heart of your Being.
The Truth is found there and nowhere else.-Sananda
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19-02-2012, 08:12 AM
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Knower
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Chicago
Posts: 218
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It's very simple action equals karma, non-action equals freedom. But once your fully not acting, there is no decision to make. You are the observer. If the observer does anything else than observe, your are no longer an observer but a doer. And doing brings karma and sometimes bondage. Some doing is worse than others.
Xan: In short -- our free will gives us the ability to shift our awareness and determine our experienced reality of any moment.
I can't seriously do that without having some cause and effect nerves firing in my brain.
In Buddhism (which has many parallels with science) believes that heaven is not forever and that you will have to sooner or later come back to the psychical.
At the same time everyone has free will. But they always make the right decision based on what they experience, based on there reality. But it's the will of God working through cause and effect. Since Buddhas needed cause and effect of the physical in order to evolve to Buddhas. There is an interdependence that is so enormous, that free will can't exist. Everything is just God. And God's will, which is the totality of everything. Cause and effect brings order. Without it, there are no Buddhas.
In the end, you are an observer. That is it. God's are still evolving with cause and effect.
Peace!
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19-02-2012, 08:41 AM
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Master
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 18,675
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Do we have free will? Yes, we have free will to do good or evil. But it is free will under Law.
All that you send out will come back to you, if not in this life then in another.
Therefore, if you be wise, walk in the ways of love and compassion...
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All this talk of religion, but it's how you live your life that is the all-important thing.
If you set out each day to do all the goodness and kindness that you can, and to do no harm to man or beast, then you are walking the highest path.
And when your time is up, if you can leave the earth a better place than you found it, then yours will have been a life well lived.
http://holy-lance.blogspot.com
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19-02-2012, 09:20 AM
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Knower
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Chicago
Posts: 218
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What can you do other than observe? Any doing is karma.
Peace!
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19-02-2012, 11:30 AM
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Knower
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Chicago
Posts: 218
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I realize I might be wrong, and that in all reality none of us can say for certain if we have free will. I will admit that. But this is really getting me thinking. If nothing else it's ineresting to see the other side of something I suppressed for so long. To be able to see the multi-universe as a totally creative force, making something so incomprehensible so beautiful, that it may not even be graped. I should have named the title of this thread "Do we really have free will" or something different.
Peace!
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19-02-2012, 11:51 AM
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I believe that we do have free will, and that this is not some misunderstanding of our true nature.
But we shouldn't create sharp dichotomies here. Our free will doesn't mean that we are entirely uninfluenced by our interdependencies with everything else. We are a part of a larger system. However, we are a part that has the ability to reason and choose. We are influenced, and yet not enslaved, by everything else.
We are influenced by habits, by memories, by emotions, and by experiences, but through reason and reflection we are capable of examining those influences and settling on a chosen course of action for which we are the author, and not those influences. This is possible because we are more than the sum of our parts. Our nature transcends mere parts.
So, I do think that we should regard ourselves as responsible for our actions. Sometimes, this may be difficult, such as when one is in the grip of powerful urges, habits, or emotions. But the power is there, waiting to be used.
eudaimonia,
Mark
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20-02-2012, 02:14 AM
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Master
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: here... now...
Posts: 11,896
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Xan: In short -- our free will gives us the ability to shift our awareness and determine our experienced reality of any moment.
I can't seriously do that without having some cause and effect nerves firing in my brain.
AP, I'm not sure what you mean by that. What I mean is... we can keep our attention in the thinking/emoting mind or shift it to the quiet open space beneath and all around it. Yes, it affects our energies but that's what meditation is about.
Xan
__________________
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Go within, beloveds. Go deep within to the Heart of your Being.
The Truth is found there and nowhere else.-Sananda
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