Shadow Work for Dummies IX
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One of the great mysteries in Western philosophy and in some religions is the concept of “free will.”The typical argument goes something like this:
Humans have free will so that they can choose between good and evil. They have free agency to act and then they will reap the consequences of their actions. If they are “good” they will go to Heaven when they die. If they are “bad” they will go to Hell.
Without getting into a long philosophical and theological discourse, the debate about free will has gone on for centuries. Some argue that it is self-evident that human beings have choices. I can do this or that….
Others argue that people, events and the trajectory of the entire Universe are determined and, when a person makes a choice, outside forces determine that they could not have chosen any differently.
And the Existentialists argue that we have free will, but that it is a curse rather than a blessing. John-Paul Sartre once said,
Man is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, yet, in other respects is free; because, once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.
Since God has stepped away, we are alone in the Universe and fending for ourselves while at the same time responsible for everything, individually and collectively. Such a weight!
For our purposes, as we continue to explore Shadow Work for Dummies we will assume that humans have free will, freedom to choose a path, an action; set a course and follow it, according to their desires, or according to their understanding of what is good for them and for those around them.
Except….
Except when the dark undertow of old traumas, dysfunctions, family systems, societal constraints, addictions – or some combination of them – are “in charge” directing an individual’s thoughts, feelings and actions.
When a person finds themselves inexplicably in the valley of the shadow, wondering how they got there, they might believe that it was circumstances beyond their control that put them there. This is certainly possible for people in the midst of war or other larger forces that the world has created. (The world is you and me collectively. We are all responsible for “the world.”)
On an individual’s path, they can look back and see that, on some fundamental level, it was their “choices” that cumulatively put them on the way, down the road toward their dark night of the soul.
Yet, where is the choice when an addict goes for another hit of their drug, or their addictive behavior (gambling, sex, eating disorders, etc.)?
A hallmark of active addiction is that the addict at that moment has no choice but to use.
When that same addict enters recovery – a spiritual solution to a physical/mental/emotional problem – paradoxically they discover that they now have a choice when they surrender to their addiction and admit their powerlessness over it!
They have found freedom in the giving up of their free will!
So the choice is not between free will and determinism.
It is between free will and freedom! Our belief in the possibility of separation from God (impossible, but because we believe it, we find ourselves in that illusion) makes the possibility of “choice” seem real.
A Course in Miracles in Chapter 5 makes this point clear:
You have chosen to be in a state of opposition in which opposites are possible. As a result, there are choices you must make. In the holy state the will is free, so that its creative power is unlimited and choice is meaningless. Freedom to choose is the same power as freedom to create, but its application is different. Choosing depends on a split mind.
In other words, in this world of illusion we have infinite choices and the randomness of the insane world makes some choices appear to “work” while others don’t.
In the world of illusions, we have free will, but we are not free. We are chained to the “Wheel of Fortune” where we are at the mercy of chance.
Whereas, when we are doing God’s Will, there is no choice between opposites, but complete and total Freedom is our reward.
Section II of Chapter 8 of the Course is entitled, “The Difference Between Imprisonment and Freedom”
The whole section is worth reading, but this passage especially stands out:
When I said, “All power and glory are yours because the Kingdom is His,” this is what I meant: The Will of God is without limit, and all power and glory lie within it. It is boundless in strength and in love and in peace. It has no boundaries because its extension is unlimited, and it encompasses all things because it created all things. By creating all things, it made them part of itself. You are the Will of God because that is how you were created. Because your Creator creates only like Himself, you are like Him. You are part of Him Who is all power and glory, and are therefore as unlimited as He is.
If that doesn’t sound like freedom, I don’t know what does!
In free will, we are severely constrained by our choices, and by the randomness, chaos, conflict, and the insanity of the world of illusion. A choice between two illusions is really no choice at all, is it?
As long as you believe you can attend to what is not true, you are accepting conflict as your choice. Is it really a choice? It seems to be, but seeming and reality are hardly the same.
Yet in the freedom we find in doing the Will of God, we are unlimited in strength, love, and peace. What does it mean, "doing God's Will?"
In free will, paradoxically we are enslaved to the ego and its whims, for it really does not know what it really wants. The ego believes that imprisonment is freedom!
This is easily proved if you stop and make an honest list of all the things you want. You will quickly find that the list contains many contradictory “wants” as well as a number of things you don’t really want, or in which you believe that it will be impossible to achieve. The Wheel of Fortune and confusion reign.
In God’s Will, we think only of thoughts based in Reality -- thoughts that make nothing but sense: peace and serenity, joy, love, freedom, acceptance, healing, wholeness, words of life, inclusion, creativity, power, certainty and consistency, Truth, Reality, sanity, and much, much more!
As we continue working, living, and triumphantly integrating our shadow self into the wholeness of body, mind, spirit, and soul, we will come to see that our pain, our disquiet, our fears and our mistakes have brought us to the inevitable:
A place from which we can make the final choice -- to choose freedom over egoistic self-will; life over death; love over fear; joy and happiness over pain; abundance over loss and lack; serenity over anxiety, hope over despair.
In the end we will look back and see that “choice” in the world of illusions was no choice at all. What is the difference between that dream and this one? None.
In awakening, we see that the freedom to choose in the Reality of God’s Love is the unlimited freedom of Heaven – of peace on Earth and Love and compassion for all.
Here’s to awakening in that perfect place.
Happy Sunday (bon dimanche)
John
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