Screeching Squirrels

[Jonathan Bricklin]

On Mon, 23 Mar 1998, Prasant Sharma wrote:


>what you are saying is that (if I correctly understand you) free will is
>some kind of an add-on to the "I" which can be swept away for good by
>some  arguments, with the "I" remaining albeit in some weaker form. This
>is what I disagree with.

The experience of free will can only be swept away by grace.  When I say I
don't believe in free will I am saying something akin to "I believe in
God."  This is not the same as saying I am experiencing a union with God.
On the other hand, to assert a belief in free will is to deny God's
reality, as Ramakrishna was getting at in what I quoted.

As for the perils of disbelief in free will, I think I am handicapped in my
understanding by being an American.  We have an excess of belief in free
will here, and all the excesses of belief in self that go with it.  A
weaker "I" sounds like a good start.


Jonathan Bricklin
Brickmar at earthcom.net

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"Nor ever [it] was, nor will [it] be, since now [it] is all together, one,
continuous."
Parmenides