Do We Have Free Will?

Only those who believe they do possess it

Some people say the universe is like a clockwork machine — due to the law of cause and effect, the universe is “determined,” and there is no such thing as free will.

On the other hand, we have the people who claim that the mechanical laws of the universe don’t necessarily apply to world of spirit, and free will is a self-evident fact.

Here I’d again like to bring up the hermetic principle that opposites, viewed from a higher perspective, are really the same underlying thing, only differing in degree. Hot and cold are opposite directions on the one scale of temperature.

Likewise, what appears mechanical and determined has free will, but less of it, and doesn’t use it that much. A rock is content to stay a rock. And what appears free willing is certainly determined, to a degree. Humans who claim “I have free will!” were taught to say that — yet they make more choices than a rock.

In this article, I will explore free will as an illusion, and then free will as a truth, and why it’s important to see both at the same time.

Free Will As An Illusion

The Buddha tells us our “self” is nowhere to be found. Anything you experience isn’t you because it appears separate from the one…