Fate is The Game and Free Will is How We Choose to Play

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Transcript

There is a tension that exists in every single human being.

And that tension is of course dependent on the person.

The degree to which it actually creates a friction will depend on many different factors.

But this friction, this tension, this push and pull is between the dynamics of fate and free will.

and this overall exploration where these two forces intersect with each other has been a central theme in the human search for spiritual truth for time immemorial it's something that we have always been interested in as far as we can tell whenever we are truly interested in understanding our place in the universe

For if everything is fated and predetermined then what is the point of being here and what is choice in that context?

Why are we even playing this game that we call life?

On the other hand of it is if choice is everything then

overall we're in a universe with absolutely no order in it whatsoever there is no reason for anything it's all just random chaos and the only thing that matters is what we choose to me personally both of these circumstances one in which there is nothing but the machinations of fate

or nothing but the wild ride of free will are terrifying notions for if everything is just mechanical and machine-like and moving in a predetermined order then we literally have no say in what happens there is no place to express an individual sense of choice

on the other hand if everything is choice then what is the point of any choice that you actually make if it's not aligned with anything beyond just your tiny little vantage point in the grand scheme of this enormous universe

Now, when we explore this question from the vantage point of ancestral traditions, that is, the spiritual inheritances that we have gotten into the modern world and how we have come to understand those inheritances in contemporary times,

There is a theme that seems to emerge among many of the traditions of the world everything from African traditions to South American traditions to North American traditions to Western European traditions and that is that our experience is a mix of free will and of fate and that these two forces are interacting with each other in different ways

Some cultures have been very fate orientated.

They're very interested in understanding the greater dynamic that's at play in each individual life and about allowing ourselves to align more deeply with that.

whereas other cultures like modern western culture is very free will orientated that is the ability to choose one's direction in life and that being heralded as the most important factor in how we live

And European culture, Western culture is by no means the only culture that has held the free will as the primary source of a fulfilling life, but it is a common theme that a lot of us come into relationship with today.

and before we go a little bit deeper into the core message of this particular podcast today I want to lay a little bit of a groundwork or a framework for what we will be discussing and to do that let's start off with giving a definition to what I mean by fate now I've talked about fate before but I'm going to expand on it a little bit more today

Fate, as I've discussed it in the past, are the circumstances that we come into that we do not directly choose.

And by not directly choose, I mean the ego, the personality, the human being who is living on this blue little rock floating in space.

The person that you know yourself as that has been this continual threat of awareness since your first memory.

that individual encounters circumstances that it did not directly choose that is the family that you were born into the time and place the culture the body that you have the gender that you have and all these different dynamics but beyond that there's an aspect of fate that extends beyond your own individual life and actually has more to do with a deeper cosmic order

So when we explore the fates, that is the weavers of fate from mythological aspects, what we encounter are beings that are even directing the fate of the gods themselves.

We have these primordial forces that are at play in weaving the actual outcome, the rope as it were, the threads as it were, of reality itself.

and that means order that means the laws of the universe that are at play that means the way that things work and the essence of how the world itself the universe itself comes together these are the boundaries that we bump up against as we decide to live

A very simple example of this is the baking process.

So if you want to bake a loaf of bread then there are particular rules at play that you cannot change.

That is you have to mix things within one of a certain number of limited ways to mix them.

that means that you put it into an oven you expose it to heat at a particular temperature for a particular amount of time in order to get a particular result there is a formula that is there is a way that things work in this universe

and those are beyond your say if you jump off of a building and you hit the ground you're probably going to die it doesn't matter what your intentions are it doesn't matter what you think about the situation it doesn't matter how you feel about it in all likelihood you will die that is an aspect of fate that is the way that the universe functions

and now each individual life each individual person that is born comes into this universe woven into it by the fates themselves so at the same time that we're dealing with all these faded circumstances in our life that is the things that we do not choose there are also all these other aspects of reality that we must simply accept and what that points us towards

When we understand that our life is a part of a cosmic order is that your own individual life extends beyond just you.

