The non-reality of free will

[Allan Curry]

Jonathan Bricklin writes:

>>  And, finally, the feeling of will and effort is derivable from
>>the interplay between opposing thoughts.  All of which, I believe, can be
>>read as a gloss on 7.12 of the Bhagavad-Gita:  "And whatever states of
>>being there may be, be they harmonious, passionate, slothful--know thou
>>that they are all from Me alone.  I am not in them;  they are in Me."
>>

Chuck Hillig writes:

>
>     We need only to choose..... what we have already chosen!
>


Was it Ramana Maharshi who said that absolute surrender to God amounted to
the same thing as jnana?   But if we have no free will, what do we have to
surrender? If we have nothing to surrender, might not the moments before
and after absolute surrender be surprisingly similar?

Perhaps absolute surrender to the absolute comes along at the same time
as discovering we really didn't have anything to lose in the process?
Everything belonged to God in the first place, everything was God.
We never owned it, so how could we give it back? Perhaps the only thing we
*can* give to God is to give up the pretense of having, being, or knowing
anything at all...

If we give up halfway it can be dramatically unpleasant. If we give up
enough it can be very pleasant indeed, but whether any of this is true or
not, and how it could ever be proven is beyond me...  I'm willing to bet
there are impressive arguments and authorities on all sides of this
issue ( as there seems to be on most sides of most issues...  :-)

Personally, I'm enjoying how the universe seems to roll along without
depending on my opinion or receiving my permission. I like to watch the
passing show sometimes without complaint or even comment -- just to feel
the abscence of the "weight of the world" on my shoulders...

Namaste,

-Allan Curry