I often hear folks debating free will vs determinism, as if, if the one exists, the other cannot.
Do we have free will? Or are the events of our lives pre-determined by “karma”?
Both.
Any seeming contradiction disappears when we make a distinction between action and reaction. Let me back up a moment, to explain. Let me start with free will first.
Among life forms on Earth, only humans have free will and conscience, as Matthew Ward tells us:
“Only humankind … is endowed with conscience and Creator’s gift of free will. Although each living being and each inanimate thing serves a purpose in the evolutionary process of all, it is the human population that sets the pace.” (1)
Only people can choose to act in a godly manner or not, he explains:
“Whereas all other life forms on Earth operate within their respective innate guidelines that work in harmony with Nature, people can choose to act in godly ways or not, to heed conscience or not; and their collective choices determine the civilization’s evolvement status.
“As humankind evolves via the light in spiritual and conscious awareness, so do all the other forms on the planet, and the collective vibratory emissions advance the entire world.
“And, as a world advances, life becomes increasingly simpler and joyous! It is only in third density’s lower vibrations that a civilization creates all the complexities born of negativity.” (2)
But if everything about our lives is determined, then what does it matter that we have this thing called “free will”?
The answer lies in knowing the purpose of life and how “free will” and “karma” fit into it.
***
I now have to back up quite a few “moments.” All the way to the purpose God had in creating life. I base my interpretation of it on a vision I had on Feb. 13, 1987. (3)
Reuniting with Mother/Father One through Self-Realization was shown to me to be the purpose of life. As John Ruusbroec reminds us:
“[For] the rational creature to attain the sublime beauty of God and to possess it in [a] supernatural way … is [the] reason that God created heaven and earth and all that is in them. (4)
That “supernatural way” would be what we’re calling ultimate enlightenment, re-absorption, mergence, union, etc.
Sri Ramakrishna agrees that “the vision of God is the only goal of human life.” (5) Rumi spun a story to illustrate our situation:
“There is one thing in this world which must never be forgotten. If you were to forget everything else, but did not forget that, then there would be no cause for worry; whereas if you performed and remembered and did not forget every single thing, but forgot that one thing, then you would have done nothing whatsoever.
“It is just as if a king had sent you to the country to carry out a specified task. You go and perform a hundred other tasks; but if you have not performed that particular task on account of which you had gone to the country, it is as if you have performed nothing at all. So man has come into this world for a particular task, and that is his purpose; if he does not perform it, then he will have done nothing.” (6)
Archangel Michael reminds us what specifically we’re to aim for:
AAM: Your ultimate enlightenment is the reabsorption into the Mother. (7)
Mother God and Father God are One. They are not two; they are not “different.” Reabsorption into the Mother is the gateway to reunion with Mother/Father One, mergence in the Heart of One, etc. The Mother tells us:
Divine Mother: Knowledge of me is more precious than anything because I am your connection [to the Father]. (8)
She is the face of God; he has no face. (9) She is the only “God” we’ll ever talk to, perhaps while we’re incarnated, perhaps forever – I don’t know.
***
OK so far. But how does our ultimate enlightenment serve God?
I believe that the One created life forms to experience itself. I had the opportunity to ask the Divine Mother if I was correct in that assumption and she confirmed it:
Divine Mother: You are one that, because of your adherence to Truth, likes to go to the Source. That is alright. That is the way it has been designed. [My emphasis]
Steve: … What is the way it has been designed, Mother? …
I mean, the Source, the One wants to know itself. Is that correct?… And it can’t because it’s everything. So it’s taken the aspect of Yourself and designed a universe in order for us to learn our true identities. The moment of Enlightenment is when God meets God. Is that correct?
Divine Mother: That is correct. … Yes, it is designed this way. (10)
Again, OK so far.
But think about it for a moment. Being only One can be a problem if you want to get to know yourself.
Karma and Free Will are Not Contradictory – Part 2/2
As I was saying, being only One can be a problem if you want to get to know yourself.
