Where is the freedom in this?

And now your brain is making choices
on the basis of preferences and beliefs
that have been hammered into it
over a lifetime -
by your genes, your development,
your interactions.

The moment we pay attention
it is possible to see
that free will -
is - nowhere to be found.

Yes - you are free to do
what you want - even now
but - where did your desires
come from?

Take a moment

To think about

The context in which
your next decision
or action will occur.

Thoughts and intentions
simply arise in the mind.

Thoughts simply arise
unauthored, and yet
author our actions.

Our experience of free will
presents a compelling mystery.

You can do what you decide to do - but -
you cannot decide
what you will decide to do.

The next choice you make
will come out of the darkness
of prior causes that you -
the conscious witness
of your experience -
did not bring into being.

Becoming sensitive
to the background causes of one’s thoughts
and feelings can - paradoxically -
allow for greater creative control
over one’s life.

If you pay attention to your inner life
you will see that the emergence
of choices efforts and intentions
is a fundamentally mysterious process.

A few weeks ago I attended ‘A Conversation with Tim Minchin’. One of the sparks Tim ignited on the night was about free will. I retreated to Sam Harris’s Free Will (2012) for the ‘found’ piece you’ve just read, and to contemplate my own thoughts about free will.

Is free will real or an illusion?

Dream intentionally - while you’re awake