Dear Sundari
I have pondered on this knowledge of what I am and honestly, I cannot be clear at all that I have any free will. If the vasanas direct my attention to behave in a certain way and the gunas my disposition, even though I have done so much therapy over 40 years, which I think helps tremendously to know how my ego/jiva operates, ultimately the dance of what I do is directed probably by mostly unconscious drives dreams and instincts. When I look at this and my preferences for how I live my life, even though I know what I am I can’t be clear about what is really free will.
As with everything, free will depends on who you take yourself to be. From the point of view of Consciousness, free will is non-existent. What is there to choose from if it’s all you? From the point of view of the Creator, Isvara/Maya, free will is non-existent because the Creator is not an individual entity. From the point of all sentient beings, it is on a sliding scale from almost zero to almost infinity. From the purely human point of view, if there is even a little free will there is a lot. From the point of view of insentient matter, there is no free will. Where an individual falls on that scale, depends to a very large degree on his or her view of free will itself. Vedanta says that there is free will if you think there is an there isn’t if you don’t. People either deny free will exists or defend its existence tooth and nail.
Most people think they have more than they do and misuse it with reference to their intentions by failing to help themselves when they can. Others manage it judiciously to create dynamic, interesting lives. Some use it for good and some for evil. Some see its upside some its downside and others see both. Inquirers use it to understand the factor (Consciousness) that is beyond the human mind. Fate defines free will and free will defines fate. It is definitely a dualistic mental concept with significant emotional ramifications and is only useful depending on what you want to do with your life.
Do you want to go limp and leave everything to fate or take the bull by the horns and transform your life? Self-inquiry is about transforming the jiva’s life, not the jiva necessarily, although that does happen by default. After all, moksa is for the jiva because as the Self you have always been and will always be free. What use is Self-knowledge if the jiva is still stuck in its limited identity and unsatisfactory life? The benefits of self-inquiry don’t just ‘happen’. We need to have a burning desire for liberation and if we do not apply the teachings to our life, self-inquiry does not bear fruit. Vedanta just provides a framework, a human toolbox as it were, that allows an individual to manage his or her mind. It is up to us to use the toolbox. Isvara does not mind one way or the other and will provide the results either way.
The most important point regarding free will is that if you’re completely satisfied with your life, free will is not an issue. You know that the world is not real, have surrendered to Isvara, live according to your svadharma, and always follow situational dharma so do not create blowback karma. As the jivanmukta, free will is ultimately irrelevant because all results are good. But if you’re not satisfied with your life, you can do more than complain about it. You can change your karma to the degree that it is changeable, and you can change your attitude toward it if your attitude causes problems. Karma yoga, of course, is always the key.
G: My free will then is very small it means I may follow a deeper thread to do the work I do as a homeopath and a therapist, but I wonder even where this thought came from to do this work in the first place.
Sundari: The vasana-karma chain is beginningless and eternal. Individuals come and go but the Jiva is eternal. Did the chicken or the egg come first? The chicken idea is eternal, and the egg idea is eternal. They are out of time. There is no ‘first.’ Neither came first because from the standpoint of the cause (past karma) it is an effect and from the standpoint of the effect (future karma) it is a cause. It is an appearance generated by Maya. Before creation there was karma and after karma there is creation. If you try to figure it out, you will be stymied because the cause and the effect are one. As I said above, the same logic applies to fate and free will because of fate free will works and because of free will fate works. It is the same with every duality. Cause and effect, fate and free will, likes and dislikes, body/mind are all mithya, unreal. They are mutually dependent concepts. Each influences the other. It is also inexplicable because the minute you understand it, it becomes something else.
To examine free will in relationship to the factor beyond the human mind, your true nature as Consciousness, requires inquiring into the Isvara – jiva relationship.
Free Will and the Isvara – Jiva Relationship
You may have heard us use the terms “System 1” and “System 2” when referring to the Causal and Subtle bodies. It is derived from Daniel Kahneman’s brilliant book, Thinking, Fast and Slow. Unbeknown to Kahneman (who does not have Self-knowledge), System 1 can be applied as a code term to describe Maya in association with Consciousness appearing as Isvara, the Creator. In other words, the ‘cause’ of the world of objects, the effects, or System 2, the jiva. We can also call System 1 the Macrocosmic Causal Body or the Unconscious. It contains the ‘personal’ or microcosmic causal body (the subconscious mind). System 2 incorporates the physical body, the conscious mind with its personal subconscious, the 5 subtle and gross organs of perception, the 5 organs of action, the five prana, i.e. the Subtle Body.
