Free Will (The nature of a \'Creator\')

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Sunday, September 12, 2010, 13:53 (5185 days ago) @ romansh

Romansh,
> Xeno
> So you think you cannot have an unconscious will?
> Are all your "wills" conscious ones?-Think about that. How could an unconscious will be "free will?" It is exactly this question that makes ME question how much free will I as a person actually have. -The simplest form of Zen has you sitting still and simply recognizing thoughts. The visual model is that you are a mountain, and the thoughts are clouds passing you by. You aren't to stop the thought, only recognize it and do your best to return to the state of observation. This simple exercise underlines probably 80% of Zen philosophy, and you'd be amazed at how much our brains "chatter." It takes some time, but gradually you can come to the point where the brain slowly stops chattering so much. Its like dialing out the noise. Before I take an exam--this is exactly the process I do in the hour or so leading up to it. -I told you that to tell you this:
To what extent can an unconscious will operate in this scenario? At best it can fire clouds past the mountain, but only the mountain is the final arbiter. Think of why your body shuts down motor action while you sleep: because it knows that the unconscious will is dangerous. Everyone from Hindus, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Freud, and Jung all have guarding philosophies against those functions that seem to be unconscious. -[EDIT]I must also deliberately point out that in the practice of Zen mediation, there is a clear distinction being made; the observer realizes that he CAN stop the thoughts, he isn't to do so. This exercise so firmly ties together consciousness and free will that I do not see how you could possibly separate them. -I hope this better answers my distinction and my insistence that free will must be defined as having consciousness.-[EDITED]

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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"