Free Will
Song of Liberty
We Made Our Decision
Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D.
April 23, 2022
Several religious beliefs teach us that before we appeared here, we already made our decision on the following:
(1) To be born on this Planet Earth, not in another planet, elsewhere in this vast universe of ours;
(2) To live in this time and condition surrounding us;
(3) To work as responsibly, conscientiously, and consciously as possible to whatever we are passionately doing at this very moment; and
(4) To fulfill what we already decided as to who and what we would want to be as well as what our role and mission is on this planet.
——————————
I’m not sure whether or not to believe in this pre-arranged kind of life. I have no way of verifying and experiencing this personally. Religion and science offer vague and unverifiable responses too.
Nevertheless, what I experience through life clearly points to a design. I did not plan to be what I am now. I did not plan to take up two doctoral degrees. I did not plan to be a writer, much less to publish six cosmic books.
I did not plan to lead the kind of life and lifestyle I’m living now. My career and my vocation are a result of serendipitous and synchronous events.
On the contrary, I planned so many things in the past but they never materialized. With scholarship offers behind me, I enrolled at the Ateneo de Manila University and visited the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). But some force literally directed me to the Asian Social Institute (ASI), a dilapidated building at that time, to study for my master’s degree in Economics and later my Ph.D. degree in Applied Cosmic Anthropology.
I did not plan either to take up my doctoral degree in Interdisciplinary Studies at the Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, or pursue my post-doctoral fellowship studies at Siegen University in Germany.
I ventured into business. It failed miserably. I immersed myself in politics, but everybody was just using everybody the Machiavellian way to further their political ambitions.
The means always justify the end. And although the end (whether profit or power) may be justifiable, the means were often fiercely competitive, ruthless, and violent.
In the process, I only encountered troubles and misfortunes, as if I was only collecting frustration, anger, desperation, and ill-health that kept on filing up over time. It was a ferociously stressful life that brought me every now and then to the emergency room of several hospitals here and abroad.
It was this process that I underwent through this earthly life.
What and who I am now has materialized not because it is my own design but because of an invisible force coming out of nowhere that becomes even more persistent when I ignore it, that it has to manifest itself in me as a thunderous voice.
I am … not because I define for myself the kind of person I want to be, but because of an invisible force or voice that impels me to become who I will be.
I’m certain that this inner force or voice is in each one of us. It’s just a matter of being always conscious of it from moment to moment in our daily lives.
This is not a matter of faith. It’s a matter of knowledge of who we are and how we become to be what we are today.
Who and what I become here and now and who and what I’ll become tomorrow and in the life hereafter no longer become my concern because I know how to be what I want to be, according to some cosmic design.
I have learned to discern and seize opportunities and potentialities that I “think” or “feel” will hoist me up to greater heights and pedestals from where I am at the moment.
Is this invisible force within me, the God of religion or the Energy of science? I still don’t know! For me, this is something yet to be resolved.
What I experienced out there was a Living Light filled with living entities and beings interacting and communing with each other in love, peace, and harmony.
Are We Free or Predestined?
Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. - April 23, 2022
Several religious beliefs teach us that before we appeared here, we already made our decision on the following:
(1) To be born on this Planet Earth, not in another planet, elsewhere in this vast universe of ours;
(2) To live at this time and condition surrounding us;
(3) To work as responsibly, conscientiously, and consciously as possible to whatever we are passionately doing at this very moment; and
(4) To fulfill what we already decided as to who and what we would want to be as well as what our role and mission is on this planet.
——————————
I’m not sure whether or not to believe in this pre-arranged kind of life. I have no way of verifying and experiencing this personally. Religion and science offer vague and unverifiable responses too.
Nevertheless, what I experience through life clearly points to a design. I did not plan to be what I am now. I did not plan to take up two doctoral degrees. I did not plan to be a writer, much less to publish six cosmic books.
I did not plan to lead the kind of life and lifestyle I’m living now. My career and my vocation are a result of serendipitous and synchronous events.
On the contrary, I planned so many things in the past but they never materialized. With scholarship offers behind me, I enrolled at the Ateneo de Manila University and visited the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). But some forces literally directed me to the Asian Social Institute (ASI), a dilapidated building at that time, to study my master’s degree in Economics and later my PhD decree in Applied Cosmic Anthropology.
I did not plan either to take up my doctoral degree in Interdisciplinary Studies at the Gregorian University in Rome, Italy or pursue my post doctoral fellowship studies at Siegen University in Germany.
