Free Will – bad Habits – Karma<br /> - Destiny
SPIRITUAL TOPICS > Free Will
Human Free Will (2)
How problematic Habits can impair our Free Will
The Consequences of an abused Will
Let us once again consider the truly striking fact that all suffering, hardship, illness, envy, hatred and everything unpleasant in this world has its origin solely in the abuse of our Free Will. For the Laws of Creation themselves bring about nothing but growth, joy, prosperity, etc., but for us, of course, only if we know them, reckon with them, fit into them and use them in a constructive sense. If we act destructively, disparagingly or even maliciously, then naturally only equally bad consequences can come of it and nothing good for us.
The question of Free Will is therefore not difficult to resolve: we have it in the cause, i.e. the decision! We cannot change the consequences themselves – or can we? But not in the sense that we can override the Law of Creation, but rather that we acknowledge the wrong we have done and strive to compensate for it with good will.
Then the consequences weaken and, ideally, are no longer felt, since the wrongdoing can be ‘symbolically’ redeemed and no longer causes pain. This, too, lies in the supreme wisdom of the Creator's Will, which does not seek to punish us but to bring us to realisation. It follows that everything we voluntarily renounce no longer needs to be painfully brought to our attention by fate – a huge opportunity for an easier and more beautiful life is right in front of us! Voluntarily fitting into the order of creation is therefore a real ‘leap forward’ that can spare us a great deal of suffering!
How bad Habits can cloud our Free Will
Let us try once again to familiarise ourselves with the fact that we have already travelled a path lasting thousands of years in various earthly lives!
If we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that even disadvantageous characteristics, i.e. tendencies or vices, which exert a great pull on us, can only ever be overcome with great effort and willpower.
And when we see how difficult it usually is for us to make the necessary changes in this life, it is not a big step to understand that characteristics that we have cultivated over long periods of time and brought with us into this life have a strong influence and can significantly impair our free decisions. The same applies, of course, to unfavourable characteristics that we have cultivated in this life for years or decades.
If, for example, a person is very quick-tempered, they will see attacks in many of the behaviours of those around them and react aggressively without thinking twice. Conversely, a person who has always put their legitimate interests aside ‘for the sake of peace’ or, to put it bluntly, out of inconsistency and cowardice, will fail in almost every situation in life that requires even a little courage. There are thousands of examples of this, and they show how undeveloped or misguided characteristics can cloud our Free Will to such an extent that we find it difficult to rediscover it. Only through awareness and sustained, serious effort can these problematic traits be steered back into harmony. However, if we start working on ourselves, our future life will very soon become noticeably better! For this, too, is the consequence of the Law of Reciprocal Action, the consequence of improved sowing!
Thus, inclinations that give our thoughts, words and actions a predictable direction also prevent the development of our Free Will until they are recognised and eliminated.
The great Misunderstanding
Many people, perhaps even the majority, assume that ‘Free Will’ means a carte blanche to do whatever they want, even things that are harmful! And they never seriously consider the obvious phenomenon that everything they think, say and do has consequences and thus strongly influences their own lives and brings about their destiny! It must be clear: if I harm the earth, nature, animals and also my fellow human beings and cause them suffering, it would be unjust if this had no consequences for me. But the majority of humanity stands before this obvious fact as if wearing blinders and only complains when the inevitable consequences of the Laws of Creation – suffering, hardship, pain, illness and death – return to the perpetrators. In other words, there is a lack of willingness to see one's own part in it!
Another major related problem is trivialisation, whereby we very often do not want to recognise harmful behaviour as such when it runs counter to our interests, according to the motto: ‘It's only a little thing, it doesn't matter!’ But in reality, it is far more than we want to admit. Whether we like it or not, many things must be handled much more strictly and consistently if anything is to change for the better. For every person who seriously strives for enlightenment, the question of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ must therefore be at the centre of all thinking, speaking and acting.
So let us beware of classifying our wrong, degrading actions according to our way of thinking as ‘personal development,’ ‘freedom,’ ‘alternative truths,’ ‘development towards diversity of life,’ ‘cutting off old ties’ and many other similar things! The Law of Creation of Reciprocal Action does not ask about our word games, euphemisms and self-deception, but evaluates everything as it really is. And if it is wrong, the consequences will hit us relentlessly and severely.
Free Will is not given to us by God so that we can live arbitrarily according to our fancies, without regard for the environment and our fellow human beings, but rather so that we can freely choose in favour of the diversity of life and the infinite possibilities of constructive action. For example, we have the freedom to choose from countless career options and decide on the profession we are passionate about, the one we deeply desire – but then we also have to work in that profession responsibly and beneficially. We also have free choice from the very beginning when it comes to choosing a partner and all other cornerstones of our lives!
This is the only thing for which we have Free Will, and we should use it in this sense!
And there can be no doubt that selfishness and recklessness, which cause suffering, can never lead to beneficial action, but only helpful and constructive interaction with one another.
Who is the person behind the mask? What about us?
Do we also wear one or more masks and play roles,
or do we live our life authentically in accordance with our nature?
Even if we allow ourselves to be driven into an undesirable life
by external forces, it is still a free decision
on our part that allows this to happen.