The real usefulness of the terms System 1 and 2 either for the seeker of liberation or the average person (samsari) is that they help to understand why reality is not perceived the way it really is. Isvara wielding Maya (System 1) operates the dharmafield (Systems 1 and 2) in such a way that the conscious mind (System 2) is deluded. The conscious mind cannot be blamed for this because without Self-knowledge, the person is programmed by Maya to interpret experience according to its conditioning, the Causal Body, System 1. It is like wearing a blindfold but not knowing you are wearing one, you think you can see.
We can liken System 1 to an information processor, like a computer. It not only provides the raw material for an experience it is responsible for experience by setting it in motion and recording it. System 1 is astonishingly powerful and ‘thinks’ so fast that we are almost never aware of the information until after the fact, if at all. According to cognitive neuroscientists, if we had to apportion actual brain function to the two systems (which they see as the unconscious and conscious minds), System 1 has 40 million nerve impulses per second whereas System 2 has 40 nerve impulses per second. This means that System 1 is one million times more powerful … and faster … than System 2!
In contrast to System 1’s computational brilliance, System 2 has only marginal aptitude for creativity. It is a stimulus-response system, with pre-recorded responses totally predicated by System 1. This clearly demonstrates that System 1 controls all behaviour not attended to by System 2, which turns out to be just about everything that is apparently ‘happening’ in present time! For most people, System 2 or the conscious mind is so preoccupied with predictable thoughts about the past, present, and future, or whatever imaginary problem absorbs it, that it is unaware of the function of System 1. System 2 contributes about 5 percent of our cognitive activity. This means that 95 percent of our decisions, actions, emotions, and behaviour are derived from the unobserved processing of System 1, the Causal Body. This process is automatic, which is why ignorance is so hardwired, tenacious, and sneaky.
It is believed that of the 4 billion stimuli that are available to the conscious mind at any given moment, only around 2,000 of these stimuli are recorded. And which would these be? Only those stimuli that conform to the individual’s frame of reference: their conditioning. For all intents and purposes, the remaining stimuli do not exist for System 2, although they impact it in unseen ways too numerous to mention. As long as ignorance of our true nature as Consciousness, and therefore of Isvara, remains, our ‘fate’ is actually under the control of our conditioning or vasana load. This is called bondage and there is no escape from the relentless pressure of the apparent reality, of being and becoming. Hence the saying: “Life is something that happens to you while you are busy doing other things.” Or: “Man proposes, and God disposes.” System 1 is always running in the background and is the real lead in the movie of our lives, although most of us are unconscious of this fact. If we do not have Self-knowledge, we think that System 2, the conscious mind, is making decisions and running our lives.
Where it gets difficult is to effect a change in System 2, a permanent cognitive shift first needs to take place in System 1, the Causal Body. The important distinction to make here is that the effects which make the dharmafield are Isvara, but Isvara is not the effects. Isvara is the cause, not the effects. The cause does not change, it is eternal and outside of time. The effects change and affect each other, which is why we can render binding vasanas non-binding. The only way for the conscious mind, ego, or System 2 (jiva) to effect a change in System 1 is by Self-knowledge introducing a change in the intellect which brings about a change in the thoughts, feelings, and the execution of actions in System 2. This is no easy task because System 1 or ignorance is very powerful. Think of David and Goliath. System 2, David, must aim that blow to System 1, Goliath, very precisely. But it is possible, thanks to Self-knowledge.
The reason it is possible to effect change in the Causal body is that there is a two-way connection between Isvara and the jiva. Even though from a psychological perspective on the relative level or apparent reality, System 1 and 2 are so unevenly matched. The conditioning that runs System 2 can be changed in System 1 where it originates from, through repeated, appropriate action based on Self-knowledge. When it comes to deeply entrenched conditioning or vasanas, it is extremely difficult and requires constant vigilance. What this entails is every day, moment to moment asserting and re-asserting your nature as limitless Consciousness with every thought word and deed.
If no change of thought takes place in System 2, System 1 will continue running unchanged, by default. Making these changes in one’s thinking in the light of Self-knowledge is what renders binding vasanas non-binding. All true inquirers soon discover that the application of Self-knowledge is hard work and no walk in the park. It requires taking a stand in Awareness as Awareness 24/7, which is beyond both systems. Only Self-knowledge is capable of permanently removing ignorance of our true nature. The important question to ask, always is: Who is the knower of System 1 and System 2? Of course, this is Consciousness, the Self. What does it matter, then, what our apparent nature is if it is not real and ‘belongs’ to Isvara? Why bother with it? The only issue with the jiva is if there are residual vasanas causing a disturbance in the mind, in which case, nididhysana is the way to remove them.
