Скачать или смотреть 2021-02-18 Michael James discusses ‘free will’: what is will and do we have freedom of will?

On 18th February 2021 Michael James answers two comments that Evan Cary wrote on one of his earlier videos, ‘2021-01-14 Rene and Michael discuss will, fate and their place in Bhagavan’s teachings’:

   • 2021-01-14 Rene and Michael discuss will, ...  

In another comment on the same video someone had quoted a poor translation of a statement that Einstein wrongly attributed to Schopenhauer, namely “A man can do as he wills...... but cannot will as he wills”, in reply to which Michael wrote:

Parikshit, these words were wrongly attributed to Schopenhauer by Einstein, and both Einstein’s and Schopenhauer’s ideas in this regard are contrary to the simple and logical teachings that Bhagavan gave us about the nature of ego and its will, as I explain in https://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com... and https://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com...

Referring to this reply, Evan wrote in his first comment:

Great video Michael! Thanks for the upload. I see you’re not a fan of Schopenhauer. How about Spinoza? I find there is a lot of overlap in Spinoza’s monist outlook and advaita. Sure, Ramana did a better job at describing phenomenology, making use of a mountain of concepts his culture had generated over thousands of years, and he was of course a jnani, but considering how little access Spinoza had to eastern literature in his day, I think he produced some interesting stuff. What do you think of his Ethics? How about this quote, which is somewhat related to the falsely-attributed Schopenhauer-via-Einstein quote:

‘Again, it is not within the free power of the mind to remember or forget a thing at will. ...the decisions of the mind arise in the mind by the same necessity, as the ideas of things actually existing. ...those who believe, that they speak or keep in silence or act in any way from the free decision of their mind, but do dream with their eyes open.’

What are your thoughts? If Bhagavan said the person ‘willingly’ dropping the fan is only their destiny chosen by the Ordainer, shouldn’t speaking, keeping in silence, or acting in any way ‘from free decision of their mind’ fall into the same category?

Love to hear your take on it, if you have time!! Keep up the great uploads!!

In his second comment Evan wrote:

Also, forgive me if this seems silly, but if you consider Godel’s Incompleteness theorems, this may not be as superficial is it seems: Let’s say that I DO have free will. Ok, in that case I will that I no longer have free will. What becomes of me now? I don’t think Type-theory is going to save us from that paradox! Or has Michael James already addressed this somewhere I haven’t seen yet?

While replying to these comments, Michael discusses or refers to the following passages from Bhagavan’s teachings:

Uḷḷadu Nāṟpadu:

Verse 5: https://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com...
Verse 25: https://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com...
Verse 26: https://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com...

Upadēśa Undiyār:

Verse 2: https://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com...
Verse 8: https://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com...

Nāṉ Ār?:

Paragraph 10: https://www.happinessofbeing.com/nan_...
Paragraph 11: https://www.happinessofbeing.com/nan_...
Paragraph 13: https://www.happinessofbeing.com/nan_...
Paragraph 14: https://www.happinessofbeing.com/nan_...

The note he wrote for his mother in December 1898:

https://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com...

Guru Vācaka Kōvai:

Verse 396: https://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com...

An MP3 audio copy of this video can be listened to or downloaded from https://mediafire.com/?c9qgl26oa6jlprv