--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, t3rinity <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The question I would have is: Who has the free will? Very much, what > we consider ourselves to be, is just a bundle of desires impressions, > reactions etc. This is how most people define themselves. They say: > this is who I am. And why? Because I wanted it that way. Research > shows that most of what we want and think are rationalizations, and > that decisions are formed in the brain a split second before we become > aware of it! What we do, and what we say why we do something are two > separate issues! Yes. Your view / experience is very similar to mine. (As we have discussed before -- me perhaps under a different name then.) >If you call that entity, who decides for you, life or > God, No need to attribute it to God, IMO. Nor to any predestination as Bronte presents in another post. >or if it is simply the result of eternally cycling material > processes is not my point here. My point is the illusory character > of our selves. Yes, the result of action and reaction, learning, and conditioning. I can't do other than my "nature". My nature is the sum total of the above. And for the skeptics who "are in control of their lives" -- tell me one thing: do thoughts just come -- naturally, effortlessly? Or do you volitional create your thoughts through effort and control? (As per prior posts, TM checking is the great Mahavakya, IMHO.) > His belief > in a separate ego and his own decision-making. An atheist in short > believes in himself being in charge through his ratio[nal mind] > > This does not necessarily follow. I can be an atheist or agnostic and still have POV / experience of non-doership and non-predetermination (with massive degrees of freedom) -- all with no God, and no zombiness. Its all just the evolutionary culmination of the "appartus" -- mind,intellect, senses,cognitive abilities, education, culture, upbringing, learning, conditioning -- reacting to its karma. The great pin ball machine of life.
