That’s quite a compliment! I find it extremely exciting and challenging to try to point toward awakening using this medium. The written word can easily be as misleading as leading — especially as I’m not trying to describe a truth so much as point different minds in a similar direction. It’s wonderful to hear that you find it effective.

Much thanks in return,
Kenton =)

I think there is more of a connection between living without free will and mindful living in general than most people think. I see belief in free will as at best excess baggage, like the extra suitcase full of clothes inexperienced travellers take along “just in case”, then end up lugging it everywhere with them, keeping them from enjoying the trip. We have a website devoted to the topic of the implications of not having free will, http://www.centerfornaturalism.org if you’re interested. Your take on it is extremely articulate, at the very least we will want to bookmark to your post.

It certainly is a fascinating topic, isn’t it? Especially as it’s one that remains totally unexamined by most of us. It is these basic underlying assumptions and beliefs regarding life that play so strongly into the way our life unfolds, and for the most part, we’re never told that these beliefs and assumptions are just beliefs and assumptions. We’ll hesitate to jump out of a plane until we have some understanding of the parachute, but we’ll jump right into life with little or no knowledge of how life works. Your site is certainly an interesting resource for helping people to get a different perspective. Keep up the good work!

Sweetwater,
Kenton

I haven’t read your site in awhile, and today the first article (on whether or not chakras are real) took me here.

Which was of course perfect.

You illuminated something that has been tearing me down for over a decade now… this idea that I’ve been ‘running away’ from life, and making the ‘wrong decisions’, because of deep-seated fear. Of course, like Ken says, this has resulted in an enormous amount of baggage and inability to enjoy the moment…

This is where we are.

Might as well enjoy it!

I’m so pleased that this held something for you. This is a very challenging thing to understand, and also a very liberating thing to understand.

‘This is where we are’, you said. Perfect, indeed.

Hugs,
Kenton

Hey Kenton - I have the sense if I really went deeply into this free will inquiry and really saw the truth of what it’s pointing to, it would be quite a mind blower and tremendously freeing. To really see what it’s pointing too. I was having a look at it “yesterday” and I don’t know what was happening but freaking out a bit seemed to start happening a bit. I don’t feel like I’m really following the inquiry all the way down and I don’t think that’s really expressing what I’m trying to say very well - probably to the point of really seeing something new and I have all these concepts that are preempting real seeing.

bit of a joke really but any further pointers with regard to this free will inquiry. In having a thorough investigation rather than a weird assed attempt.

cheers

love annie

It can get a little freaky, can’t it? There are actually a lot of basic assumptions which seem obvious to us (such as linear time, which you hinted at with your ‘yesterday’ in quotes), an external/internal reality, etc. They seem obvious, but when we begin to examine them, we begin to get suspicious that ’something’s up’. And indeed it is.

I’d encourage you not to pursue this free-will question too deeply, but to first play around with a few more of your everyday concepts. Try to pin down any time other than ‘now’, or try to figure out just who it is that lifts your arm when you decide to lift your arm. These examinations begin an unraveling process which eventually gives us no choice but to look at reality directly.

Above all, it should be fun. If you’re encountering anything scary, you can be sure that you’re encountering ideas you’ve formed regarding what the world must ‘really’ look like outside our preconceptions. These ideas can be frightening indeed. But ‘real reality’ is nothing but amazingly wondrous.

Keep playing! =)

Love,
Kenton