Does FREE WILL Really Exist? Scientific and Vedantic Views
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- Опубліковано 15 чер 2020
- Scientists have identified specific neurological activities associated with decision making, yet they remain unable to explain the nature and origin of consciousness, which is fundamental to all experience. Q&A with Swamiji #3
Whether or not free will exists, you experience being able to freely choose. So, from an experiential point of view, free will exists. Also, according the doctrine of karma, you are born because of past karmas which can only be accrued through the use of free will. Yet, according to the non-dual teachings of advaita Vedanta, your true nature (atma) is sat chit ananda, limitless, unchanging consciousness. That consciousness reveals the activities (vrittis) of your mind (manas, buddhi), including the activity of decision making. So, as pure consciousness, you do not have free will, yet decisions are made by your mind which enjoys free will to a limited extent.
Swami Tadatmananda is a traditionally-trained teacher of Advaita Vedanta, meditation, and Sanskrit. For more information, please see: www.arshabodha.org/
Thank you Swami. Every day I find such knowledge you share in videos. So much gratitude for your teachings.
Thank you Swami. I have always been troubled by people who seem so sure they know what God's will is.
Profound and practical as always, thanks Swami ji
If there are an "Infinity" of choices (infinity only because the number of possibilities and probabilities is so high, that it may be considered infinite), regardless of what you choose, you can only choose from what can be chosen from the infinity of possibilities. So, one can choose whatever from this infinity of choices, but , because we can't choose outside this possibilities, free will is limited.
We also can't choose outside of the possibilities because we can't "go" beyond that boundary.
Free will only possible when you are in control of your mind until then the past will govern your action and thoughts
WHO IS THIS YOU
If only we could figure out..... can explain theoretically but experience?????????
Whose past thoughts and actions? Your own right? So then the question about "in control" does not apply in the sense you are saying. What you think you are not able to control has also resulted through your own thoughts and actions.
Does the ego have free will when you control your mind or ParaBrahman? ;)
the past = your own past karmas will always govern your future - as drishta phalla . In the mix is also adrishta phalla.
One's own karma is a result of one's own free will as well as adrishta phalla.
Thank you , I just love the way you explain things in such a clear, loving, and insightful way!💜
I came to this video from a video on youtube, a scene in the Matrix after reading a comment about vedantic philosophy in the comment section. It was the first time I had heard the term so I searched 'free will vedanticism' on youtube. The thumbnail has a creepy robot looking dude that caught my eye (there was also another video that had significantly more views but I had to check the creepy robot video out for some reason) so I decided to click on this video. Then I skipped a little to get to the meat of the argument where I almost immediately hear "your decision to watch this video was not due to free will..."
I'm going to bed.
Great explanation as it always used to be.namaste guruji
Thanks for answering the question, Swamiji. Very insightful.
Wow!! Amazing.
Very Very Deep and transcendental explanation!
Thank you so much for this video.
In the Gita Krishna says 3 times that 'YOU ARE NOT THE DOER'
Prakriti yeava karmani.
CH3/V27; CH13/V29; CH14/V19 .
God realized man knows that there is no free will and that is true freedom!
Then how do u explain karma and suffering sir?
Just like ‘There is only Moksha but there is NO ONE who attains it’, similarly there is only free will but NO ONE who exercises it.
Can u elaborate what you mean by NO ONE?
Nothing to attain. You are ALREADY THAT. Problem is ignorance one has about himself to his true nature. Avidhya/ Maya!
Swmiji this gave clarity like water ... on free will.
Thank you very much....
उत्तमं|नमस्कार स्वामीजी| धन्यवाद|
thank you swamiji, om namah Shivaya
I just discovered you in UA-camd. Thank you for an excellent lesson. Om shanti Om.
what’re such wisdom , thank you, this is my favourite channel
Really interesting and very helpful in understanding. Very well presented.
Thank you swami 🙏
Your explanation is very clarifying 🌟
Thank you, Swami. Your explanation was so helpful. Very clear and precise as always.
This is a question which has been debated over and over again. I feel you explained free will beautifully. Thank you 🙏
This us excellent. Brilliantly explained.
What a wonderful teacher !
One of the clearest explanations I have heard on Free will....Thank You
Swami ji is good teacher.
I love your explanation and channel thank you
Thank you swamiji🙏
Shanti, shanti, shanti 🙏
Of all the views i have ever heard this is the most balanced one
Thank you very much. My teacher, Jorge Luis Jauregui, send you hugs.
That hit the spot.
