Free Will: The Useful Illusion

It’s been said, that the last obstacle that one must transcend is the Self.

The notion can be validated by observing the fact that truly enlightened teachers never seem to say the words ”I am enlightened”, since, having transcended the Self, there’s a recognition that the Self was never the ’doer’.
This prompts us to ask then, “Who or what has transcended the Self if not the doer?”

We generally get 2 answers for this question from enlightened teachers…
One, is that the universe is holographic/complete/unchanging…that nothing has happened….that all is as it was….and the only thing that has changed is perception of what is.
The other answer is that All happens by the Grace of God.

Basically, one does not progress in consciousness without the agreement of Divine Will. It’s impossible to step outside of reality.

Divinity is the Souce of all, and simultaneously All that is.
Pleasant experience appears to be governed more by the alignment of the individual will than by the actions of the individual will. By alignment with ‘that which is’(divinity), the automatic consequence is pleasant experience, since the illusory choices that are made are then in agreement with what the individual will desires(since it desires the desires of divine will, and divine will is that which is).

I say ‘illusory choices’ because it’s only after the fact that it becomes apparent that a descision has even been made. The ego, in that split second between what happens, and the awareness of what has happened, claims authorship of the choice.
Socrates taught ‘Man always chooses what he believes to be the good’.
Now, we ask ourselves, can we spontaneously make a conscious descision to deem something that we believe to be good, ‘bad’?
We can’t. So, every choice is merely the consequence of conditioning. No doer has made any choice.

So what is the advantage of free will? What makes it a useful illusion?
Well, the notion that we can actually decide to ‘do’ something automatically aligns us with the concept of progress/accomplishment. The notion of progress is essential, since the efficiency of progress is what inspires alterations in one’s alignment….ultimately contributing more and more toward complete alignment and surrender to Divinity…
Alignment serves karma; karma serves progress; progress serves the will of the Divine.

Caroline Myss said ”The greatest act of the will is to have no will”
It’s sort of an inevitability…though alignment with that inevitability may hasten its arrival.

-Rob