Do we have free will? Is life a series of choices or pre-determined?
- RFoxposted 15 years ago
0I think in the primitive mind, we have free will, but in the God pattern mind, we have non what so ever. I think what we do here is so stupid, it blows my mind to see how stupid we are.
I think holding on to a primitive revelation of what God is will never lead to anything, unless you get in tune with inter unverisal reality, that we will come back, there is no end, nothing does not exist, God is nothing if that does exist.
What we are is a mass of particals fused together for no apperent reason, I think that all this talk about the Creator God, has been down graded to superficial existance, and I feel really sorry the people are still in the mind set that God is a man.
All we are are space travelers at a microscopic level that eclipsed the Universe itself. You ever heard of a space tordado?
That saying that everthing is done on Earth that it is in Heaven. Look it up, take a peak at what actually is happening in space, it will blow your mind to know, that there are weather like patterns that mimic what we think we know on Earth.
I will go as far as to say, 1+1=1, as stupid as it sounds, think about it. I wrap my mind around things like molecular structures that mimic everything we know, nuclear fusion, please,... do we really get our energy from the sun, sure, but wind doesn't happen soley because of the energy produced by the sun.
Look up Neptunes wind. Neptune is an ice ball yet wind generates at about 1000 mph, and it's energy source is not from the sun...
We are not what we think we are.
I am definitely open to the theory of parallel universes, each one spinning out from choices we have made. It is an extremely interesting topic.
And if we're talking movies or tv. Red Dwarf had a great episode based on parallel universes. Made me laugh so hard!
So my question to you now would be: If everything is predestined, then what's the point?
If you have zero control over your life why get out of bed in the morning?
I too believe our ego is our real enemy. We must remove the ego in order to progress but I believe in karma whose results are based on the choices we make.
I believe other peoples karma can have influence over our lives as well and that is why it is important who you choose to live your life with and around.
But in the end karma is generated by the choices of sentient beings.Now that's an excellent idea! I like it.
LOL You tell me - I'm still undecided on this
That's a really interesting take on it Peter. I like it.
I believe, of course, that every choice we make, even the seemingly insignificant ones alter our course through this life and many others. We are personally responsible for what happens to us.
- Graceful Guardianposted 15 years ago0
- sandra rinckposted 15 years ago0
- Graceful Guardianposted 15 years ago0
- Graceful Guardianposted 15 years ago0
- Graceful Guardianposted 15 years ago0
Yes, I have noticed that.
I believe we have free will. But I also have experienced that we don't always understand what free will means; I mean there is more going on within us at subconscious levels that we are not aware of, and so sometimes we think we are acting from free will but are not; we are acting, or reacting from positions of unknowns. and we won't have true free will until we know our unknowns.
so when I think about life being a series of choices, I believe that our choices help us follow a path toward our pre-determined "mission" (we all came with a purpose, a plan), but how we get to the "goal-to complete our mission" is a matter of free will choices, and we can accomplish it in any number of ways...but it is still our individual path, to our individual goal. (defining mission is a whole other quest! )
To me, it is also about who's will, as well. I believe in a Universal Will (God's Will) and our human will. To me, they are intended to be one and the same, eventually, if not already one. And one of the purposes of life is to understand what that means to me as an individual. I believe there is not one soul on earth that has the wills united. If they did, they would have no reason to be here. Uniting the wills, to me actually means uncovering and accepting that Oneness...learning in whatever ways are necessary to not believe there is a separation of the two wills.
unless we are acting from love, acceptance and knowing, or from a healthy self protection stance, and not from "knee-jerk", reactions, anger, pain, fear, need to control or manipulate others, etc... we are not truly acting with a free will. If our parents and other adults we learned from, did not example healthy self discipline, we are responsible to learn it for ourselves, regardless of how "unfair" if seems that we have to "clean up after" those that misguided us !Thanks Jenny
- sandra rinckposted 15 years ago0
Sometimes I think about the question of free will and think. No, we don't really have free will. I mean how free is your will if your responses and actions and thoughts are being shaped by other people?
ie: I am told that adultry is a sin...well I wonder, why the heck is it a sin?
Every response to the question has been "willed" in to my mind, if you will,(no pun intended) so I am making choices based on what other people have told me... that it is wrong, but why? So, I could freely will myself to do it anyways because I don't agree, but I will more then likely feel bad later, or live with the guilt, so why guilt from something I can't realy understand?
Or, something drops, I pick it up. I freely willed myself to pick it up, but the force of gravity made it fall.
Maybe you get what I am saying. something like that huh?
- Graceful Guardianposted 15 years ago0
But I am happy. Most of the time now I exist in a state of joy and compassion. Things that used to upset me no longer do. And when those times come when I do react in a negative way to the world around me I am able to acknowledge my choice to be in that state and can quickly let go of the pain I chose to bring upon myself.
And it is not the outer universe that causes my joy, it comes from within, from choices made by my Buddha nature.
If you choose to let go of the ego, joy and compassion naturally follow. It is a choice.
It is a choice to feel anger, sadness, loss, jealousy, frustration etc....
It does not matter what happens to you in life but how you react to those happenings that determines your level of joy or sadness.
- Graceful Guardianposted 15 years ago0
- Graceful Guardianposted 15 years ago0
- Graceful Guardianposted 15 years ago0
- Graceful Guardianposted 15 years ago0
Interdependent origination and Karma are difficult subjects to explain. Free will is not predetermined in Buddhist philosophy. In other religious doctrines it is.
Buddhists look at time in a very different way to a lot of other people. This life is just a continuation of many, many rebirths. In each of these rebirths we make choices. Now as the law of physics explains to us "each action has an equal and opposite reaction". Everything we do produces a result.
Sometimes these results are immediate and sometimes these results have to mature before we see them.
To make a blunt point, if I am allergic to peanuts and I decide to eat them I will have an immediate result to my actions.
However if I choose to have a baby it takes time to conceive and time to gestate before the result of my intention becomes real.
This is the same with karma. Sometimes our actions will produce fruit in this lifetime and sometimes it needs several lifetimes to gestate before we see a result. Sometimes choices we make in between alter that karma or neutralize the effects and it never bears fruit. Sometimes other sentient beings karma becomes intertwined with ours and we see the fruit of their choices and actions.
So even if in this lifetime we do not understand why something may be happening to us, it is not because of predetermination but because of a choice or series of choices we made in our previous rebirth or many eons ago.
To make it even more complicated. The karma we produced eons ago can be altered by choices we make in this lifetime.
Say we did something truly horrible in a previous existence and continued to make unwise choices, the negative karma that bears fruit will be extreme and horrible.
However, say after we committed the terrible act we felt guilt and remorse and began making only wise choices and created much positive karma then the impact of our negative karma will be lessened. It will not go away completely but it won't have the same extreme consequence. The negative becomes filtered by the positive.
So free will and the choice we make are extremely important. And it is not what bad things happen to you in life that matters but how you choose to deal with it that determines your future karma.
- Graceful Guardianposted 15 years ago0
- Graceful Guardianposted 15 years ago0
So like the song said,"We'll make great pets?".
- Graceful Guardianposted 15 years ago0
- sandra rinckposted 15 years ago0
The story, of Adam and Eve (my take)
God gave Adam and Eve everthing they needed, God said, don't eat this tree, Eve said Why?
God was like, what...did you... well...I will show you why.
Now we get to live with the knowledge of suffering, fear, disaster etc, until all that is and ever can be known, becomes known, and just like that, we forget it and return to the Garden.
So everything that happens happens because Eve (that bit*h lol) decided to ask why and God said, this is why. So next, just don't ask. ahahahahahahah LOL I like it
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