I really liked this answer
Excellent
Sir, you are always wonderful 🙏
Jai ho
I hope so. Otherwise we seem to be letting everyone off the hook for their actions and behavior no matter what they do.
Amazing sir!
desire exists. people seem to be controlled by desire.
Swamiji ,the problem of free will isfully simplified in various ways.since long time I am searching answer .if u throw light on God existence and why does God allow evil.? Concept of maya. Karma mimansa. Idea of freedom. U r the only person who can give authentic ,precied answer.
Wonderful 🙏💓🕉🌻
Just found this channel - I subscribed 🙏🙌🏽
BEAUTIFUL 🌹
This is a useful description of compatibilism, however, science does not look for conclusive results in the sense of incontrovertible truths, which would be like looking for an end to science.
"Your Freewill is completely free only when its no longer being overpowered by intense Emotions and Desires"
Thanks for this wisdom!
This sentence clarifies all the myth, misunderstanding and confusion about the concept of "FreeWill"
Wery well explained
Thank you very much for these videos. I love this channel! It is truly intriguing though that palmistry and astrology can make very accurate predictions. How can we explain this in relation to free will? It would seem that actions driven by free will only deliver us into the hands of destiny.
Aum shanti shanti shanti Aumॐ
It is my understanding, that life‘s highest goal is not enlightenment, but liberation.
karma means cause and effect, undeniably deterministic
when realization has been accidental, persistence developed as a consequence
Swamiji, many thanks for the priceless knowledge. Is it not true that we lose our free will when we face the consequences of our Karma, Karmic accounts create situations that disturb the peace of mind.
As a philosopher I might suggest that the question of free will is an unimportant question. It has indeed been debated for thousands of years and these debates spawned thousands of pages of text yet the debate rages on with each side _clinging_ tightly to its opinion.
The Buddha often warmed his followers of the danger of becoming lost in a wilderness of views that ultimately fuel the samsaric round. Good advice!
Swamiji, thank you so much for your invaluable work!
I allow myself to quote my teacher Sri Ramana Maharshi:
Fate, or rock, is karma. Karma, like free will, is unreasonable and can therefore only affect for the unreasonable in man,
namely the body, but not for the rational being who is the lord of the body. When the realization of this unity is achieved,
karma and free will are deprived of support and spontaneously erased into dust.
Scripture scholars are not worried about whether fate or free will affects a person or his body,
but they argue that one of them dominates the other in their action. Our own approach to this issue is simple.
We freely show our will, and let karma take care of itself. The sage Vasishtha convinces Rama (in Yoga-Vasishtha)
to make continuous efforts in his sadhana, despite all the difficulties of fate. He compares karma and free will with two fighting sheep,
of which the strongest will always ultimately win. In this way, energetic efforts will overcome fate.
19. The debate about what prevails - fate or free will,
is of interest only to those who do not know the true Self (Atman),
which is the basis of fate and free will.
Those who have realized this foundation are free from both.
Tell me, will they be caught by them again? (Forty verses about Reality).
Free will /karma and karma phalans exist only in Vyavaharika / transactional world, in Paramarthika, in ABSOLUTE reality, there’s only pure existence . In Vyavaharika, all questions and no answers, in Paramarthika, all answers and no questions!
Choosey Choosers Chose Choice!
I have the same plant, Swamiji! We are all the same plant! :) "Without free will, there's no such thing as karma"- Swami Tadatmananda. (10:03)
@1:46 "I can choose to hold my hand like this....." But, one can argue, that choice or thinking about that choice itself is predetermined. No? Then, on the other hand @ 2:06 "Experience is misleading...." From that argument my experience of watching this video and perceiving whatever I perceive based on who I am intellectually and physically in time and space, that very experience can be misleading. Go figure...[Or maybe there is nothing to figure, we are just thinking too much with too much time in our hands and too much food in our bellies].
Doing happens but I am not the doer. Thoughts come to me as does inspiration. Identification happens and the fictitious I takes credit but there is no I separate from the whole.
I can claim my free will to follow Guds will and guidence 😊
I think its a matrix of influences and intersections of deterministic factors, random chance, and free will all jostling against each other.
When I ask the question - Do I have free will? , I am not talking about the Vedantic I. It is the embodied person - I. The embodied person cannot be dissociated from the person's brain. The brain decides based on its life experience. There is a latency in brain processes with the feeling of making the decision following a decision already made by the brain.
Swamiji's explanation is very clear and quite scientific. Thank you, Swamiji.
Touche'. Well said, Dude
Disembodied folks say the same thing and they don't have brains.
What you say is refuted by Michael ignor In his youtube video: the case against materialism
There’s no embodied person. As long as you THINK that you are this body mind and senses, you will have such dilemmas.
