the non-reality of free will

[Jonathan Bricklin]

Ravi writes:


> Related to  this topic on Mon, 21 Apr 1997 shriimati Savithri Devaraj
> wrote [1]
>
> " Last year, i was attending a workshop on Bhagavad Gita in Arsha
> Vidya Gurukulam, Pennsylvania by Swami Viditatmananda Saraswathi.  The
> participants asked their doubts about the role of Fate and Free Will.
> I am paraphrasing what he said.  "It is hard to draw a line between
> Fate and Free will.  It depends on who you are talking to.  But for
> guidelines, you have to assume that you have the sole responsibility
> to shape your future through Free will, but see what is past as Fate."
> This impressed me.  I thought i'll share this with you all."
>
> I personally think that this a very nice and working model. It has
> clarified my thoughts so much.

I think it is a good working model, too.  A good start, at any rate.  But
after awhile,  if it is sincerely practiced, I would imagine it would start
to collapse as a model.  It does all depend on who you talk to, and the
Swami seems to be talking to, indeed helping to fashion, a strong jiva I:
"*you* have to assume, *you* have the sole responsibility to shape *your*
future.  At the same time, the Swami is removing one of the props of the
"I":  the sense of a self-created past.   But who believes that s/he can
create a future unless s/he has been creating a past?  Why not just drop
the myth of self creating altogether and let the impersonal interplay
between thoughts that gives the illusion of will shine through?
It's not that you *have* to assume an "I," the assumption *is* the "I".

The "past" and "future," agents of localization, do not need to be
emphasized anymore than they already are.  Seeing the past as fated is a
move toward delocalization.  But why emphasize the future so much?  Having
removed the illusion of an agent self from the past, why bring it back to
*face* the future?  Perhaps a next step in this "working model" might be to
turn around.  Instead of "facing" the future, walk backwards in time, not
moving forwards into the future as if we were crossing through a vast field
laid out before us.   We cannot move forwards into the future since we
cannot know what the next moment will be until *after* it has occurred.
The only way we can move into the future is backwards, with our eyes facing
the direction opposite from that toward which we are moving, seeing the
next moment only after we have passed through it, just as scenery comes to
a train passenger sitting with her or his back to the engine car.


.....
> I would like to ask those who deny the
> existence of freewill, how do they demonstrate it in their day-today
> life? Proof of the pudding is in tasting it!!

A fair question.  We are all salespeople on this list server, trying to
convince others to accept our way of seeing things.  For me, the
non-reality of free will is a touchstone thought that (when it arises)
helps de-localize the sense of "I".  It also helps me to give a coherent
interpretation of the great sayings of Advaitism such as Tat tvam asi.

[...]


> To maintain equanamity in the face of pleasure and pain, to be a
> witness to whatever happens and abide in brahman is a mark of belief
> in destiny. Otherwise the belief is incomplete and superficial.


Yes!  Unfortunately it is a belief more touched upon than embraced.  But
without grace, a full embrace is not possible.  Don't you think?


Jonathan Bricklin