I ventured into business. It failed miserably. I immersed myself in politics, but everybody was just using everybody, the Machiavellian way, to further their political ambitions.
The means always justify the end. And although the end (whether profit or power) may be justifiable, the means were often fiercely competitive, ruthless, and violent.
In the process, I only encountered troubles and misfortunes, as if I was only collecting frustration, anger, desperation, ill-health that kept on filing up over time. It was a ferociously stressful life that brought me every now and then to the emergency room of several hospitals here and abroad.
It was this process that I underwent through this earthly life.
What and who I am now has materialized not because it is my own design but because of an invisible force coming out of nowhere that becomes even more persistent when I ignore it, that it has to manifest itself in me as a thunderous voice.
I am … not because I define for myself the kind of person I want to be, but because of an invisible force or voice that impels me to become who I will be.
I’m certain that this inner force or voice is in each one of us. It’s just a matter of being always conscious of it from moment to moment in our daily life.
This is not a matter of faith. It’s a matter of knowledge of who we are and how we become to be what we are today.
Who and what I become here-and-now and who and what I’ll become tomorrow and in the life hereafter no longer become my concern because I know how to be what I want to be, according to some cosmic design.
I have learned to discern and seize opportunities and potentialities that I “think” or “feel” will hoist me up to greater heights and pedestals from where I am at the moment.
Is this invisible force within me, the God of religion or the Energy of science? I still don’t know! For me, this is something yet to be resolved.
What I experienced out there was a Living Light filled with living entities and beings interacting and communing with each other in love, peace, and harmony.
Freedom May Be An Illusion After All!
Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – May 22, 2021
"Damn-if-you-do" and "Damn-if-you-don't". One can be blamed or considered wrong no matter what it does today. We have to play by the rules that had been created and designed for us, whoever or whatever did it. Freedom only means how and when one does it. In the end, this can also be blissful.
a very controversial one to say the least. One has to take one or more of the three explanations below that resonates with our individual (not collective) intuition and gut-feeling.
First. It depends on who or what the judge is. If the judges are the few economic elites and their political minions, then, abiding or not abiding by their established rules have their consequent awards or sanctions, depending on one's individual choice.
Second. If the judge is the Lord of All Creation, then, aligning oneself or not with its laws and principles can also have its damning or blissful effects, depending on one's individual choice.
Third. For those who refuse to abide by the norms of the elite and who do not believe in the existence of a God, then, they have only themselves to account for their actions and to take whatever awards and sanctions they may bring.
In real life, this becomes even more complicated to apply. Can we strike a balance of the three choices? If so, then, this can become the fourth choice and the best alternative strategy at that. But what is it?
Thanks for raising the question...very valid and should be answered. But I don't have one definite answer to give you, my friend, except one for my own private self.
Everything Has Been Designed Already
September 30, 2021
The Oracle says to Neo in The Matrix film: “You’re not here to make a choice, you’ve already made the choice.” Sounds quite similar also in many religious teachings. Are we then predestined already? Don't we have the freedom of choice anymore?
Or, will you say: "I didn't make this choice to be born here at this time. I'm just a product of the chance fusion of atoms and molecules, an offshoot of Darwin's natural selection by eliminating weaker species, as well as the chance meeting of the millions of egg and sperm cells of my parents.
In any case, freedom of choice is an illusion. Your restless mind thinks you're free, but in reality you're not.
Answering the Oracle, Neo says: "I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life."
Exercising Our Free Will
Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – July 10, 2021
Our Lord God may have already set our future. Yet, we still have to work for it to happen. What is confounding is that God endowed us with a will that gives us the freedom to make choices. What's even more perplexing is that the Lord still loves us even if our choices are wrong. How we want to structure our life is left entirely to us. On our part, how shall we respond?
We have a God-given faculty and power to structure our own life. We can choose to follow our Lord or not. Each of us is free to do so.
If I choose to follow the precepts and teachings of our Lord, then, that's my choice and I'll stand by it. But being a rationale species, I must also accept the risks and consequences of my decision.
If I choose not to follow the precepts and teachings of our Lord, then, that's my choice and I'll stand by it just the same, accepting wholeheartedly the risks and consequences involved.
I'm expressing these two alternatives in a straightforward way in order to demonstrate the fact that free choice is real and it has been endowed to us by our Lord since our appearance here on Earth.
We can exercise this free choice either way and the Lord respects our decision. This freedom of choice implies acceptance to the risks and responsibilities that go with it.