Thank you Swamiji for the rare insight if you could expand that as you said that God does not intercede on our behalf. Then what is it that makes us believe that the course of a perticular activitiy can bring desirable results due to our prayers. Or if I may say some miracles that people have experienced due to seemingly interjection of god's will. If you could explain please. Profound regards.
Consciousness is happening within itself as whatever. It is consciousness vs consciousness as far as subject and objects dualities are concerned. Consciousness is all that there is.
Om
If nothing exist independently, how can the choices i make not depend on what i experienced?
.. freedom from 'freedom' .. Is the real freedom ..*..
____________________________
YOU CAN CHOOSE A READY GUIDE IN SOME CELESTIAL VOICE, YOU CAN CHOOSE NOT TO DECIDE, YOU STILL HAVE MADE A CHOICE....
YOU CAN CHOOSE FROM PHANTOM FEARS, AND KINDNESS THAT CAN KILL, I WILL CHOOSE A PATH THAT'S CLEAR, I WILL CHOOSE FREEWILL.
🤘🙏
No religion or philosophy can have a good answer to this question.
First we need to expose the roots of our own behaviors.
Free-will will emerge out of it naturally...🙏
(The) Self* is always free but wills companionship which is why it is correctly so said that the meaning of Life is Love.
Thank you for being! (* God)
Please make a video on Pineal Gland Activation
🙏
Free will exist only in duality. Once you become enlightened then you realize that only the elements are at play and that you actually did nothing. The mind creates free will. Do you need the mind to become enlightened? Or can you be born enlightened with no mind?
In my humble opinion. It is not so much that we have free will, we are a physical vehicle for the free will of the Conscious Awareness of the Universe.
“Success or failure is your own making; you decide your own destiny; the Lord has no share in deciding it,” says Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. While the `writing on the brow’ (the handwriting on the wall) has to work itself out, Bhagavan reminds us that it is not written by any hand other than our own and assures us that the hand that wrote it can also wipe it out, free will is Gods will.
Guruji, you spoke of us as beings possessing consciousness. How can consciousness be possessed? Wouldn't that modify it and identify it as mithya?
Correct. All here is ONLY consciousness, there’s no second.
@@vish2553 Thus opens Iśavasyopanishad. 😁🙏
Perhaps, but in a concept of muliple universes, multiple mes' are doing the same thing differently, etc etc?
🙏🙏🙏
Pranam Swamiji. I like to think about it like this: Brahman is infinite, yet contains the infinite universe. The universe, being infinite, cannot but produce every variance. Just as Sri Krishna Bhagavan's Swarupa contained the infinite within finite spacetime, each form therein (being spread across spacetime) manifests in accordance with the Doctrine of Karma. Since Brahman is limitless, there is nothing It isn't. If given the option between A and B, and I pick A, A manifests from the branch following from the A/B potential. So, what of opinion B? Does it fail to exist? Certainly not. Sri Bhagavan can't be limited by only being one sidee
🕉🕉🕉🙏
Mental dispositions may influence a choice but doesn't make it. I could make a bad decision by going through a dark alley one night and get mugged and from that experience I would probably never to go through a dark alley at night again but experiences don't make decisions even through they may influence it.
where is the self, that has or doesnt have free will?
I find, from over 20 yrs of naturally observing myself, and pondering why I do this or that, that all my actions or choices are made by what I think benefits me the most. This becomes very complex, but an example would be whether or not to exercise. I know it’s good for me because of I’ve been told that, and I believe it, but my foolishness? thinks it’s more beneficial to take the “path of least resistance.” Therefore, a struggle of will ensues. I find I always chose whichever is stronger in my subconscious. If something is enjoyable, it’s so easy to follow pleasures. However, if something in me desires more strongly to fast, meditate or exercise; because of strong belief in it, it can be a more powerful persuasion to draw me to do that. I seem powerless and guilty
My description needs more careful and thoughtful work. I’m not always good with language, but I think bhagavad gita might touch on this in 9.9 O conqueror of wealth, none of these actions bind Me. I remain like a neutral observer, ever detached from these actions.
Also, bible Romans 7:23-24 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
However, through all my disappointments and failure, I found patience, understanding, acceptance, non-judgement, gentless to face myself.
Reminds me of the lotus growing in mud
10:55 "The idea that God is a supremely powerful being in heaven who can intercede on your behalf is the basis for many prayers ,but unfortunately, that notion makes God seem like an influential relative of yours who works for the government and can intercede on your behalf ."
