Free will,
And I do want to be clear about this,
Free will meaning there is something independent that could choose differently.
So when we say we have free will,
And by the way free will is the ego always coming in afterwards to claim why I did something,
Right?
To rationalize it,
To give excuses.
That sense,
That sense that there's a little me,
That sense that I have free will,
As though there's something here that is outside of this interdependence and interconnectedness of this world.
That we could look and see how a plant is interconnected,
Interdependent,
There's nothing independent about a plant or a tree or the weather or the mountains or the rivers,
The oceans.
You know we can look and see how everything on this planet,
That there is nothing independent about it.
Having its own,
Each person having their own unique experience based on all of the millions and billions and conditions of different causes and conditions that have made up the life of Meredith,
That are different,
That cannot be repeated.
No one has had the exact same experiences.
I have not had the exact same experiences as Hillary.
Hillary has not had the exact same experiences as me.
Libby,
Who's on this call,
My sister,
Even though we grew up together,
Still did not have the exact same experiences,
Right?
Everyone having their own unique vantage point of this experience but interdependent and interconnected.
Everything we do is based on all of the causes and conditions that are arising in that moment and thought comes in afterwards to claim,
I did that,
I chose that.
As though we choose,
You know,
As though do we choose our likes and our dislikes?
No,
We don't choose those.
Can we choose?
Can we wake up in the morning and say,
I choose to be happy today?
And no matter what happens,
No matter if someone doesn't respond to my text,
Someone's unkind to me,
My car breaks down,
I break my leg,
No matter what happens,
I'm only going to choose to have happy thoughts and I'm going to choose that for the rest of my life.
We don't choose that because we don't know what thought is going to pop into our head next.
We don't know and even we'd say well but now we're teaching being mindful,
Beginning again,
Right?
That's a condition,
That's a condition that sometimes you remember,
Oh,
Begin again,
You come back and sometimes you don't based on the causes and conditions,
Based on how stressed you are in that moment,
Whether you had a good night's sleep,
Whether you meditated that morning or not.
Because when you got up,
You know,
Maybe your partner was sick and you weren't able to meditate,
You were sick,
Your dog was sick,
A pipe burst in the house,
Right?
All of these things,
All of these millions and billions and trillions of things and we sit here and claim that no,
I chose that.
Why you like a particular food,
You didn't choose to like a particular food.
You could say well,
I was brought up on this food,
At the time,
The first time I ever tasted this food,
It was at this really special occasion,
And I didn't like it,
I didn't like it,
I didn't like it,
I didn't like it,
I didn't like it,
The first time I ever tasted this food,
It was at this really special occasion and all of these,
Yes,
All of these conditions causing you to like a particular food.
You don't choose your likes,
You don't choose your dislikes.
And therefore,
When we understand this,
And I have a couple talks on my teacher's page about this,
About free will,
Because this is the part of spirituality that is not discussed very much.
We're talking always about the separate self and the ego,
And I think in almost every tradition,
I mean Eastern tradition at least,
We're talking about the separate self,
This being the obstacle to knowing the peace,
That you are not separate,
You are a part of this.
And then we go,
Oh yeah,
I don't want to be that ego,
I don't want to be in those thoughts of constantly going through the what if,
Maybe situations,
What do they think about me,
Worrying about whether I've been rejected,
Comparing myself to others,
Judging myself,
Judging others,
Oh yeah,
I don't like any of that,
I don't want to be that separate self.
And we intellectually will take that on and go,
Yep,
You're right,
I don't want to be that separate self.
Well the free will implies that you are somehow separate.
It's the same thing.
And yet we hold on to that.
You're not seeing reality.
If you think there is a part of you that is separate and independent,
You are not seeing reality.
And the implications for understanding this,
When we recognize that everyone is arising through their causes and conditions just as you are arising through your causes and conditions,
The beauty of it,
The connection,
The recognizing how you're,
You know,
All the conditions that brought you on this call Hillary,
Right,
That brought you to insight time or going back to all those conditions,
To this particular live class,
To this particular,
Then asking the question,
Something prompted,
And then you start writing the question out,
That then it was Angus's,
I think we were on Angus's question,
And I saw your,
I could just make out the free will and I'm like yep,
That's where I want to go on the answer.
Like you directing,
You know,
You participating in the direction of where this call is going.
I mean seeing the beauty of this,
Of how we are all arising interdependent and interconnected is amazing.
And what we let go of when we understand that,
Because all of that regret,
Right,
About what I did in the past,
The choices I've made,
The decisioning that's happened,
No decision maker,
Right,
It all goes away.
I couldn't have done anything differently.