The Lord more than tolerates us because it has given us built-in mechanisms and processes necessary to decide and act on what's good for us.
In my case, I know the processes and patterns of my thoughts, feelings, and actions. I can anticipate my decisions and actions even before I make the decision. Why then should I give my freedom to express myself to others who don't know me at all?
Like all of us, I always choose the one that makes me good, rather than bad. I am not certain though if my conception of what is good is the same as that of my Lord. But if I'm convinced that what I know as good is really good for me, then, that's what only matters to me.
I don't care whether my conception of what is good to me is different from that of others. I know, however, that if my conception of what is good, hurts and enslaves others, then, it's not good to me as well.
I believe that the Lord doesn't also care whether my decision is good or bad because it has endowed me already with everything necessary to decide what is good or bad for me.
I like this arrangement for this gives me the opportunity to prove my worth and value to the Lord, as a child created to its image and likeness.
Yes, the Lord has already set our future. But we have the liberty to choose how we want to arrive at it. And the nature of our choice will determine when and where we will arrive at it.
In the meantime, our Lord God will just be waiting in its abode ready to welcome us and, who knows, God will prepare a feast for each one of us, just like what the father, in the Holy Scripture, did to his prodigal son.
Nota Bene:
It's not really as easy as it is presented here. For others would say that there's no future, in the same manner that there's no past. Both don't exist except in our minds.
The past is dead already. It cannot be resurrected in a manner that it's nature and form are restored to its original.
The future is very elusive. It's always ahead of us. We can never get hold of it. There's only the present. It's the present that's making the past and future. More on this in my future posts.....
Are We Free or Predestined?
Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. - November 18, 2020
Yes, life gets more complicated and challenging if we insert our free will into the equation. Why? Because free will can also go beyond the realm of science and religion.
We possess an innate faculty to choose one thing over another. In many religious traditions, the choice goes most of the time, if not all of the time, to following their beliefs on the Author of Life. The general idea is to live life simply by following the will and intent of the Lord of Creation.
On the other hand, science says that, in many instances, our life is dictated by the behavior of the atoms and molecules inside us. We think we are conscious of something, but the brain has already done its work. It is old news to the brain, but fresh to us.
In simpler terms, before we think we made the decision, our body has already decided the course of action we take. Before we are conscious of the information we receive, the brain already finishes the work.
Yes, we do things automatically. We are automatons. Our conscious will to choose the act is already too late. Our free will becomes a mirage, an illusion, a phantasm. We think we are free when actually we are not.
In both religion and science, the course of our life has already been predetermined and predestined. The individual has no choice except to follow its beliefs.
But everybody knows this is not so.
We decide what food to eat, where to go, when to do things, when to sleep and wake up. We know what it means to be free.
Both religion and science also accept that we have a built-in free will, which we can exercise anytime and anywhere we want. Daily, life becomes a matter of making choices, even if we are unaware that we have made a choice. And the kind of life we construct for ourselves depends upon how we go about making those choices.
It’s our life we’re living and, if we are truly free, we prefer to define how we want to live it. We're not comfortable living the kind of life and lifestyle dictated to us by others.
We know we are both physical and metaphysical, both body and spirit, both conscious and unconscious, both predestined and free. But our life is not an “either-or” proposition. It’s “both-and”.
There can be no two or more identities in us. There's only one entity living in us. We are an embodied spirit, a spirit that may still be struggling to know how it is to live in a body, or a body not knowing yet what it means living with a spirit encased in it. We cannot be truly whole if we disregard one over the other.
This unity amidst duality can be achieved when the individual is conscious of this spirit-matter dichotomy. Awareness of this duality challenges us to take action so that we become one piece related to all other pieces in the universe.
This oneness in us is expressed in terms of duality only because our mind cannot grasp and comprehend what is bigger than itself. Being confined in the world of time, space and matter that are governed by their physical laws, it can only understand "what is" by knowing "what it is not".
This state of awareness enables the individual to transcend the physical realm and look at everything from a more distant and holistic perspective.
It is this transcendent state that enables us to deviate from the laws of physics and metaphysics and to realize that we are not two personalities, but one, and that the two earthly identities in us can become one after all.
We have the freedom to transcend the kind of life that science and religion are molding for us. And we have the power to construct that kind of life we want to live.
Let me end this with a quote from Walt Disney: "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."
So, let's continue to roar and roar in the media or in the street
Free Will and Determinism: Are we free, determined, or both?
October 8, 2020
Let's learn when to exercise our free will and when to leave our choices to the physical laws of nature, so life becomes less complicated, less confusing, and less stressful.