(AI-generated image)
Summary
1. Our will is free from its very origin! We can make decisions every second of our lives. If these decisions are constructive, in which case they correspond to the promoting effect of the Laws of Creation, they bring about an increase in knowledge, a broadening of horizons, an increase in self-determination and, in the medium and long term, lead to the development of good qualities and the withering away of bad qualities.
However, if these decisions are harmful and contrary to the Order of Creation, they result in a loss of knowledge, a narrowing of horizons, a loss of self-determination and, in the medium and long term, lead to the development of harmful qualities and the withering away of good qualities.
2. According to the Law of Creation, every decision immediately sets in motion consequences that, after a shorter or longer period of time, come back to us, for better or for worse. Our Free Will has no influence on these consequences; we must therefore accept them, whether we want to or not. This Law is laid down in Creation as a corrective measure.
3. Every vice that is inherent in us also leads to a more or less pronounced loss of real self-determination and impairs our Free Will, since a strong negative inclination gives our decisions a predictable direction, meaning that they are no longer free. These inclinations must be recognised and gradually discarded through experience. -
Free will and Destiny
More detailed and far-reaching knowledge on this subject is provided in the lecture ‘Fate’ from the Grail Message. As it addresses extremely important connections that bring understanding of both Free Will and the consequences that manifest themselves in destiny, it is quoted in full below:
"Men speak of deserved and undeserved fate, of reward and punishment, retribution and karma.
All these are only part-designations of a Law resting in Creation:
The Law of Reciprocal Action!
A Law which lies in the entire Creation from its earliest beginning, which has been inseparably interwoven with the great, never-ceasing evolution as an essential part of creating itself, and of development. Like a gigantic system of the finest nerve-strands, it supports and animates the mighty Universe, and promotes continual movement, an eternal giving and taking!
Plainly and simply, and yet so aptly, Jesus Christ has already expressed it: “What a man sows that shall he reap!”
These few words render the picture of the activity and life in the entire Creation so excellently that it can hardly be expressed differently. The meaning of the words is inflexibly interwoven with life. Immovable, inviolable, incorruptible in its continual operation.
You can see it if you want to see! Begin by observing the surroundings now visible to you. What you call Laws of Nature are, of course, the Divine Laws, are the Creator’s Will. You will quickly recognise how unswerving they are in constant activity; for if you sow wheat you will not reap rye, and if you scatter rye it cannot bring you rice!
This is so obvious to every man that hesimply never reflects on the actual process. Therefore he does not become at all conscious of the strict and great Law resting in it. And yet here he faces the answer to a riddle, which need be no riddle to him.
Now the same Law which you are able to observe here takes effect with equal certainty and force also in the most delicate things, which you are only able to discern through magnifying glasses, and, going still further, in the ethereal part of the whole Creation, which is by far the larger part. It lies immutably in every happening, also in the most delicate development of your thoughts, which also still have a certain element of material substance.
How could you imagine that it should be different just where you would like to have it so? Your doubts are in reality nothing more than the expression of your inner wishes!
In all existence, visible and invisible to you, it is no different, but each kind produces its own kind, no matter what the substance. Just as continual are the growing and developing, the bearing of fruit and reproducing of the same kind. This process runs uniformly through everything, it makes no distinctions, leaves no gap, it does not stop at some other part of Creation, but carries the effects through like an unbreakable thread, without interruption or cessation.
Even though the greater part of mankind, in their limitation and conceit, have isolated themselves from the Universe, the Divine or Natural Laws have not ceased on that account to regard them as belonging to it, and to go on working without change, calmly and evenly.
But the Law of Reciprocal Action also stipulates that whatever a man sows, thus where he causes an effect or consequence, he must also reap!
Only at the beginning of every matter is man free to resolve, free to decide where the Omnipotent Power flowing through him is to be guided, in what direction. He must then bear the consequences arising from the Power that was set in motion in the direction willed by him. In spite of this, many persist in asserting that even so man has no free will if he is subject to fate!
This foolishness is only meant to serve as a narcotic, or to be a grudging submission to something inevitable, a discontented resignation, but mainly a self-excuse; for each of these consequences falling back on him had a beginning, and at this beginning the cause of the subsequent effect lay in a previous free decision by man.This free decision has at some time or other preceded every reciprocal action, thus every fate! With a first volition man has each time produced or created something in which he himself has to live afterwards, sooner or later. When this will happen, however, varies greatly. It can still be in the same earth-life in which his first volition made the beginning for it, but it can equally well happen in the Ethereal World, when the gross material body has been laid aside, or later still in yet another gross material earth-life.
The variations are not important here, they do not free man from the consequences. He carries the connecting threads with him continually, until he is redeemed from them, that is to say, “detached” through the final effect that ensues through the Law of Reciprocal Action.
The one who forms is bound to his own work, even if he has intended it for others!
If therefore a man today decides to do another an ill turn, either in thought, word or deed, he has thereby “put something into the world”, quite irrespective of whether this is generally visible or not, thus whether gross material or ethereal; it has within it power and therefore life, which continues to develop and work on in the desired direction.
