SOUL

Exactly... you know who.

Welp, you have all the dogmatic rhetoric, you can join the club.

Some might say it's stopping time.........and thought.

Yea an inner partner that knows how to push all our buttons to get us to react in the way they want us to...... so healing that relationship is like getting couples counseling...haha

@Nexeternity I have a saying I've used to express an idea about my path in the world I would like to share it with you.... with a little bit of (customizing) to your message so I hope it may bring some clarity. When I was idealistic (and I saw suffering and abuse all around) I wanted to change the world, now I am realistic and am contented that (the suffering and abuse in) the world won't change me. ~ SOUL One of the most powerful things we can do to heal the world is to heal ourselves and be an example that there is healing for anyone who seeks it. So be that toad smoking dreamer and shine like a diamond!

I'm working on habit underload..... by removing habits one at a time, eventually the only habit left to remove will be me removing habits and *poof*....I will be uninhabited.

What do you mean by "great"? Art is a subjective appreciation so what one adores another ignores and being an artist is just as much of a subjective creative expression. You may want to self examine for the reason you attached that qualifier to it, it may have a deeper context. Are you trying to validate yourself through your art and how it is received or do you just have joy and fulfillment in creatively expressing yourself regardless of the reaction to your art? Passion can be a powerful inspiration for art but "suffering" isn't the only form of emotion that can be inspirational, you may find as you evolve there are a wide range of emotions that can inspire you.

@Edvard I suggest you stick to your own inner work because it appears my words disturb you

@Angelo John Gage In those experiments that some are suggesting prove no free will all they are doing is measuring activity in areas of the brain. Then they are concluding from this that it is where the decision is being made but 't reside in what they consider the decision-making part of the brain so it's not free will. Though they call it the hard problem of consciousness which is almost a complete mystery to them they're using their reductionist bias to make assumptions about something they admit that they don't understand. Yet if anyone offers any other hypothesis it is shut down as having no evidence to support it yet that is the same evidence less position they are forming conclusions from. Essentially they are claiming the evidence from the research proves there hypothesis with no other evidence to support it. They are also ignoring that the evidence from the research could be actually supporting another hypothesis that they refuse to acknowledge other than just dismiss it because of their bias. On the other hand the mystical minded are using their subjective experience from meditation or drug experimentation to form a capital T truth Universal reality declaration. That's no different than every other religious individual claiming their's is the capital T truth as well. I don't claim I don't claim to know the answer definitively but it sure does look like from the evidence that there is a range of freedom that potentially could be exercised. I also agree that the 100% either-or, black and white perspective it's just a dualism mindset whether one is for or against it.

People have already touched on it, embrace your own being, show it compassion, love and let the healing happen. Although consider where or what is the source of this pain, it's the self identity. The ego builds up an identity of conditioning to address all of those things it cannot control or understand so that when you transform your 'self' through consciousness work it's like stripping the ego naked and throwing it out into the world vulnerable and defenseless. The ego is a perpetual child and any child would be scared and saddened by this type of change. Plus it is often accompanied with condemnation and criticism for what it is and told it isn't worth anything and it is a mistake. So instead embrace it and show it love, teach it to be at peace and fulfilled through the new perspective. If we were to tell a child it's bad, punish it for being what it is and reject it what would a child do? Act out, become an uncontrollable child...... and people wonder why their ego presents so much of an issue for them. How can anyone heal the whole being when they call a part of themselves a cancer? It's only a poison if we create it to be one in us. So give your ego a hug and it won't cause any disharmony in your inner life, it just wants to be loved!

I really do appreciate your contributions here and the 'know it' trap is a very common one but I hope you would consider more the denial of the natural consciousness, it's not an enemy or a trap unless we make it one. Too often people on the 'enlightenment path' set it up to be just that, a boogeyman, so it becomes a game of whack-a-mole and an ever present stumbling block to their inner work. Make friends with the ego so when we ask it to step aside for the benefit of our whole being it will do it embracing that role as an active participant and significant contributor in the process. Yes, the ego will gleefully leap into the fire of it's own destruction like the sacrifice in the ritual of liberation from it's own suffering setting free awareness to awaken to the infinite.... in fact, it will want to, it will beg to!

I do see, I see a repetitive denial. The most curious part is the denying of the natural consciousness, a wholly dismissing of it with no accepting of it let alone any embracing of it. The natural expression of consciousness in the manifest has it's role in our life as a being, the work we do can be so much more effective if we work with it, not to be dominated or distracted by it and not against it but in harmony with it. So you think you're right about not getting to be right? Do you think you are right others don't understand the mind? I do see, I see the trap, I wonder if you see it...... do you see it?

So you are a slave to your thoughts especially when others confirm the bias you already have. If it comes from the mind that's part of the so-called illusion why would you even trust these thoughts? Wouldn't that means they are false? You are so sure you know how most people think of what free will is why would you assume that? From your own mind's thoughts again? Plus you think they are wrong about them from your own assumptions? How can we decide to do anything if we have no choice, we are just forced to do it by causes, right? Then you contradict yourself and say nothing is true but again it's only other people's ideas about free will that are wrong, the ones you assume they are having. It appears you may consider revisiting these things in your contemplation, there remains some conflict in them.

I stand corrected, Tolle is your master and you worship at his thought temple with the dualism belief in the either-or of the will. It's fascinating the complexity of the story people create in their mind about it then tell others it also applies to them, who believe it and tell others who write books and make videos about it telling others it's their truth who believe it, too. I accept what is and am at peace with being..... whatever you want to call it or believe about it.

So you don't have any choice to tell others they don't have one either? You don't have any answers, you are a thought slave and dualism is your master.

Well, reality isn't always as it appears and an illusion is exactly what it is.

Yup, and even if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

Blasphemer! You will call it nothing and like it or be kicked out of the club!

It's all really just 'bullshit', it just depends on where one draws the line between the bull and the shit, if one draws it at all.

This is the issue with trying to use words for abstract spiritual concepts, everybody has different interpretations and concepts in which nearly everyone thinks their own is accurate.

I'm amazed by the people who 'think' they are thought slaves that are really nothing that are 'forced' to tell everyone else they are thought slaves of nothing, too.....those sure are some interesting beliefs but they are your own personal truth and they are not universal 'truth' or reality at all, just yours.

The self conscious is self aware from a self preservation perspective biologically and is causal which includes all involuntary actions, the ego is the 'interface' between the self conscious and our present moment awareness, which is the 'voluntary' part of our consciousness and the ego's job is to convince us to behave voluntarily on behalf of the self conscious impulses. This is where the freedom in willful action comes in, we can either act on what the ego influences us to or we can not.The ego creates a compelling narrative, a story to influence us into action. When we were simple primitive creatures it was primitive but as we evolved into complex social creatures it's devices evolved into a complex narrative along with it. Although we can bypass the story altogether and act on primitive impulse or not, what is voluntary is still voluntary.

I don't understand how an individual can simultaneously hold the belief that enlightenment exists and free will doesn't. Also, 'influence' isn't the same thing as 'force' but it seems some people think they are.

With one eye open.... the third eye.

Pay no mind to what the naysayers say for they say their nay because they know no other way. Beyond the histrionics of your post there is wisdom in your message.... Embracing the simplicity of just being in the present is rarely 'enough' to entertain the ego's need for validation but if you can be at peace and fulfilled in just being present in life you experience an awakening that transcends all the "enlightenment" rhetoric.