Free Will:
Ignorance is bliss, yet one must not choose ignorance. It is impossible to be all-knowing, just like it is impossible
to be completely ignorant to the world, but there are varying degrees or depths that one can reach in knowing,
and those depths are unlimited. The degree to which one expands his or her consciousness, is the degree to
which one lives- the degree to which one’s presence or energy plays a role or imposes a force on the world. To
choose ignorance is to choose the life of a slave, where everything you are or do is merely a product of your
initial condition and the forces applied by the world on you. You are not an active participant, but a passive speck
of dust floating in the wind. Your feats, your interests, your relationships, and your general circumstances of
being, are not your own. And further, neither is your knowledge or your choices. Everything you are or
experience is merely a result of how the dominoes fell.
Herein lies the issue of ‘Free Will’. If our knowledge is merely a product of our experiences, then we effectively
have no Free Will. I believe though, that there is a difference between knowledge that is gained externally and
that which is internally cultivated. The knowledge of lots of information and facts gained from external sources
does not necessarily lead to greater insight, but it can help create an environment conducive to insight. Like the
cultivation of anything, developing insight requires the proper environment in which it can grow. This environment
can include external inputs such as traveling and exposure to different cultures and ways of life, or gaining more
factual and scientific knowledge about the world and its workings, or possibly even an extreme experience.
Indeed, all of these can help to bring about a ‘spark’ of insight. But I feel that more important than these external
inputs is how one deals internally with these sparks. I believe that the spark of insight one experiences is a
momentary glimpse beyond the typical boundaries of one’s consciousness.
If increasing consciousness is what allows us to increase our Free Will, and thus our life force, it is important that
we explore these newfound sparks of insight. We must embrace them through deep thought, and journey out into
the vast unexplored frontiers of our consciousness. However, there is a problem here: The human mind is built to
view the world in a certain framework. This framework organizes and allows us to interpret the world, but it also
imposes great limits on that interpretation. I believe that this framework effectively defines the boundaries of our
consciousness. So how then, can we expand our consciousness if our interpretations are limited by the current
state of our mind’s framework? I think that the answer lies in the sparks of insight that we feel. These are like
fleeting pathways that allow us to break out, explore the frontier of our consciousness, and examine the structure
of our framework from an outside perspective. To allow the mind’s framework to evolve into something greater
takes focus and effort on the part of the individual, but with the use of cultivated insight as a newly developed tool,
I believe that it can be done. I also believe that with effort in creating both an external and internal environment
that is well suited for cultivating insight, one will find that they will experience these sparks with greater frequency
and will develop the ability to use these sparks more efficiently to expand consciousness. A kind of framework
evolving ability gets built in to one’s existing mental framework.
Deeper internal insight is what defines the human consciousness. This is what gives us power, or Free Will. This
Free Will is central to what I mean when I say ‘living’. I do not mean eating, breathing, procreating, or even
experiencing. If not for this Free Will, we are all but actors in a grand play; all fulfilling our predetermined roles.
However, if you choose to look deep within yourself, and strive to expand your consciousness, you gain power.
You can direct your energy to influence the flow of the rest of the world’s energy. You are no longer passively
floating in the wind; you become an active part of the wind and can help to determine its direction and intensity.
As human beings, the only power or freedom that we have is to control how we react to any given situation. That
is our own, and that is where we live: in the great expanse of our consciousness. There we are God. We have
the ability to explore it in a way, and make discoveries that can empower us to project our energy outward. I am
not suggesting in all of this that there are ignorant people and enlightened people; the issue is more that
everyone has the opportunity when they feel that ‘spark’ of insight, to decide whether or not, and to what degree,
they will explore it. It is this choice, on a deeper level, that I feel determines the character of a person. It is very
easy to become cozy and comfortable in the little niche one develops within the world, but if you stagnate here
you are effectively disengaging from life. When I say that the ignorant are not living, this is not to say that they do
not experience the world, and quite possibly have a blissful experience with it, but if a person is merely a product
of their experiences, they are not truly living. And this is why one must not choose ignorance; because to do so is
to reject life.