It seems to me that free will is often misinterpreted. To me, what people actually think free will is is an illusion of self-control. I understand it that when I act in any way, my actions are merely reactions, that is, I can only move in relation to something that moves before me. I can never willfully make an act that has nothing to do with the past or something of the immediate past(present). Every motion I make is a response to the things that surround me.
This is not traditional free will to me. The only choice that actually occurs in life is my willingess to sense or express things, as well as the ability to allow fear into that process. Simply stated I can allow myself to be aware, I can allow myself to express, or I can allow fear into that process.
For example, if a musician were to learn a new song she would have to first listen to the music, then understand how it is to be played, and finally attempt to reproduce the sounds she had just heard. If for some reason she fears she will do that incorrectly, her fears may interfere with her learning or expression. Our free will, to me, works the same way. We have the choice to first sense, and secondly to express.(Understanding is a sensing of our senses and being so is considered sensing.) If we become fearful during any of this then our fears will lead us astray from the truth.
It might seem that by understanding some things we have the choice to choose between options. One might say, “If I can understand there is pizza or salad, then I can choose to eat either.” In reality, to me, the only options present are still reduced to sense and expression of the truth, and the amount of fear in the two. This will take some time to explain so bear with me.
Our first understandings are based upon good feelings: food, shelter, warmth, attention etc. We learn to understand what provides these things and to imitate the actions necessary to reproduce those things. Through this process we learn that it is sometimes necessary to fail the immediate feelings of good to attain a more plentiful amounts of good feelings. Now here is where the confusion sets in. Here we are faced with morality. What is the best good? This is where people become very fearful and illusioned with thier sense of self-control over good and bad.
People begin to attempt to understand things they cannot in order to achieve their own happiness and in order to flee their fears. They believe they have understood when in fact they have not. This is called ignorance. They express what it is they sense but what they begin to sense through this cycle is only their own fear of a lack of good. For example, a child, out of fear, may believe there is a monster in his room because he sees a shadow in the dark. Without verifying this information he begins to express what he senses by screaming and crying out “monster! monster!” to his parents. In actuality, however, it was only a shadow, and his expression was only a result of his sense of fear. In this manner does man create the illusion of chioces when in fact there is only truth. Again the only choice is between sensing that truth, or expressing it.
What this infers is that, if every action we impart in is an expression to some sort, then either we are expressing what we sense in reality, or we are expressing something of our sense of fears.
Through the countless mistakes of dishonesty to reality man has pushed away the truth in order to pursue his own idea of perfection out of a fear of a lack of good. Hitler is a great example. He thought he knew what was best for everyone and obviously his ideas can be understood to not be the truth. Out of fear people bite off more than they can chew and when they swallow, everyone around them pays for it.
Our only way of knowing what we sense is in fact real is by being able to reproduce, in our expression, exactly what it is we sense. In the example of the musician the only way she could know she had understood the song completely is if she were to play it exactly as she heard it. If what we produce is to our liking…if it feels good, then we begin the process again. Repeating this process, [i]correctly,[i] allows us to gain knowledge and furthermore wisdom. Once again however, I do not believe we choose between good and the bad options, we only choose to sense or express the truth as well as the amount of fear involved in that. If fear should overcome this process then our senses will be affected by it and furthermore the expression of the truth.