Guest guest Posted July 15, 2005 Report Share Posted July 15, 2005 Namaste All, It is evident by the posts that Advaita is difficult to understand even intellectually. We still think we are inside driving ourselves-- the Ego. In the first place 'it' never happened but lets give creation some validity for arguments sake. Its real whilst your in it--to paraphrase Sankara. Firstly there is no time, even in science it is relative. Consequently everything, uncluding lives must be happening at once. So 'Freewill' can only be an illusion. On the other hand one can allocate some validity to the idea of 'Free Choice', this being a little different. Why? because it is disassociated from the action by attitude----good response or bad response to karmic events. So in each life every little thing is predetermined, for there is no time. The mind is above the concept of time and can travel without the bounds of it. So one can make a choice to suffer, enjoy or to learn. So depending on what one's attitude is to the prarabda one either repeats it in a future life or it is accomplished and lesson learned and balanced. As I have mentioned before lives are like a cartwheel with consciousness at the hub and each spoke a life. All that is happening is we are concentrating on one spoke at a time, but the other spokes are there at the same time. Occasionally there are 'bleed-throughs' from another life or spoke, usually triggered by a common or similar samskara or vasana. So if we accept prarabda as a fact we have to understand the seeming difference between 'Free Will' and 'Free Choice' and not confuse them. Freewill is not divorced from the action, Freechoice is our attitude and this seems to be variable, it can agree or disagree with the action, but the action will happen anyway for we are not the 'doer'. Thereby hangs the crux of the problem, thinking we are the doer therefore we must have freewill. We can only affect our 'future lives' not the one we are in. But as there is no time this all happens at once....Freewill and Freechoice should not be confused, one is connected with action more and the other, so to speak is connected with attitude.......ONS...Tony. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 15, 2005 Report Share Posted July 15, 2005 advaitajnana , " Tony OClery " <aoclery> wrote: > Namaste All, > > It is evident by the posts that Advaita is difficult to understand > even intellectually. We still think we are inside driving ourselves-- > the Ego. > > In the first place 'it' never happened but lets give creation some > validity for arguments sake. Its real whilst your in it--to > paraphrase Sankara. > > Firstly there is no time, even in science it is relative. > Consequently everything, uncluding lives must be happening at once. > So 'Freewill' can only be an illusion. On the other hand one can > allocate some validity to the idea of 'Free Choice', this being a > little different. Why? because it is disassociated from the action > by attitude----good response or bad response to karmic events. > > So in each life every little thing is predetermined, for there is no > time. The mind is above the concept of time and can travel without > the bounds of it. So one can make a choice to suffer, enjoy or to > learn. So depending on what one's attitude is to the prarabda one > either repeats it in a future life or it is accomplished and lesson > learned and balanced. > > As I have mentioned before lives are like a cartwheel with > consciousness at the hub and each spoke a life. All that is > happening is we are concentrating on one spoke at a time, but the > other spokes are there at the same time. Occasionally there > are 'bleed-throughs' from another life or spoke, usually triggered > by a common or similar samskara or vasana. > > So if we accept prarabda as a fact we have to understand the seeming > difference between 'Free Will' and 'Free Choice' and not confuse > them. Freewill is not divorced from the action, Freechoice is our > attitude and this seems to be variable, it can agree or disagree > with the action, but the action will happen anyway for we are not > the 'doer'. Thereby hangs the crux of the problem, thinking we are > the doer therefore we must have freewill. > > We can only affect our 'future lives' not the one we are in. But as > there is no time this all happens at once....Freewill and Freechoice > should not be confused, one is connected with action more and the > other, so to speak is connected with attitude.......ONS...Tony. In advaitin , Sanjay Srivastava > > An off-shoot of this discussion leads to the famous debate between > Einstein and Bohr. Einstein asserted that God does not play dice. His > assertions were challenged by Quantum theorists that God indeed plays > dice-- at least on the sub-atomic level. I may be wrong but I think, > it is the latter view that is generally accepted nowadays. Namaste s,IMHO, Einstein's quote about 'God' not playing dice is true in as much as subtle prarabda goes. However in the sub atomic quantum level, or even chaos if you like, it is all at a less subtle level than mind and involves the movement of waves and particles/waves in the action reaction modes. So It depends on whether you are on the road or the mountain looking at at the road. The man on the mountain can see more and visualise a future. Once the gunas have been disturbed it is by their own intereaction that things are formed. So in that way it is like dice, at that level.................ONS...Tony. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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