Free Will?

[Jitendra Hydonus]

I find it fascinating that Paramahansaji talks of the future and past being truly inseparatable and both in reality existing simultaneously. Does this remind any of you of your ' deja vu' experiences?

This has been the subject of very interesting discussion by philosophers and physicists. Past, present and future being the same, what happens to free will in this context. I collected some opinions in the other forum. Pls remind me to paste them here, they are exceedingly interesting and the pysicists agree with the fact that past and future are immutable, written in stone but there are critical points in spacetime where we do critical decisions which alter the course of our history, so past and future are changeless but at the same time we have free will.

No doubt I have told you what brother Bhaktananda said about this. I actually thought about this subject quite a bit when I was very young and I asked the Brother once when I was standing alone with him....  if there was free will or there was determination; everything already being fixed and written and all things were already planned... pre-destination.

He stood quietly for a moment as he often did and and then answered: " there is free will and predestination. There is predestination because God already knows everything that will happen and has happened. However there is free will because we do not know what is to happen so as a result we have to act as agents of free will making choices along the way."

It seems like another one of those enigmas which the mind just cannot wrap around. There is  so much about life that cannot be 'grasped' but rather understood by an expansion of consciousness that brings such 'knowings.' Such seeming contradictions baffle the mind.

[SpiritImage]

The Gita translated by PY, Chap 2, verse 28, (can't type it all)

[mccoy]

There is undoubtely free will, since we can choose and our choices, in critical points, can influence in a very significant way our future, even as they influenced our past.

Then there is the issue of how much of our free will is really free and not influenced by karma. But, since karma has been shaped up by ourselves, that's a form of self-determination just the same.

SI, I have the GTWA volumes packed somewhere, I'll see if I can dig em up.

[Jitendra Hydonus]

There is undoubtely free will, since we can choose and our choices, in critical points, can influence in a very significant way our future, even as they influenced our past.

Then there is the issue of how much of our free will is really free and not influenced by karma. But, since karma has been shaped up by ourselves, that's a form of self-determination just the same.

SI, I have the GTWA volumes packed somewhere, I'll see if I can dig em up.

There are many places where the Guru mentioned our use of free will. i will convey one; God's highest gift to man is free will-freedom to choose Him and His wisdom or the lures of maya's satanic delusion. page 219 The Second coming of Christ.

i doubt that it hurts to mention again what Brother Bhaktananda had to say on the subject. It seems to me that until we actually make an effort on the spiritual path our lives are mostly governed by karma and we are pawns of worldly desires and events.

i was standing before Brother Bhaktananda and he had that look of quiet reflection that he often wore when i asked him. "Brother is there free will or are we all just predestined to do everything we do?" He replied: "There is free will and there is predestination. God already knows what you will do, but you do not so you must exercise free will" (end of quote) until you act according to Gods' plan for yourself and the universe.

From our (my) limited perspective of the mind it is very difficult to see just what that divine plan is that he has for us all: Thus the use of meditation to help. Once we get in that vibration of spiritual contact we are apt to make decisions that are more in line with the divine plan. Otherwise most of our decisions are based on desire and habit. When we ha e the guidance of a guru we are often given glimpses of other peoples motives and their state of consciousness becomes clearer with passing time. These are also notices along the way for us to be able to make the right decisions. Often others around us will play their cards and we are much like witnesses to the unfolding drama. Once seeing what their hands it is much easier to make our own conclusions and take the right course of action.

Like many paradoxes of the mind there is no black and white answer. When people have answers like this it always leaves me wondering. i include myself in this observation. It just doesn't seem like God made such simple answers that are black and white to such perplexing subjects. But the mind continuously seeks to find such explanations. It reminds me of Christ when standing before Pilot. Pilot said "What is truth" Jesus did not answer knowing from Pilots' perspective that he would not understand anyhow. Brother Bhaktananda also said to me: "Keep reading the SRF lessons to stay in tune with Master"

[mccoy]

In the other forum I posted soem interesting material on predestination, material written by physicists. Incredible to know, but this is not just a philosophical debate rather a scientifical one. The past is crystallized, 'written in stone' and we have no way to change it.

Is the future like that: 'written in stone'? Can we remember the future even as we remember the past? The paradox of remembering the future.

How can we exhibit free will if the future is written in stone?

[SpiritImage]

...Meditate more. ~Babaji