A. Everything is Determined and Predestined!
Empirical studies show that the brain executes an act several hundred milliseconds before the individual made the decision to act. The brain finishes the work half a second before the information it processes reaches our consciousness.
By the time we think we are conscious of something, the brain has already done its work. It is old news to the brain, but fresh to us.
We entered into the Cosmos with our nature, mission, role, and future already designed. Our thoughts, feelings, and actions are already determined by our atoms and molecules.
We cannot control or manipulate the Cosmos; we are simply subject to its laws and victims of its processes and dynamics. Nature consists of particles and their relations with each other, and everything can be accounted for in terms of those particles and their relations. There is simply no room for freedom of the will.
Even if the future may be uncertain, it is already fixed in every minute detail. No human decisions or actions can change the fate of a single atom. However much we may feel free, everything that we do is, completely determined. To say that we are free is a grand illusion.
B. But the Observer Effect Says Otherwise
In the observer-observed relationship, the observer influences the creation, nature, and behavior of subatomic particles by its intent, will, focus attention, and awareness.
Intention, attention, will, and awareness are not determined by the brain and that there is nothing in quantum physics that determines what they are going to be. Nevertheless, they affect what is going on inside the brain.
Consciousness, will, and focused attention are expressions of the observer’s freedom of choice. Freedom is thus a nonphysical and non-mental faculty existing beyond our four dimensional realm of space-time.
It is a metaphysical entity coming from a much higher being or entity. In terms of its effects, freedom bestows upon nature an element of creativity, an ability to bring forth that which is genuinely new in the earlier states of the Cosmos.
In effect, we can influence the formation and pattern of our atoms and molecules. Our awareness of freedom at the level of the brain and mind can only be illusory because, at this level, no conscious actions are possible at all.
C. The cosmic evolutionary process is both ascending and descending progressing in a cyclical manner
Freedom then becomes an enduring process of ascension towards higher levels and forms of existence. We can say that freedom is a continuing freeing away from the constraints of the lower levels of reality.
It is weak mainly at the physical level, but quite strong at the mental level. It is equivalent to one's liberation from the prison walls of time, space, matter, and mind.
But, at the same time, to say that we are free does not mean that we are determined or predestined. It is just saying that we are not forced to do so.
D. Freedom is about choices and so is life
Every act we perform from moment to moment is a choice, even if we are unaware that we have made a choice. Life is simply a process of making choices. The kind of life we construct for ourselves depends upon how we go about making those choices.
At the same time, we are personally responsible agents and held accountable for our actions, even though we live in a determined universe, because our actions will also have consequences on others.
Unlike animals, we can imagine the distant future and we can make choices that affect the future.
So, are we free or determined? Or, are we both free and predestined?
Again, let's learn when to exercise our free will and when to leave our choices to the physical laws of nature. If we are able to master this, only then can we truly say we are enjoying life to its fullest since we are simply going with the flow of our own current.
Only then can life become less complicated, less confusing, and less stressful.
Freedom Maybe An Illusion After All
Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – May 22, 2017
"Damn-if-you-do" and "Damn-if-you-don't". One can be blamed or considered wrong no matter what it does today. We have to play by the rules that had been created and designed for us, whoever or whatever did it. Freedom only means how and when one does it. In the end, this can also be blissful.
"Damn-if-you-do" and "Damn-if-you-don't". One can be blamed or considered wrong no matter what it does today. We have to play by the rules that had been created and designed for us, whoever or whatever did it. Freedom only means how and when one does it. In the end, this can also be blissful.
a very controversial one to say the least. One has to take one or more of the three explanations below that resonates with our individual (not collective) intuition and gut-feeling.
First. It depends on who or what the judge is. If the judges are the few economic elites and their political minions, then, abiding or not abiding by their established rules have their consequent awards or sanctions, depending on one's individual choice.
Second. If the judge is the Lord of All Creation, then, aligning oneself or not with its laws and principles can also have its damning or blissful effects, depending on one's individual choice.
Third. For those who refuse to abide by the norms of the elite and who do not believe in the existence of a God, then, they have only themselves to account for their actions and to take whatever awards and sanctions they may bring.
In real life, this becomes even more complicated to apply. Can we strike a balance of the three choices? If so, then, this can become the fourth choice and the best alternative strategy at that. But what is it?
Thanks for raising the question...very valid and should be answered. But I don't have one definite answer to give you, my friend, except one for my own private self.