If you’re all that is, where is your reflection? How do you capture your image? How do you encounter yourself? Who is there to give you feedback?
Goldenlight’s Father or “Source Creator” expresses the dilemma:
“How would I get to experience Myself if it were not for you?”
“Before you there was just Me, before the Earth and all the planets and star systems and galaxies and universes there was just Me and only Me. I needed to create. I needed to split apart and individuate so I could know Myself and see Myself and see all the wonders of creation. You are all ME!” (1)
Surprise! Surprise! So this was God’s purpose in creating life forms! To experience itself.
Every time one of us realizes who we are, it turns out that God meets God. And for that purpose, for that meeting was all of life created.
Here are the Heavenly Hosts, telling us:
[Life] is all just experience to satisfy the Creator’s desire to experience Itself through Its creations. (2)
We find that what we’re looking for has been here all the time, causing many a buddha to laugh upon realization. Sri Ramakrishna had Shiva (in this context, God) laugh in joy, upon experiencing himself:
“When Siva realizes his own Self, He dances about in joy exclaiming, ‘What am I! What am I!’” (3)
Karma brings to us situations that reflect where we’re at. They’re opportunities to “polish the statue,” as Plotinus called purification. (4) Our purification from the dross and overburden of many lifetimes reveals the God that we always were.
Karma educates us on how to reach God … err … ourselves. And, in our free will, we try again.
***
Realizing who we are is the one mission all of us are asked to complete in life. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. And we do get help. (Well, for instance, the Law of Karma.)
Karma helps by continually feeding back to us how it feels to be treated the way we treated someone else. It shows us what results for us when we behave the way we do.
Karma is the input. Our free will produces the output, the reaction, our response, which in future becomes the new input. What goes around truly does come around – for our education and spiritual maturation and eventual reunion with the One.
So karma and free will are not contradictory. It’s just that the one concerns the input in our lives – the situations and people that we meet – and the other concerns the output – our words and deeds in response.
Footnotes
(1) “Council of Angels, Archangel Michael and Source Creator: Upgrading to a Multidimensional Operating System,” channeled by Goldenlight, October 4, 2013 at http://thegoldenlightchannel.com.
(2) Heavenly Hosts, “Let it Be,” 10 Nov. 2006, at https://www.ashtarcommand.net/profiles/blog/show?id=1985014%3ABlogPost%3A273050&xgs=1.
(3) Paramahansa Ramakrishna in Swami Nikhilananda, trans., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1978; c1942, 393.
(4) Plotinus’s full passage is so inspiring, Let me post it in whole:
“What is this vision [of the One] like? How is it attained? How will one see this immense beauty that dwells, as it were, in inner sanctuaries and comes not forward to be seen by the profane?
“Let him who can arise, withdraw into himself, forego all that is known by the eyes, turn aside forever from the bodily beauty that was once his joy. He must not hanker after the graceful shapes that appear in bodies, but know them for copies, for traceries, for shadows, and hasten away towards that which they bespeak. …
“Withdraw into yourself and look. … Do as does the sculptor of a statue that is to be beautified: he cuts away here, he smooths it there, he makes this line lighter, this other one purer, until he disengages beautiful lineaments in the marble. Do you this, too. Cut away all that is excessive. straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is overcast, labor to make all one radiance of beauty. Never cease “working at the statue” until there shines out upon you from it the divine sheen of virtue….
“Have you become like this? Do you see yourself, abiding within yourself, in pure solitude? Does nothing now remain to shatter that interior unity, nor anything cling to your authentic self?
“Are you entirely that sole true light which is not contained by space, not confined to any circumscribed form, not diffused as something without term, but ever immeasurable as something greater than all measure and something more than all quantity? Do you see yourself in this state? Then you have become vision itself. Be of good heart. Remaining here you have ascended aloft. You need a guide no longer. Strain and see.” (Plotinus in Elmer O’Brien, ed., The Essential Plotinus. Representative Treatises from the Enneads. Toronto: New American Library, 1964, 40-3.)
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