Does FREE WILL Really Exist? Scientific and Vedantic Views
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- čas přidán 15. 06. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Profound and practical as always, thanks Swami ji
Great explanation as it always used to be.namaste guruji
Thank you , I just love the way you explain things in such a clear, loving, and insightful way!💜
Wow!! Amazing.
Very Very Deep and transcendental explanation!
Thank you so much for this video.
I just discovered you in CZcamsd. Thank you for an excellent lesson. Om shanti Om.
Really interesting and very helpful in understanding. Very well presented.
Swmiji this gave clarity like water ... on free will.
Thank you very much....
what’re such wisdom , thank you, this is my favourite channel
Thank you, Swami. Your explanation was so helpful. Very clear and precise as always.
This us excellent. Brilliantly explained.
This is a question which has been debated over and over again. I feel you explained free will beautifully. Thank you 🙏
Thank you swami 🙏
Your explanation is very clarifying 🌟
उत्तमं|नमस्कार स्वामीजी| धन्यवाद|
Thanks for answering the question, Swamiji. Very insightful.
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!
What a wonderful teacher !
thank you swamiji, om namah Shivaya
Thank you very much. My teacher, Jorge Luis Jauregui, send you hugs.
Swami ji is good teacher.
Amazing sir!
Excellent
One of the clearest explanations I have heard on Free will....Thank You
I love your explanation and channel thank you
Shanti, shanti, shanti 🙏
Just found this channel - I subscribed 🙏🙌🏽
Thank you swamiji🙏
desire exists. people seem to be controlled by desire.
Of all the views i have ever heard this is the most balanced one
Wery well explained
That hit the spot.
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.
I really liked this answer
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!
I hope so. Otherwise we seem to be letting everyone off the hook for their actions and behavior no matter what they do.
Sir, you are always wonderful 🙏
Wonderful 🙏💓🕉🌻
BEAUTIFUL 🌹
Aum shanti shanti shanti Aumॐ
Jai ho
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"
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.
It is my understanding, that life‘s highest goal is not enlightenment, but liberation.
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.
karma means cause and effect, undeniably deterministic
when realization has been accidental, persistence developed as a consequence
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)
Choosey Choosers Chose Choice!
If nothing exist independently, how can the choices i make not depend on what i experienced?
@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].
I can claim my free will to follow Guds will and guidence 😊
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.
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!
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.
I think its a matrix of influences and intersections of deterministic factors, random chance, and free will all jostling against each other.
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?
Perhaps, but in a concept of muliple universes, multiple mes' are doing the same thing differently, etc etc?
(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)
First we need to expose the roots of our own behaviors.
Free-will will emerge out of it naturally...🙏
where is the self, that has or doesnt have free 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. 😁🙏
Please make a video on Pineal Gland Activation
.. freedom from 'freedom' .. Is the real freedom ..*..
____________________________
No religion or philosophy can have a good answer to this question.
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.
🤘🙏
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.
“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.
Om
🕉🕉🕉🙏
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.
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.
I still want to know how was he trained in his epistemology that he sees all the subtleties.
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
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
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.
yes or no please ... do we have free will ?
Vedanta teaches that ultimately free will and also karma does not exist.
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
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
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🙏
Who are the ghost? Do they have subtle body? Do subtle body also died like annamay kosha?
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)
@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..
🙏🙏🙏
What about miracles? God intervening even contrary to the natural laws?
Free will cannot exist because nothing is outside the causal chain. But teachers are afraid of telling because they fear people will behave badly and stop feeling responsible.
Replace the words "afraid of" with "wise in not", and then "fear" with "know".
I have free will when I do good things. I have no free will when I'm making horrible mistakes.
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 😂
if i ever decided to kill some one my inner me my true will the true me would think it is very wrong. but in anger or desire the true will can be overided.even tho deep inside lots of times i have known it to be wrong i have still done bad things.over the years my control has got better .but i still get angry .in my anger my true self in the background says dont say it or think it .it will upset some one even as i speak my words of anger the real me in the background knows it to be wrong.but ego can get the better of most humans.
A cow tied to a rope can move around freely as far as the length of the rope is there. More than that the cow cannot move around. The same way a human being can use his free will to a certain limit only. Not more than that.
Karma is perfect......