Do we have free will?

[Shivani Devi]

I don't think we have absolute free-will, but our will and influence is limited within our own perception of that reality we create for ourselves.

It is understanding how to accept those things we cannot change and being able to let go of it instead of worrying how things are going to eventuate when eventuality dictates it.

It is having the mental capacity to either believe or disbelieve in something greater than one's own ego and surrender the ego to it. Once the ego is surrendered, free-will is also thus surrendered back to The Source.

Once the ego is surrendered back to The Source, there's an understanding that free-will is only a man-made construct anyway, as everything is meant to be just how it is. Every choice we make is taken into consideration before it is made.

We can influence the awareness through free will, choosing the lifestyle we wish to lead and it may take many lifetimes until that will is changed, but if one believes in Karma, it only goes to illustrate that there is no free will because the law of cause and effect negates it.

If we believe in destiny, there's no free will because whatever happens and whatever road we take...whatever we do to use our free-will becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as in it was predestined to occur that way.

Personally, I still think that free will is associated with the ego - the ego likes to be free...it likes to have rights and entitlements...it likes to have belief and faiths...and it believes it has the right or 'free will' to do whatever it wants.

However, when the ego is dropped, free-will gets dropped along with it and we realise that in the absolute sense (which only the Devil deals in) that there is no free will because everything is the will of God - like Jesus said in The Lord's Prayer "thy will be done" and not "my will be done"...and "there but for the Grace of God, go I".

So, free-will is subjective and only real to those who believe they have it.

[lemex]

Originally Posted by kralaro

Do we have free will?

Think of free will as choice. If you do not have free will then you do not have choice. What is it you are trying to have free will about anyway. Sure things work on patterns build into the universe and us. Of course we create our own theme of reality. To some degree innate knowledge plays a role. Now think of choice. Certainly in free will we get set in our lives and patterns. We do the same things over again. Life is repetition to the nth degree if you allow it. It is automatic isn't it. Choice sometimes seems more an impossibility. Think of choice as an alternate reality. I know it seemed that way to me. Choice is the hardest thing one will ever do, even free will is hard to do. You have so much information in you that you call that having no free will because it is present, always has been. Do we use that information. A lot of times free will or choice is an alternate reality to us. It feels impossible. It is not what we think and that is your freedom to think. Use freedom wisely and quit being so pessimistic. A lot live in a pattern and we are quite content with that.

When people say there is no free will do they mean cause and effect. Be positive and positive results, be negative negative results. I hope it is not about giving up.

[lemex]

Originally Posted by FallingLeaves

good points but I might add that our tendency is to try to limit each other's ability to do modifications that we personally don't like... i.e. our tendency is to try to NULLIFY free will in ourselves and others when we can.

i also wanted to say, it is impossible to MEASURE free will. How can you compare two outcomes, if you can't see the results of both? So any arguments about it are by definition rooted in instability.

Yes, we are agents that act against ourselves as well as each other. So true we limit ourselves and it feels great and safe.

[Moonglow]

Hello,

We have the ability to make choices to respond, react, and/or to remain silent, which indicates free will.

Circumstances happen in life and some are not in ones control and doing.

But, how it is dealt with and/or lived with, to me can be of choice.

I choose to respond to this post, for example.

In hindsight may come to understand how certain things or tendencies manifested, but as it is occurring may be left with how to deal and live through it.

Certain things may be just inheirited and have no choice that those traits are present in me. To act or not on those traits seems a choice I have.

Perhaps there is some destiny involved, but it seems to me these are affected by choices one may make to change their life.

We are a collective of sorts with various thoughts, perceptions, and ways of living life. These affect one another and can affect the decisions and outlooks created, IMO.

It is a complex and interactive world we live in. Some things can be altered and some things just happen. The choice seems how and what one is able and willing to do to live with it, which is the free will given, IMO.

[Ahriman]

Originally Posted by Baile

I can step out my door right now and:

Kiss someone on the street.
Go rob a bank.
Step in front of a semi.

Three free will choices, each will redirect my life in very different, very specific (and in a couple cases, extreme) life-changing directions.

Proof of free will. To argue against this very simple illustration is an empty mental exercise; just another example of how human beings use intellectualism and mental gymnastic arguments to create their particular belief-doctrine. These free will threads aren't about free will so much as they are a revelation pertaining to human-thinking indoctrination as a result of centuries of religious belief-theorizing and God-conceptualizing.

Spirituality is about living life. Don't theorize about it, just go live it. Every answer to every question is in the actual experience.

There's just one little problem with your theory......you wouldn't actually go out and do those things, would you? No, you wouldn't. Or if you did, you would feel resistance. Why would you feel resistance? Because you do not have free will. If you had free will, you would be able to do literally anything and feel no resistance whatsoever. Your will is tied to your conscience, as is the case with most people. Only purely good or purely evil individuals have free will, most people don't. The fact that your actions are directed by your conscience means you do not have free will.

Spirituality is about living life? Everything is about living life. The claim that "spirituality is about living life" is true, but also redundant. Once a person realizes that spirituality and non-spirituality are the same thing, there are two directions they can go, through the head or through the heart. The head is your mind, the heart is your soul. It's a matter of which one the individual wishes to be conscious of. This is a free will decision, but beyond that decision, there is no such thing as free will, at least not in the individual's natural lifetime.

[Ghost_Rider_1970]

In simple terms your life is yours to life, so in my opinion you therefore have Free Will to the extent that you know who you are

[Ahriman]

Originally Posted by Ghost_Rider_1970

In simple terms your life is yours to life, so in my opinion you therefore have Free Will to the extent that you know who you are

Do you know who you are? If your answer is anything other than "no" you are simply lying to yourself. Nobody knows.

[Ghost_Rider_1970]

Originally Posted by Ahriman

Do you know who you are? If your answer is anything other than "no" you are simply lying to yourself. Nobody knows.

I love that we all see things the way we do, and while I see differently isn't that the beauty of philosophy?

As we only know our own truths by appreciating the truths of others

[MicroMacro]

Originally Posted by kralaro

Do we have free will?

Whose idea was it to post that question?
What made you do it?

[FallingLeaves]

Originally Posted by Ahriman

There's just one little problem with your theory......you wouldn't actually go out and do those things, would you? No, you wouldn't. Or if you did, you would feel resistance. Why would you feel resistance? Because you do not have free will. If you had free will, you would be able to do literally anything and feel no resistance whatsoever. Your will is tied to your conscience, as is the case with most people. Only purely good or purely evil individuals have free will, most people don't. The fact that your actions are directed by your conscience means you do not have free will.

Spirituality is about living life? Everything is about living life. The claim that "spirituality is about living life" is true, but also redundant. Once a person realizes that spirituality and non-spirituality are the same thing, there are two directions they can go, through the head or through the heart. The head is your mind, the heart is your soul. It's a matter of which one the individual wishes to be conscious of. This is a free will decision, but beyond that decision, there is no such thing as free will, at least not in the individual's natural lifetime.

I don't agree. in my mind it is possible to have free will, then believe you don't... and the belief you don't have it is what creates the resistance that you are claiming means you have no free will.

But then of course you are right after all, you have postulated you don't have free will, then you act like you don't have free will. So you don't have free will. Snake eating its own tail.

Take it or leave it.