Location: Spain
I saw your fascinating interview on conscious TV. My question is on free will. I agree that we can’t control our thoughts, for example only thinking beautiful thoughts, and I understand how that points to us having no free will. My question is this: If you ask me to think of a most beautiful moment in my life, or to think of a beach, I can do it. I don’t know how long I can sustain this “beach imagery” in my mind, as the longer I try to do so the more stress will come up as my mind will naturally drift elsewhere. So would you say we have “partial free will”? It seems as though we have a muscle that can force the thoughts to go somewhere, if only for a limited period of time. Thank you very much for shedding light. Sincerely, Philip
Dear Philip,
In the example you chose, the beach imagery was not originated by your free will, but by somebody else asking you to think of it, which triggered the automatic evocation of an image in your mind. The fact that you cannot sustain the image shows that you are not in control of your thoughts, and therefore not in control of your decisions, which are thoughts.
Now, to fully answer your question, when you try to force the image of the beach to stay, this attempt originates from a decision you made: “let’s keep this image in mind!”. This decision itself is another thought, distinct from the image. Did you choose this deciding thought, or did it come to you unexpected, like the rain or a cloud in the sky?
The more we investigate this, the more convinced we become that as a separate individual, we have no free will, meaning we are not the master of our will. Our will, are decisions, like any of our thoughts, are cosmic events. It is the entire Reality that conspires and converges to locally create this thought, this decision, seemingly in this specific body-mind, just as it conspires and converges to locally and from moment to moment create, sustain and destroy this very same body mind.
Love,
francis
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