Who is the doer of karma and experiencer?
ओउ्म
I still want to know how was he trained in his epistemology that he sees all the subtleties.
I have free will when I do good things. I have no free will when I'm making horrible mistakes.
But the contradictory fact is that how do the subconscious mind create that decision and if it is caused by prior event then where does that prior event occurs then if it is from big bang then where and why it occurs and further on it will create infinitive series which is indeterministic and hence it is proved that free will exist because a function of what you concluding that free will never exist has to pass from infinitive consequences universe nature of reality.. ( kinda type of confusing but it's also a question)
Who are the ghost? Do they have subtle body? Do subtle body also died like annamay kosha?
I don't agree that there is such a thing as free will at all. If I didn't choose to be born, and I have no control over the fact that I will die, then wherein does free will come in, in between these two events? In the final analysis, everything is predetermined.
Karma is perfect......
🚩🚩🚩🚩
yes or no please ... do we have free will ?
@9:48 But if we observe, different people may have or not have different reflexes(involuntary actions) to certain actions according to their experience. If these reflexes were given equally without free will to each individual then how come it's not same to all? So I don't think this is correct, I believe that 'all' the present actions are the result of our past thoughts and actions. It is not just that only Karma has free will . If any other opinions on this, please feel free to reply and elaborate..
Very thorough answer by Swamiji 🙏I had to watch this a few times over a few months and I'm a little more optimistic now about my understanding🤔
I believe what Swamiji is explaining is it's like Ishwara(God Personified) is like our body. We can METAPHORICALLY think of ourselves as like white blood cells. In the natural order of things, white blood cells(WBC) have one purpose (dharma), which is to fend off infections and other diseases. In Ishwara's eyes, there's no "God's Will" that will intervene for this to happen or not to happen. It is simply like the body following its natural intelligence. WBC will do WBC things regardless of let's say you decide to watch this video or not.
Now let's say METAPHORICALLY, the white blood cells (us humans) get overly emotional and end up attacking each other or other beneficial cells (adharma). Then that would be like the body having an auto-immune disease which would not benefit anyone(all cells) as it will lead to the body perishing. That would be like a MEGA BUZZKILL of a White Blood Cell.
So what Swamiji is trying to convey here is that even though we may or may not seem to be in control of our decisions, we can still do our best to manage ourselves emotionally so that we have a better likelihood of choosing Dharma rather than Adharma. And to see the bigger picture (enlightenment) of how this is all playing out for us, following Dharma over Adharma is the correct path to achieve it.
So now that leaves us the question, what do we care more about?
A: Finding out the answer if we have Free Will or not (As this is limited by what science can observe and quantify compared to Consciousness)
OR
B: Finding out "What is all this?" which can lead us to Moksha?
One thing I'm sure of though is, C: My brain hurts once again 😂
Shed some light if I'm in a knot of confusion. Early on in the talk there was the statement that there can not be karma without free will; then later on it was said that 'anger' can over power our free will. This would suggest that acts or deeds under the influence of anger is a moment when there is no free will. The wrong suggestion is that since the anger is overpowering our free will, theses acts under anger are not of our free will and so it does not produce karma. This conclusion is faulty, yes? Don't acts under the influence of anger even though our free will is (seemingly) overpowered create karma? So can we say that when anger overpowers our free will, we are still subject to karma. While our free will can be said to be overpowered by anger, we potentially have a relative free will to acknowledge the anger and relax and remember in the breath that simple presence is our identity and the anger is our responsibility (don't make this into some fault in the nature of our true self and get on the blame train). In this way we are be able to some degree to refrain from acting in the way anger is pushing and demanding us to act. One great teacher put it this way: "Identification (with name and form and the corresponding collapse of our simple presence or awareness of what is happening) engages our responsibility (potential for free will) for nothing compels us to be identified, but we fail to remember we have the choice to exercise our power of awareness and attention. We wish to remember to exercise the power to be our true nature, which, if only to a very limited extent, is present in each one of us at all times. By relaxing under so called 'negative emotions' such that we allow some receptive space to acknowledge the conditioned state of anger and allow such 'negative emotions' to untwist themselves in this open space of awareness, we don't just unwittingly add more to these unconsciousness motivators also roughly called by us 'bad karma'.
Vedanta teaches that ultimately free will and also karma does not exist.
What about miracles? God intervening even contrary to the natural laws?
Not anymore.
No. We don't have free will. We have free choice
If i had free will, my life woild look very different, and that's not necessarily only a good thing. But it doesn't change that i don't have free will, but only free choice in certain circumstances
Yes but no such thing as good or bad