How it will affect the person for whom it is intended depends entirely on the psychic condition of the one concerned, to whom it may thereby bring either much or little harm, perhaps also different from what was intended, or even none whatever; for again the psychic state of the one concerned is solely decisive for himself. Hence no one is exposed to such things unprotected.
It is different with him who through his decision and his volition has given rise to this movement, that is to say, who was its producer. His product remains unconditionally bound to him, and after a short or long journeying in the Universe returns to him reinforced, laden like a bee, through the attraction of similar species.
Here the Law of Reciprocal Action takes effect in that every single product in its movement through the Universe attracts, or is itself attracted by, various similar species, through whose union a source of power then comes into being, which sends back as from a power station reinforced power of the same kind to all those who through their products are connected as if by cords with the assembly-point of similar species.
Through this reinforcement an ever greater density also occurs until there finally arises from it a gross material precipitation, in which the one-time producer must now live and experience to the full what he once willed, in order at last to be freed from it.
That is the origin and development of the so dreaded and misunderstood fate! It is just, down to the minutest and finest shading, because through the attraction of only similar species it can never bring in the returning radiation anything other than what was actually willed personally in the beginning.
Whether for a particular individual or in general makes no difference here; for it is naturally also the self-same process when man does not specifically direct his volition to one or several persons, but lives generally in some kind of volition.
The kind of volition which he decides upon determines the fruits he must eventually reap. Thus countless ethereal threads cling to man, or he to them, all of which let whatever he once willed flow back to him. These currents result in a mixture that constantly has a strong influence on the forming of his character.
Thus in the mighty machinery of the Universe there are many things which contribute to how man “fares”, but there is nothing to which man has not himself first given cause.
He furnishes the threads out of which in the untiring loom of life the cloak he has to wear is made.
Christ plainly and distinctly expressed the same when He said: “What a man sows, that shall he reap”. He did not say, “can” he reap, but he “shall”. That is the same as saying: he must reap what he sows.
How often does one hear otherwise very sensible people say: “It is incomprehensible to me that God should allow such a thing!”
But it is incomprehensible that men can speak thus! How small they imagine God to be with this remark. They prove thereby that they think of Him as an “arbitrarily acting God”.
But God does not at all directly intervene in all these small and great cares of men, such as wars, misery and other earthly matters! From the very beginning He has woven into Creation His perfect Laws, which automatically carry out their incorruptible work so that all is accurately fulfilled, forever taking effect uniformly, thus preventing any preference as well as any prejudice, an injustice being impossible.
Hence God has no need to trouble Himself especially about this, His Work is without flaws.
But one of the principal mistakes so many people make is that they only judge according to gross matter, regarding themselves as the centre therein, and taking into consideration one earth-life, whereas in reality they already have several earth-lives behind them. These, as well as the intervening times in the Ethereal World, are equal to one uniform existence, through which the threads are tightly stretched without breaking, so that in the effects of a particular earthly existence only a small part of these threads therefore becomes visible.
Hence it is a great mistake to believe that at birth an absolutely new life begins, that a child is thus “innocent”,* and that all happenings can be accounted for in only the short life on earth. If this were true, then the existing Justice would naturally require the combined causes, effects and reactions to occur during the span of one earth-life.
* Lecture II–10: “The mystery of birth”
Turn away from this error. You will then soon discover in everything that happens the logic and justice which are now so often missed!
Many are alarmed at this and afraid of what they still have to expect from the past through the reaction in accordance with these Laws.
But such are unnecessary worries for those who are in earnest about the good volition; for in the self-acting Laws also lies at the same time the certain guarantee of mercy and forgiveness!
Quite apart from the fact that, with the firm beginning of the good volition, a limit is immediately set for the point where the chain of evil reactions must come to an end, yet another process of immense importance comes into force:
Through the continuing good volition in every thought and deed, a constant reinforcement also flows retroactively from the homogeneous source of power, so that the good becomes more and more firmly established in man himself, emerges from him, and first of all forms accordingly the ethereal surrounding that envelops him like a protective covering in much the same way as the atmospheric layer round the earth affords it protection.
Now when evil reactions from the past return to this man to be redeemed, they slide off the purity of his surrounding or covering, and are thus deflected from him.
But should they nevertheless penetrate this covering, the evil radiations are either immediately disintegrated or at least appreciably weakened so that the harmful effect cannot manifest at all, or only to a very minor extent.
In addition, through the resulting transformation, the actual inner man to whom the returning radiations are adjusted has also become much more refined and lighter through the continuous striving for the good volition, so that he no longer has any homogeneous affinity with the greater density of evil or base currents. Similar to wireless telegraphy, when the receiver is not tuned in to the energy of the transmitter.
The natural consequence of this is that the denser currents, because they are of a different species, cannot take hold of anything, and thus pass harmlessly through without evil effect, redeemed by some unconscious symbolic action, the various kinds of which I will speak about at some later time.
Therefore set to work without delay! The Creator has placed everything in Creation into your hands. Make use of the time! Every moment holds disaster or gain for you!"
(Grail Message, Vol. II, Lecture 2)
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