Do
We Have Free Will?
It
is being suggested here that we have only one real choice in life:
To let go of fear and resistance and be taken by the flow of life,
or, to fight, screaming all the way, as the flow of life takes
us anyway.
Life
is. It moves:
The
only way we can avoid that is to die - either to our awareness
of ourselves (insanity), or physically (death).
To
let go of fear and resistance is, of course, not easy, and there
are many different approaches to life that attempt to help us
with that.
The
central confusion around this is exemplified by the two competing
views: That we have no choice whatsoever - that life is preordained,
or that almost all of life is choice - that we make good or bad
choices depending on our level of self awareness or luck.
There
is a "middle" way.
That
we do have choice, but just one:
To
recognize that we are going with the flow of life no matter what,
in the same way that a twig in a stream is taken by the water
and that to fight the water only brings pain and suffering - the
twig cannot of its own choice go back upstream.
A
wise person, seeing this, lets go and enjoys the ride - the multi-textured
roller coaster ride of life.
This
takes an extraordinary willingness to see through and let go of
the (perceived) safety of our day-to-day views of life.
Our
day-to-day life is a complex mix of trauma, fear, mistaken ideas
about life, inherited beliefs, competing "truths" about
life, and unmet childhood needs.
All
of this makes the roller coaster ride of life look like a terrifyingly
uncertain and dangerous thing.
We
deny, we hide and we fight. We do everything we can to hold onto
the sides of the roller coaster and not go on the ride - no matter
how painful and unsatisfying this is.
Free
will:
Most
of us feel that we have some form of free will, even if it's limited.
But how "free" is any action of ours if we act from
a state of mind that is unconsciously and blindly driven by pain
and fear and confusion-filled survival motivations?
In
this situation our every next action is determined by the limited
current state of our unconscious psyches, rather than the by the
all of life.
So,
the challenge is, will we make the only choice we have, and let
go of all of our self-imposed limitations so that we can immerse
ourselves in the free-flow of life?
To
become life.
This
challenge is deeply terrifying to our beings, because it means
letting go of our deep-seated need to be in control of our lives
against the pain and uncertainty.
We
need to believe that we are in control of our lives because we
feel, in our earliest unmet childhood place, that we have no control
and that's very scary.
We
need to decide for ourselves what kind of life we want to live:
Being dragged along by life, terrified (but hiding it well), kicking
and screaming,
or, to leap onto the roller coaster and glory in the ride, exhilarated
by every twist and turn, delighted by all the beautiful textures
and experiences along the way.
No
one else can do it for us. It's up to us.
Go
well.
