02-07-2022, 12:56 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-07-2022, 01:01 PM by Brandon Gwinn.)
I'd really love to have L/L Research ask Q'uo about a comprehensive expanded explanation of Free-will in relation to time, from the ultimate absolute perspective down step by step to the purely personal subjective experience of both a Self-realized being and an ego lost in the illusion of separation and duality. Even if they respond with a simple one-liner, I'd love to hear what they have to say in response to this line of questioning. I know Ra said Free Will is the 1st distortion, suggesting that even it is an illusion, but again, any sort of explanation of cosmic development from a linear perspective of time has to be ultimately meaningless because ultimately there is no time, only unity. So what's what or is this question flawed before it even starts because it seeks an intellectual understanding outside the reality which can only be embodied?
I haven't even started yet. Lol. These are the thoughts I've been weighing:
There is no Doer except the infinite energy of the infinite Mystery and Intelligence of God. Can a single domino claim to be the cause of anything when it is only part of an endless chain? We simply follow the will of the Mystery and it is this Mystery which moves us and moves through All.
Does this deny free-will? Our will is an extension of God's will which is simply the natural course of development from the beginning of time according to the infinite intelligence of the Mystery. The path anyone or anything takes is a natural development. Our will is not separate from the collective. We get so caught up over the question of free-will because we're trying to attach it to the egoic idea of a separate self which doesn't even exist within the ultimate and only reality of unity. What does free-will even mean? I've come to realize we've lost the real meaning of will by confusing it with desire. Free-will simply means what WILL freely happen which takes into account our desires. You can't "will" something to happen. What Will be Will be. You can only desire it knowing that what Will happen is influenced by your desires, but even your desires appear and happen freely and naturally and are shaped and influenced by collective Life. Even our thought processes which help shape our desires are influenced by innumerable previous thoughts including a constant flood of outside cues and suggestions. When you go into meditation, you don't choose to start thinking again. It just happens, and the process of letting go and returning to the meditative state isn't something you stand apart from all creation to choose by some separate prime volition, it's simply you freely following a desire that's been shaped in you most likely from repeated negative experiences with stress that steered you into learning meditation.
Does all this take away from the validity, reality, or meaning of our path or experiences? It may feel like it at first from an egoic perspective, but even though life is basically automatic, we still experience the sense of free choice as our minds weigh alternate paths and settle on what we're more aligned with, and this experience is meaningful as it moves us and involves us emotionally where emotions are life- energy in motion. When we "choose" or settle on what's more in alignment with our being, we experience resonance which is felt emotionally as joy, peace, loving light, and so on. Our choices, though automatic, are always in alignment with what we desire. Also note that just because life is automatic doesn't mean you just lay down, quit everything, and expect life to take care of itself. Life requires our participation, and I think you'll find that it is our desire to remain engaged with the processes of Life because we find them quite enjoyable.
And about The Mystery: Why is it that it's a mystery? Is it because it existed before and outside of consciousness itself (from an illusory linear perspective), and therefore existed unconsciously with roots in nothingness without cause or reason for existence? Because it had no beginning or end from which to grasp it with understanding and could only be embodied? Because as soon as God Was, the Mystery of Intelligence and Order was there with It to guide Him/Her/It? (Lol. We need better gender neutral pronouns). How do we know it even exists or ever existed? Because we exist. Because of the phenomenon of subjective conscious experience which none of us can deny. Life follows patterns. Cosmos means Order. We can logically backtrack these orders of pattern to the very beginning, to the beginning of unified infinite consciousness or God (who could also be thought to exist eternally with the Mystery as the Mystery outside of conscious time, just asleep within unconsciousness). Where did these patterns, this Intelligence, come from? What brought consciousness itself into being? That's the Mystery. How? Why? It's all part of the Mystery. Through God, the Mystery is made manifest and comes to know itself as it develops through time, but since it is infinite, it's forever a mystery, and yet since time is ultimately one and eternal, it is eternally known- yet another paradox/mystery.
So if the Infinite Mystery has come to know itself through God, then is it still a mystery to Him? Can the One Infinite Creator understand the totality of its own mystery in any meaningful way, or does He/She phase back into unconsciousness at the moment of infinite consciousness/realization due to its infinite nature not being able to be contained? I think its still a mystery at least for the individualized portions of God (souls) who are isolated from this ultimate knowledge and thrown into confusion in order for God/them to gain personal experience through their journey back to wholeness. They are made as mysteries unto themselves waiting to be discovered and created.