G: Knowing I am conscious awareness means it really is in another realm and is unaffected by anything in this worldly life.
Sundari: Why not replace ‘it’ with I Am? It may not be important and perhaps just a slip up, but there seems to be some objectification of Consciousness (duality) in your statement. You are not ‘conscious’ Awareness. You are Consciousness/Awareness, which is not conscious in the way we humans use the term. Conscious implies unconscious and the Self is neither because there is only itself, Consciousness. ‘Our’ consciousness, meaning being ‘compos mentis’ and able to relate the world we live in, is possible because of the presence of Consciousness shining on the mind. Isvara associated with Maya is conscious (although it is not a jiva or person) but is not modified by ignorance/Maya (the gunas). Isvara is conscious because with the appearance of Maya, there is something for Awareness to be conscious of, i.e. objects. Consciousness is ‘prior’ to matter in the sense that matter depends on consciousness. Consciousness stands alone. It is the first ‘principle’ out of which everything arises.
How can Consciousness be in ‘another realm’ if reality is nondual? Yes, Consciousness/Awareness is in another order of reality—satya, that which is always present and unchanging. And the jiva is in ‘another’ order, that which is not always present and always changing, mithya. But because mithya is not real, is it really ‘another’ order? No, because it dissolves in the light of Consciousness/Awareness. Reality is nondual, meaning nothing other than. We use the terms satya and mithya as teaching principles to destroy the notion of duality. When you know you are Consciousness both terms fall away.
G: Probably looking back to save my parent’s marriage and help my sister none of which made any difference whatsoever to them.
Sundari: Jiva’s caught in duality who do not understand Isvara or how the Field works believe they have a duty to interfere with other people’s karma to ‘help’. But we cannot ever change another person’s karma and if we try to, we add suffering to them and ourselves. Isvara is strict about this. Doing the dharma of another is fraught with difficulty, says Krishna says to Arjuna. Sometimes it may be part of the karma stream for us to help or be helped, but we can only ever do so with karma yoga and great dispassion.
G: But the good thing is I question everything now since meeting you both. The karma yoga, the devotion to God when I get confused and the turning away from emotions seem to be making me a very happy being.
Sundari: Being happy is what it’s all about, the fruit of self-inquiry, also called perfect satisfaction. Self-knowledge is who you are and not an action, but it has great applicable use in whatever life throws at us if self-inquiry is done right. Knowing none of it is real, armed with karma yoga and guna yoga, there is nothing we do not understand and by extension, respond appropriately to. There is no karma for the Self and no mind to manage anymore because Self-knowledge automatically runs it. The jiva no longer bothers us, even if it gets confused. Who is confused? Not you. That’s moksa.
G: I feel very blessed to have this gift of life, but I still fear illness and death even though I know it is just the body. Or maybe it is just that life is so wondrous I don’t want to leave and there is so much I still want to do, like make big wildflower meadows on the farm!
Sundari: How can you fear death when you were never born? Recently someone sent me one of those many links going around at this time about the virus situation. The message from an ‘oracle’ was that ‘you are born for this time’. I replied: As the jiva, ‘my’ body appears here with a karma stream given to me by Isvara, seemingly ‘in time’. But I am not the body. I am the Self. And as the Self, I was not born for these times or any other. I am unborn born and not in time. Time belongs to the lord of Maya and is known to me. Destruction and Resurrection is the nature of Maya. They are real for you if you do not know you are Me. I am the only Oracle. There is no need for any other as all voices are mine. There is never anything to fear from what is not real.
We all love life and don’t wish to leave it because it is beautiful, but we cannot lose anything because we are the uncaused cause of everything. Death is nothing more than a phase transition that only affects the body.
G: But free will seems right now to be most questionable. I can go against my tendencies, which I am doing with my mother. I see this as me learning to try out something new, it may bear fruit or not, but I know the outcome is up to Isvara and I am not so attached rather more curious.
Sundari: I think you are confusing free will with right action, though they go together in that we have choice in how to act. It may seem like you are going against your nature, but you are doing what the dharma of the situation requires of you. Just as Arjuna had to go against his nature to fight the unjust war. Perhaps you should read that part of the Bhagavad Gita again. The situation with your mother is your Arjuna moment, so stand up and fight. It’s what is required of you and necessary for her too.
G: Much love to you, you are very special to me and thank you for keeping me in mind. I wish we can all meet up soon and not just in a virtual world, but I suspect it is a while away.
Sundari: I hope so too and look forward to that. We are all in our seemingly separate little bubbles at the moment, with the emphasis on seeming. Life is indeed interesting!
Much love Sundari
