As Ramesh Balsekar once said "as long as you believe you have free will, then live your life as if it's true" (otherwise "no freewill" is just a belief and it's doing more harm then good)
Does it really ? I don't believe in free will, to a large extent, and this doesn't stop me from trying to do good. And doesn't the idea of "free will" also do harm ? Such as when people just discard mental health issues as "just matter of will" ?
> Such as when people just discard mental health issues as "just matter of will" ?
I am very much aware of mental health issues as I am healing trauma, self harm in one way or another (internalized anger and even rage). I am healing a childhood of abuse and neglect. Lots of broken people in my family, generational trauma from the wars, I believe.
You're talking about ignorance. But it's better for people to understand inter-dependence then. Telling them they have no freewill will only meet resistance. Inter-dependence, ultimately, reaches the same conclusion.. but it can help develop a sense of connection and warmth to life. In theory I can see that for some people "no freewill" implies as much and is obvious but I suspect for most, it's not obvious that "no freewill" means "we are all one".
What is generally misunderstood about mental illness is the mechanism of dissociation. Dissociation goes hand in hand with suffering, and is behind much of the news of the world everyday.
From my experience healing trauma, I'd wager most mental health issues are related to an imbalance between the left and right brain hemispheres (cf. Ian mcgilchrist "the divided brain" for a lot of research on that). The left hemisphere deals with narrow attention and the "map" of the world. When traumatized, our nervous system is overwhelmed. Somehow, it causes a shift where we live life predominantly from the left hemisphere, because mind provides an illusion of safety through a known world. Why this happens I don't know.
This is dissociation at work. This is why dissociated individuals act in what seems completely irrational ways. They are acting from a map that has become their reality.
I make this connection because since doing trauma therapy, massage and yoga... last couple years... I started to "fall" sometimes back into silence. (edit: i should mention also, that "integrating" is a key aspect of trauma therapy which incidentally means.. to be with present experience.. the direct opposite of dissociation). It's as if the body starts feeling safe enough, to say, ok... no need for right hemisphere right now. This shift is not something you control directly. The individual needs to feel safe for this to happen AND somehow I think you also need the curiosity, the desire to fall into the silence because of exhaustion... you have to be really exhausted with thinking.
> And doesn't the idea of "free will" also do harm ?
Yes but it goes hand in hand with the materialist paradigm we are in. Our entire society is based on the notion that we exist, independently, as separate entities. That "oneness" is merely a feel good thought.
And honestly i don't know what the next paradigm is. It's a very peculiar question... we are wired quite clearly in our brains to experience life as individuals. Our conceptual mind inevitably sees cause and effect (its is after all said to be "dualistic").
Thats why I think right now the next big step forsociety is to undestand trauma, understand that it is the nature of suffering, that addiction and dissociation goes hand in hand. That dissociation is actually rampant in our society and unconscious developments in technology can become a further support to dissociate which doesn't help at all..
Say you have complete disbelief in free will. Without free will, you just carry out a path which is already predetermined. In other words, you just carry out your destiny. It can be the case that you are destined to 'try to do good'. You do not choose to do good, you do good because it is in your nature.
More generally:
Regardless of belief, people are confronted with choice points where they have to choose A or B. Those who believe in free will believe that the choice is determined by an internal force which they associate with 'themselves'. Those who do not believe in free will believe that the choice is determined by some external force.
People make decisions in each scenario, the debate is over the ultimate force which drives the decisions.
Yes I'm with you that much of the world still believes in good and evil.
But... as I am healing trauma and have prior experience in the "spiritual seeking", it has become clear to me that the mechanism of dissociation is key to understanding human suffering.
For traumatized individuals and anyone with a long history of depression or anxiety, the teachings on "no self" and/or "no freewill" will almost certainly be grasped on by the conceptual mind, in order to further protect one self from pain. Where there is significant pain that needs to heal, there will be the compulsion to disengage from life that is threatening, especially from social engagement. Worse, a traumatized individual believing they have no free will, and can't do anyhing, may even abandon healing... which is pretty tragic.
I was a in a pretty confusing place myself for a couple years after some glimpses here and there. Whether that can be avoided I don't know. But I think if this were to be taught in larger circles, then it would be better to always pair this understanding with the notion of inter-dependence.