Free will
#free_will
Using reductionist ideology, separating form into its components, with the aim of reassembling a “better” version of the whole you began with. Once the impetus was to build a better “world” for us to live in, now perhaps it is to nourish a better “person”. It is a realisation that our world is made up humans, and if you have people behaving badly, it affects everyone. But if people behave honourably and ethically, then all is well in the world. ^e8b068
When an individual is in balance, then the family is in balance. If the family is at peace, then the community is at peace. And if the community is satisfied, then the society is in balance. (I’ Ching)
Know thyself—for what purpose? Control! Either control yourself, or you will have to control your environment. If that is not possible, your surroundings will be controlling you—which might or might not, include others.
Is the end goal to have a select set of humans controlling our environment, excluding all the living beings, including the “other” humans—those that are not a part of the controlling clique. However, this is an extinction ideology, for one cannot control living things—only enslave them for a while. In the end, the only way to be safe is to eradicate all living beings that are able to make independent, sovereign choices, some of which might oppose another’s idea of safety and control.
G!d has granted us free choice. It does not bode well for those who wish to remove this choice from humanity. Constraining it, limiting it for the good of humanity and the proper functioning of a society, is acceptable. Removing it is not. Those who think they are in control are also imprisoned in their own need to pursue some seemingly finite goal—which is inevitably narcissistic.
To remove Free Choice is to remove Creativity—the very life that courses through us. With no creativity, there is no evolution. If you believe in Darwinism, and that evolution just happens, you are seriously deluded. For there are so many “miracles” and unexplained evolutionary events, that only a blind person—someone who has had his or her sight removed: “None so blind as those who do not want to see”— would not be able to see and appreciate.
Perhaps this reductionist philosophy suffers from the same malaise that religion suffers from. If all the discussion and practice that has emerged has not produced a more balanced and enlightened people and/or more harmony in our societies, what is the use/purpose of all that effort then? Or would it be an even worse situation if we did not have any religion, or accepted moral code?
Is there a way of measuring which would produce more fulfilled societies as opposed to which will produce more deprived ones? Perhaps moving from a static view of these objects, to their relations instead – which are dynamic – might enable a different perspective by acknowledging the inexplicable and unexpected events in the unfurling of the creativity inherent in life.
Free Choice
Free choice as a turning away
#free_will
The image from the Zohar is of G-d turning His Eyes away, showing the whites of His Eye/I, in order to allow us to be human. In this picture, He Acts like a true lover, giving you the opportunity to reject Him (or Her).
Oh the joy when you choose Her. The righteous abundance that is showered upon you. The service that is required and the awesome, miraculous tasks that are laid before you. Thank you, my Guardian. Not measured in riches of this world, but riches of another that are worth far more in this world than any jewel or other earthly artefact.
A story about angels and Free choice called “Angel Atoms”
Three conditions are necessary to create the possibility of free choice in the heart of man:
- There must be a withdrawal of the divine light and the creation of the “vacuum” that allows the existence of evil.
- It is not enough that evil exist; it must also be equipped with the illusion of worthiness and desirability. If evil were readily perceived for what it is—the suppression of light and life—there would be no true choice.
- On the other hand, an absolute vacuum would shut out all possibility for choosing life. Thus the Tzimtzum must be mitigated with a glow, however faint, of the divine light that empowers us to overcome darkness and death.
— From Matot-Masei
The ultimate act of free choice, might be the choice to deny the Creator.