Is there free will? We have to approach it in a simple way. Clearly, you can approach the answer to this question in a way, well… quite philosophical. This, in fact, would be impossible for me since I’m not a philosopher.
So, I couldn't approach this subject from that philosophical perspective. I would have to put it in a very basic way here, within my language.
The question before that – because the question is this: “Is there free will?” – would be: “Is free will real?” I’d ask another question before this one. I’d ask the question: are you real? This is the point!
No bird claims free will, no bird... No animal in the forest claims free will, and no fish in the sea claims free will. They don't ask that question; they don't ask it to themselves.
You have the opportunity to ask yourself… before the question “Is there free will?”, you have the opportunity to ask yourself “Who am I?” Then, the question is: are you real?
The awareness of the Reality of your existence is something that transcends the “I am real” thought. The sense of Being precedes the idea “I exist.” “I exist” is a thought, and “I am real” is a thought. “You are real” – that is a thought. However, the awareness of being is something present here and now.
A person suffering from amnesia does not doubt being. The absence of memory, of remembrance, which is the absence of thought, is not real in the sense of denying your existence; it can't do that. What is You remains as You, whether you have any memory of a story about a character who has a name, a family, a whole background… and the Reality that is you.
Thus, the question is, “Who am I?” If you solve that question if you find the real answer to that question… The point is, the real answer to that question goes beyond any story you have about yourself, about this “me,” this “I.” However, if you find this answer, it becomes very clear that Life, as It happens… It happens and there’s no “someone” in it. If there is no “someone” in it, there is no choice; there is nothing to say about choosing or not choosing, free will vs determinism.
You can have ideas about determinism, and you can have ideas about free will, but they are ideas! Life is what It is. As Life is, Life happens… It happens as the rain happens, the change of weather happens, the clouds float in the sky, as the wind happens, the trees give their flowers, and then come the fruits. Everything happens…
But I know what your question is. Your question is which type of ice cream you will choose. You believe that you are “somebody,” and in this idea of being “somebody,” there is an idea as well, a second idea: the idea that there is a choice for that “somebody.” Options come up to that “someone,” and then, after you choose, you say, “I have free will because I chose chocolate ice cream and not cream.
The point is, you haven’t chosen the thought, but you believe you’ve chosen the ice cream. The inclination of appreciation of chocolate, in that organism, you have neglected. That is present... that predisposition to enjoy chocolate ice cream and not vanilla ice cream is present, but you've neglected it. And then you say, “I chose chocolate ice cream, not vanilla cream ice cream.”
The point is that thought is also an event, and so is this predisposition to prefer chocolate ice cream. There’s no “you” in that. There is no “you” before, during, nor after that.
The sense of Consciousness is the sense of Being; it’s not the sense of being “someone.” See how interesting that is. As Presence, as Consciousness, this sense of Being, as I’ve just said, precedes remembrance and memory, precedes thought. In other words: everything that happens to this body-mind, to this mechanism, is as it happens in the whole Existence – it’s an event without the control of “someone.”
The rain falls, the snow comes; the temperature of the environment changes, winter, summer, spring comes... Life happens as It is! So, the body also happens, and thought happens, and the predisposition to enjoy chocolate ice cream, for that organism, for that mechanism, also happens. There is no “someone"!
But our belief, since childhood, since we were called, for the first time, by name... this sense of identification with the name and that body, left a mark, an impression on the brain, a recording. From that moment on, we start to believe that we are that “entity,” that “person,” and that we have that “name,” and that’s ‘us’.” That’s just the body!
It’s this body that has the name, a story, it’s this body that likes chocolate ice cream. This predisposition is in the brain, in the machine. That choice happens, there’s no “someone” to make that choice. Thought happens, there’s no “someone” to produce the thought. The appreciation of chocolate ice cream happens, but there’s no “someone.”
Take that example and extend it to different aspects of your life. Everything only happened so far in your life and will keep on happening in your life. The question you have to ask is “who am I?” and to find out if there’s an entity separate from this Life.
This is where Self-Awareness comes in. Understanding the Truth about Yourself discards the illusion of this “me,” this “I,” you believe to be. So, the Realization of your Divine Nature, your Essential Nature, which is not the body, not the mind, not the apparent experiences of choice or non-choice. That which “You” essentially are, is the answer to this question “Who am I?”
There is no free will, or free will is present, but there’s just no sense of “someone” in it – if you like it that way. There’s a choice, but there’s no “someone” within that choice; it’s just Life happening. There is determinism, but there’s just no “someone” within determinism.
We use terms like free will, determinism, choice, and no choice, always on a false basis, in the illusion that there’s “someone” within it. There isn’t! The point here is: there isn’t, there’s no such thing!
When someone calls you by name, you answer. The idea is of “someone” answering that call. The call is being answered, but there’s no “someone” answering that call.
Life is what It is, Life is what is – that’s another answer. What is life? Life is this, here and now! It’s always the sense of “someone” present, within this experience called Life, the basis of all this illusion of this false center of accomplishing, talking, listening, and doing. There’s no “someone” in it! It’s simple to observe this in yourself, just look and ask here and now, at this moment: what is the next thought? What’s the next thought you're going to have? Does anyone know it? If you don't know the next thought, how would you have the next behavior, the next action, the next decision, the next choice?
At birth, they gave you a name. This is true… No! They gave that child a name. Look at life, over all these years, and tell me what you chose that wasn’t the product or result of a set of events, incidents, accidents, and happenings… Tell me! You didn't decide to be born in the country where you were born, from the parents you were born, to have the name you have, the body you have, the color of the hair you have, the eyes you have...
When you started, as a child, to taste chocolate or vanilla ice cream, there was a predisposition of your own body to appreciate chocolate more. And, now an adult, you’ve just chosen chocolate ice cream and think you have free will because you can choose. This is present in this structure, in this mechanism, in this organism.
All these beliefs are based on illusion. Once you Understand the Truth about your own Being, something entirely new is present, which is this Vision of the Reality of this Consciousness. God, who is this Presence, this Consciousness, who is another name for this Ultimate Reality, who does everything His way, assumes this body, this mind. In the science of Yoga, and I’ve spoken this in these talks, they call This “the Awakening of Consciousness,” the Awakening of your Being, your Divine Nature, that Divine Power that takes over the body and the mind, which some people call “Kundalini.”
This Awakening of Consciousness, this Kundalini Awakening, is simply this Presence. Kundalini is synonymous with Presence, with God, with Consciousness, with Shakti – that’s what Ramana Maharshi said. This takes on the body and that is the Reality, the Reality of What You are, the Reality of your Being, the Reality of your Divine Nature.
To live within this new condition, free from the illusion of this sense of duality present in the egoic mind creating this and other illusions – the illusion of “someone” in control, “someone” doing, “someone” thinking, “someone” wanting, “someone “ not wanting to... This all disappears when you recognize yourself as Pure Consciousness, as Pure Being.
There’s only One Presence, in all this manifestation, resolving, doing, acting… Everything happens in Him, through Him, and for Him. This One Presence is the one that truly has all will. This is the Unique Reality, the Reality of the Whole, of Consciousness, the Reality of God! Ok?
That ’s the point.
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