Good morning, everyone.
I was talking to a friend today at lunch here in Tiruvannamalai,
and he’s someone who’s been here in Tiru for many years and has been on a couple of my intensives recently.
He requested that on my upcoming intensive, if I would speak a little bit about this idea of free will versus determinism.
The inquiry into doership and free will and choice and all of that stuff is a very
big part of my work, as some people that have worked with me know.
But I haven’t really spoken much about its apparent opposite, which would be predetermination.
You know, if there’s no free will, then that must mean that there’s predetermination.
Something along that line.
So today, I thought I would get into this a little bit, touch on this topic.
And I will be going into it in much more depth on the intensive coming up, of course.
Probably two days we’ll be going into this topic of free will.
So one question that immediately comes to mind when the idea that if there’s no free will, there must be predetermination rises would be, why do we need one or the other?
To come to find out that there is no free will,
no chooser, no doer, no decisions,
and all of that kind of thing,
why does that have to then be replaced by the idea,
well then, there must be predetermination if there’s no free will?
I would say that that’s because
we, and by we I mean the personal ego,
but just to speak ordinary language,
we have an inherent need of the security of the known to know something.
To be really in the unknown is not a place that we are accustomed to or feel
necessarily comfortable in.
Therefore, if we come to find out through the inquiry work that we do together that in fact there is no such thing as free will or doership or choice,
simply because of the fact that the one who believes that they have those
attributes is not…
is only an imagination.
It’s not actual.
So when it’s seen by you, pure knowing.
that the one who believes it has this agency is only an idea,
and if it’s clearly seen, then the whole idea of free will goes out the window, doesn’t it?
Because in that case, who is here to have the free will?
The answer is no one.
The apparent one, ego, is part and parcel with the idea of free will.
So when that idea of free will goes, the one who has the free will goes as well.
Therefore, it’s not a question of, do I have free will or not?
It’s a question, is there one here who has free will?
So now when this is seen,
this one idea that believes it has free will will maybe then recognize that its
days are numbered, so to speak.
Because for ego to survive, it needs something.
It needs something to cling on to.
Like, I have free will.
If it has nothing, ego in itself is nothing.
It needs another attribute.
I have a name.
I have a form.
I have free will.
I have preferences.
I have choices.
If it’s realized that all of that stuff is an illusion,
then ego itself has nothing to hold on to,
nothing to stand.
And therefore it goes.
And why?
Again, because the idea “I am Sal” is part and parcel with the ego itself.
The one that has free will and the idea of free will itself are the same thing.
There are not two.
There’s not one who believes they have free will.
The idea of free will is the ego.
And when that idea goes, ego goes.
Therefore, in this case, then there is nothing.
And that nothing is not necessarily for human beings,
that unknown, free from the known, is not necessarily a comfortable place,
because ego is not accustomed to not being in charge and control and in knowing.
And if there’s nothing to know also, then there’s no need for ego any longer.
Ego is also gone.
And so, ego will say, if there’s no free will, that means there must be predeterminism.
And then ego goes, “whew, okay, good, okay, I can accept there’s no free will.
But there’s predeterminism,
which means I still know something.”
Which means I still have validity.
So, what happens then?
if the idea of predetermination is also gone,
then ego has nothing to grasp to keep itself alive,
does it?
Again, ego only can survive with another thing that it grasps on to.
I have free will, or there is predetermination.
These things that,
these add-ons is what keeps ego supposedly,
and there’s not really ego anyway,
but supposedly alive.
So, predetermination then,
first of all the idea of predetermination implies in the word pre,
something came previous to,
that it came from somewhere else in time.
But the real recognition of freedom
the real powerful and profound recognition of freedom reveals that in fact all
there is is this moment now.
There is nothing else.
There is nothing else.
Time is a mental construct.
And if it’s really seen that
what I’m saying now, that means that nothing ever came from anywhere.
There only is now what is, period, with nothing behind the curtain.
That’s a very stark realization and something ego does not like.
Because another thing that ego grasps on to for its existence is the concept of time.
I exist.
I came from somewhere.
I’m going somewhere.
I have a story, a past.
This is who I am.
in a really clear seeing of the actual truth that all there is is this moment,
there is nothing else.
There is no place for ego to stand in that, if it’s a very clear seeing.
Therefore, the idea of predetermination as an alternative to free will
loses its veracity.
And of course, we go much more into this doership on the intensive.
Because we have to really look in our own laboratory here in a very direct and
ordinary way to actually find out if we have ever actually created anything about who we are in any way, anything.
Once we see that in our own laboratory,
then the belief in free will and agency and all of that,
it just goes.
That’s it.
It’s just now known.
So now what I’m saying is once that goes,
we don’t need to pick up another concept called predetermination as some kind of solace that yes, don’t worry, I, ego still exists.
Can we really just be unknown?
As the great J. Krishnamurti’s book title suggests, Freedom From the Known.
This is what I’m speaking about.
The known is the idea, belief that I’m the doer.
That’s known, that’s a concept, it’s the known.
The known is also the belief or the concept or the idea that there’s predetermination.
That’s also an idea.
That’s also the known.
Freedom from the known means not having either of those beliefs.
Nothing.
Just reconciled.
This is it now.
This moment.
So yeah, we’ll be going into this much more in my intensive
And yeah, you can find out about that if you’d like on my website.
But anyway, I wanted to talk about that today because a good friend brought it up at lunch.
And it’s definitely something that’s going to be a big topic on the intensive.
Good to be with you.
I’ll be back again tomorrow.
Peace.
Videos and Audios for the India Intensive HERE
Get full access to Salvadore Poe - Liberation IS at salvadorepoe.substack.com/subscribe