It's not just about you and what you want.

There is something more happening that you are a part of.

but everything is not just ordered and predetermined there is in some senses a spontaneous process that is also emerging where the creation of the universe is a co-creative one where we are in a co-creative relationship with these fated forces and

at that point what we encounter is free will and that's why free will is the wild card we don't really know necessarily what free will will do at every single juncture and yet at the same time free will is occurring inside the context of fate

So, if free will is the wild card, fate is the game itself.

Fate is the rules.

Fate is the way that you play.

Fate has to do with who you are playing with.

But free will is how you choose to play that hand.

But even choosing to play occurs within the context of a certain order.

and now this is a podcast that revolves around destiny so when destiny emerges truly emerges in our life it is when our free will is in deep resonance and alignment with fate that is when the personal will and the divine will find alignment

and it is that deeper alignment that allows for your destiny to blossom and flourish.

In one way we can think about it like this, that is that fate and order are the soil and the seed that is at the core of our life and of the soul's purpose and dream for this life.

and then free will comes in as the mechanism that allows for that overall seed to blossom and flourish and sprout and grow and in order for that to emerge there has to be alignment and resonance

Now of course, Free Will can choose not to engage the game.

Free Will can choose not to accept the rules.

It can try to cheat.

It can try to put the hand down.

It can get up from the table and leave the game altogether.

now what happens when we do that is completely and utterly by its very nature unpredictable we simply cannot know what will occur when we do that and that often will lead to a place where we are gonna have to figure it out by the seat of our pants and sometimes that can weave into and lead us into a different game

now the deeper mystery is whether or not that realigns us with the fates themselves and for that I do not have the answer it is a mystery

on the other hand when free will understands the deeper thread that is weaving through the nature of reality itself and it can understand how it came into this world and what it came here to do in alignment with the divine order and it freely chooses to engage with that

out of a curiosity out of a love an embracing of what is and it can understand how it is trying to be shaped and it does not resist the process but awakens and consciously engages with this unfolding process

then one realizes that one's life is connected to a greater whole and that our innate and inherent individual unfolding is a part of the greater unfolding and when we do that we start to get feedback and the feedback is that things work so for example if you want to bake a cake

and you ignore the rules so to speak governing cake baking and you decide to do whatever you want you may go through that process 150 200 times a thousand times before you discover a formula that actually works

or you can accept that there are certain forces at play beyond your desires beyond you things that you cannot change and you align yourself with that then you get to bake a cake and within that you also get to put in your own freedom you can find the free will inside of the form so to speak inside of the formula

because then you can make it as sweet as you want to some degree you can bake the cake and then you decorate it however you want you can do something with it that is inherently yours but you understood that there were other forces at play beyond just what you wanted

Now there is a quote from Carl Jung that I think fits in very well here in this particular circumstance and that is that free will is the ability to gladly choose what it is we must do.

In general, I am not a huge fan of the word must, should, have to, need to, and things along those lines that are more about the imposition of someone else's value structure upon you.

But when Carl Jung was saying this, he wasn't talking about what people feel they must do in terms of the pressure that has been placed on them by other individuals.

What he's talking about is a deeper essence that goes beyond the human world into the grander scheme of the unfolding of the universe.

and in this way when he says gladly choose he's talking about love and that is to be able to love what it is that you have come here to do

and on a practical level this is about being able to understand how the world and life has been shaping you since you were born what are the archetypal identities that are inherent in you that is that you came here with already for some people that might be a teacher, an artist, a guide, a decorator, an architect, an intellect

and how has life been shaping you the big challenging circumstances that have forged an identity how have those shaped you and how are they trying to shape you and once you can understand this deeper interplay between all of that and you can deeply embrace and love

the underlying influences in your life then you come to a place where you can gladly choose what it is you must do and now of course you can choose not to do that you can choose to get up and play a totally different game and if you do that well then into the unknown you go and mysteriously enough you might find yourself playing a game that you really didn't choose