And again though, all this is basically meaningless, because there is no time. Time is an illusion created when we project outside ourselves in order to observe our own experience (something I've been doing for the entire duration of journaling this contemplation. Lol). Experience itself is timeless. In the moment there is no time. When we're one with ourselves and our being, there is no time. There's no words for it. It simply Is.
Yet without observation, experience is not served. Round and round we go. Trying to understand it instead of being it. Yet this process is all part of being. The key again must be unity. There is no observing experiencer experiencing experience. There is simply sum total Experience.
I haven't even started yet. Lol. These are the thoughts I've been weighing:
There is no Doer except the infinite energy of the infinite Mystery and Intelligence of God. Can a single domino claim to be the cause of anything when it is only part of an endless chain? We simply follow the will of the Mystery and it is this Mystery which moves us and moves through All.
Does this deny free-will? Our will is an extension of God's will which is simply the natural course of development from the beginning of time according to the infinite intelligence of the Mystery. The path anyone or anything takes is a natural development. Our will is not separate from the collective. We get so caught up over the question of free-will because we're trying to attach it to the egoic idea of a separate self which doesn't even exist within the ultimate and only reality of unity. What does free-will even mean? I've come to realize we've lost the real meaning of will by confusing it with desire. Free-will simply means what WILL freely happen which takes into account our desires. You can't "will" something to happen. What Will be Will be. You can only desire it knowing that what Will happen is influenced by your desires, but even your desires appear and happen freely and naturally and are shaped and influenced by collective Life. Even our thought processes which help shape our desires are influenced by innumerable previous thoughts including a constant flood of outside cues and suggestions. When you go into meditation, you don't choose to start thinking again. It just happens, and the process of letting go and returning to the meditative state isn't something you stand apart from all creation to choose by some separate prime volition, it's simply you freely following a desire that's been shaped in you most likely from repeated negative experiences with stress that steered you into learning meditation.
Does all this take away from the validity, reality, or meaning of our path or experiences? It may feel like it at first from an egoic perspective, but even though life is basically automatic, we still experience the sense of free choice as our minds weigh alternate paths and settle on what we're more aligned with, and this experience is meaningful as it moves us and involves us emotionally where emotions are life- energy in motion. When we "choose" or settle on what's more in alignment with our being, we experience resonance which is felt emotionally as joy, peace, loving light, and so on. Our choices, though automatic, are always in alignment with what we desire. Also note that just because life is automatic doesn't mean you just lay down, quit everything, and expect life to take care of itself. Life requires our participation, and I think you'll find that it is our desire to remain engaged with the processes of Life because we find them quite enjoyable.
And about The Mystery: Why is it that it's a mystery? Is it because it existed before and outside of consciousness itself (from an illusory linear perspective), and therefore existed unconsciously with roots in nothingness without cause or reason for existence? Because it had no beginning or end from which to grasp it with understanding and could only be embodied? Because as soon as God Was, the Mystery of Intelligence and Order was there with It to guide Him/Her/It? (Lol. We need better gender neutral pronouns). How do we know it even exists or ever existed? Because we exist. Because of the phenomenon of subjective conscious experience which none of us can deny. Life follows patterns. Cosmos means Order. We can logically backtrack these orders of pattern to the very beginning, to the beginning of unified infinite consciousness or God (who could also be thought to exist eternally with the Mystery as the Mystery outside of conscious time, just asleep within unconsciousness). Where did these patterns, this Intelligence, come from? What brought consciousness itself into being? That's the Mystery. How? Why? It's all part of the Mystery. Through God, the Mystery is made manifest and comes to know itself as it develops through time, but since it is infinite, it's forever a mystery, and yet since time is ultimately one and eternal, it is eternally known- yet another paradox/mystery.
So if the Infinite Mystery has come to know itself through God, then is it still a mystery to Him? Can the One Infinite Creator understand the totality of its own mystery in any meaningful way, or does He/She phase back into unconsciousness at the moment of infinite consciousness/realization due to its infinite nature not being able to be contained? I think its still a mystery at least for the individualized portions of God (souls) who are isolated from this ultimate knowledge and thrown into confusion in order for God/them to gain personal experience through their journey back to wholeness. They are made as mysteries unto themselves waiting to be discovered and created.
And again though, all this is basically meaningless, because there is no time. Time is an illusion created when we project outside ourselves in order to observe our own experience (something I've been doing for the entire duration of journaling this contemplation. Lol). Experience itself is timeless. In the moment there is no time. When we're one with ourselves and our being, there is no time. There's no words for it. It simply Is.
Yet without observation, experience is not served. Round and round we go. Trying to understand it instead of being it. Yet this process is all part of being. The key again must be unity. There is no observing experiencer experiencing experience. There is simply sum total Experience.