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Is it Free Will?
The question of free will versus determination is huge, of course. In the one reality, every pair of opposites is ultimately an illusion. We’ve already blurred the division between good and evil and life and death. Is free will going to turn out to be the same as determinism? A lot seems to ride on the answer. Free will is: Independence, Self-determination, Choice, Control over events, Future is open. Determinism is: Dependence on an outside will, Self determined by fate, No control over events, Choices made for you, Future is closed.
These phrases sketch in the common understanding of what’s at stake. Everything in the free will list sounds attractive. We all want to be independent; we want to wake up with hope that the future is open and full of endless possibilities. On the other hand, nothing seems attractive in the determination list. Emotionally at least, the prospect of free will has already won the argument.
And at a certain level nobody has to delve any deeper. If you and I are marionettes operated by an invisible puppeteer–call him God, fate, or karma–then the strings he’s pulling are also invisible. We have little proof that we aren’t making free choices.
There is a reason to delve deeper, however, and it centers on the word Vasana. In Sanskrit, a Vasana is an unconscious cause. It’s the software of the psyche, the driving force that makes you do something when you think you’re doing it spontaneously.
Adapted from The Book of Secrets, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2004).
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16 comments
add your comment »Give up and be free
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why is this inappropriate?
Jesus said, 'My father and I are One. You cannot come to the Father except through me". "Knock and it shall be opened unto you". What did Jesus mean? Through the Eye we are led to the One. Our eye must be open to receive the Light of Lights.
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why is this inappropriate?
We cultivate the Soul in the Christ-Consciousness, at the astral level. Sometimes people become distracted there and stay around and 'play' too long with spirits because visions can be exciting, but we can transmute this to Gold in our chosen practice: Christianity, Bhakti, Raja, Hatha, etc. etc.
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eternal life does not begin when i die nor did it begin when i was born. eternal life has always been. i am that i am and always will be life....and i spend such eternal life one day at a time. god himself said to me,"TRY ME ONE DAY AT A TIME IF YOU ARE NOT SATISFIED KILL YOUR SELF BUT YOU WILL STILL LIVE FOREVER WITH ME." mel
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People in the 'world of illusion' live in the ego realm of maya, the web of illusory reality driven by superficialities and limitations. To Know that this earth is our school where we learn to cultivate the Virtues and reject the Vices leads one step by slow step, with stumbles here and there, along the Path to God's Kingdom, and as Jesus said, "The Kingdom of God is within you". Why seek it elsewhere? Why allow maya to draw us into illusion when God/Source/Spirit continually energizes the soul and leads to Awakeness? Be in the Joy of Perfect Love. Allow each day to blossom forth with a thousand lotus petals of Beauty.
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Freedom is living in the Righteous and resisting the evil in deed and word.
It does not take our acceptance of a fact, for that fact to be true. Whether we accept that our body will die without oxygen or not, it does not change the fact that it is true. There are a multitude of axioms that are the basis of good and evil and that is a good starting point for those confused and wandering in the blurriness that has been created. This reality has been established by the Creator of this world, who is GOD. No man can change it, though he might get the illusion that he has. The only one at loss is the man who tries to change it and the people who have accepted his premise. But some people have no true intention of changing the reality, but merely fantasizing with ideas for a good profit. And there are many fooled by his merchandise. The true seekers always find the truth about what they seek. Their heart is right and not merely pretending to look. They are the overcomers, they are the true at heart, they shall find the answer, and they shall walk in true freedom.
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Blurring the division between good and evil is like a man cutting his connection to sanity. But a man will only attempt to do that, when he tries to redefine the poles of good and evil. This in itself is taking your destiny in your own hands only to find out that what you have rendered to be good and evil led you to destruction. God is the only being that supports, teaches and inspires free will. This is because He is not threatened by our free wills. He desires that we would come into the world of understanding. Understanding is defined on His principles. To ignore this reality is to embrace death and the eternal lie, which has the purpose to keep people in love with an illusion. Acknowledging the dramatic delineations between good and evil is nothing more than picking up the map of our life. It gives us purpose to fight the evil and it makes us the better for it. We tend to redefine that which is evil because we do not want to put the effort in conquering it and we let it reside with us and in us as something that must be tolerated. When we do that we have embraced the very thing that takes life away from us and creates the confusion that we try to escape. Freedom is nothing more than accepting that there is a good and an evil and deciding to conquer the evil. True freedom is when we have learned to bring ourselves under the control of that which is good and much more – that which is righteous. Freedom is living in the Righteous and resisting the evil in deed and wor
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AND, (duh), Dr. Chopra's 'The Third Jesus' as well!
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Yikes!! Diana N. is following Satan and is actually bragging about how she has been taken over by him and infected! This was such a nice sharing of Depak's teachings and then Satan jumped in....Goes to show us that we have to always keep our guard up and never just relax, for evil is always out there lurking. Thanks Dr Chopra for teaching me such lessons and making our existance just a little bit more clear.
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Ah, Paramahansa Yogananda's "Second Coming of Christ" I would recommend if we are approaching from the Christian perspective.
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