Over the years the question of free will has been raised many times and many varying answers given. We think some of what has been said really makes very little sense. For example: From Enlightenment there is one thing everywhere therefore no duality, no choice no free will. However, this suggests that you can have a perspective from Enlightenment and a mind seated there also. This clearly is wrong. A better way of expressing this would be: since attaining Enlightenment I have had realizations that have resulted in the way I now think about ………
Questions are products of the mind which must also be the recipient of any answers. We should show humility and common sense and realize the tool we are using although very useful in most cases is completely out of its depth when it comes to the big questions. As the Hierarchy constantly remind us “you can’t possibly begin to understand, it is far too complicated.” That does not stop us continuing to question and create mental models to help satisfy our curiosities. The best we can hope for should be simple and explain the observed phenomena and be “true” from our limited perspective.
We have been told that we choose our lives, with the help of Guides, in order to learn “life’s lessons”. The reason for this is to “let go” presumably so that we can dwell more in the Spiritual Realms where the learning continues. Serving seems to go hand in hand with learning; the more we learn the more we can give. The lives we choose fit, structurally, the purpose or purposes we require for the chosen lessons during that incarnation. As with any school some students fail, others achieve their objectives whilst a few exceed all expectations.
By analogy it is like writing a play and then acting in it. Until you start playing your part and the other actors theirs, then you really don’t know how things will pan out. You might even be forced to rewrite some of the script! There are too many unknowns largely because of the numbers of people involved and their unpredictable free will. A further analogy would be a pack of normal playing cards which are used to include the jokers that act as “wild cards”. Although you can predict certain outcomes others would completely take you by surprise.
The Hierarchy added:
We are more than happy to talk to you about this matter. It is important that people meditating have some idea of this vast subject.
“Are we responsible for our mistakes or would they happen no matter what we do?”
This is a question asked frequently in one guise or another. In order to answer that we need to look at where the person is asking the question from. If it is asked from a person “locked” in the world then we need to answer it from that level. If it is asked from a person meditating and questioning “free will” then the answer would be different. It is a case of perspective.
If a person goes through their life never questioning then much unhappiness occurs. They never stop to ask this deep question that, when answered, and fully understood could alleviate much of their pain. e.g. I alone am responsible for my own actions; I have free will and therefore I can choose whatever path I wish to take……can lead to……..It’s all my fault that it happened! If only I had not chosen to do that! Who is the I talking?
Free will is a complicated issue because, as you rightly suggest humankind commonly try to understand it from their minds which obviously is limited. But from a limited perspective it can be seen that the “machinery” that works in this Universe is set in motion and does have a life of its own, in that, the wheels turn and there is a certain predictability. Night and day, the seasons, the tides etc. But have you also looked at people’s habits which they are born with. There is predictability in that also. So a person that is born into “habits” is not going to have “free will” in a sense because he is just “tick tock.”
So what about a person born with an unpredictability factor, such as yourselves. Can you say also that you don’t have free will? Here the complications start………… When a Being is deciding what body to take, what mind and emotions to take, which place to live etc. that life will take place under that person’s umbrella of predictability. In other words he will react to situations in the way he has been programmed to do with that type of body/mind/emotions etc.
However your analogy of the Joker in the pack is spot on. In every life there are “wild cards” set into the incarnation where people can, if they wish, break out of the “mould”.