I caught this post late. The concept of free will is one of the most debated philosophical concepts. In my mind, the arguments are divided between highly respected philosophers and metaphysicians. Metaphysicians like Alleister Crowley and George Gurdjieff confirm your arguments, i.e, intention and self awareness are the keys to self direction and freewill but they go further to say it's difficult to reach the state of our "true will" where our thoughts have no influence on our actions. They have laid down systems to help men cognize their true will by taking control of the thinking mind. I also believe freewill exists only to men that have total control of their minds.
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I read and followed Gurdjieff's fourth way in my late teenage years. It was really tedious and I could only quit. Even a simple mindfulness exercise will show us how much we are not in control of our mind. In most cases, it's an automated system running societal, parental and a few personal thought patterns.
I haven't read anything by Gurdieff. But I agree that most of our cognitions are automated. Mindfulness is quite difficult but gets easier with practice. I agree that, the difficulty of mindfulness demonstrates how much we lack control over our mind
Yes, the automation can only be stopped by mindfulness which is difficult at the beginning but easier with practice. By the way, I don't think you want to read Gurdjieff's, I tried it years after my initial introduction and it was boring to read. The summary of his work is that we are automatons and he gave a series of exercises in mindfulness to help break the automatic thinking mechanism . I prefer the metaphysicians because they are practical, philosophers mostly just discuss.
I see. Yeah philosophy can be very hard to read. I have only read a little and it took me several times of re-reading it over and over in order to understand it.
Lol. It's also believe it's usually that way. I prefer anything practical, books with exercises I can get to right away.
That's interesting. I agree that there needs to be a level of control of the mind in order to be "free."
Care to share your system for taking control of your mind? maybe that should be a steemit post :)
Maybe I will do a more comprehensive post soon :) but I think it's simple, the system I use requires holding my attention to a spot for a predetermined number of minutes. Depending on where I am, it is usually the breath, an object or a mental image. At the beginning the mind strays a lot but it becomes steady with time and you can hold the attention for longer periods. The major benefit noticeable after a month or close is the ease of controlling impulsive habits and becoming less reactionary. It gets better with time as people's motives or subtle body language during discussions become clearer e.g you can sense when they want to change topic, or quit the discussion or leave but are unwilling to tell you. And it becomes easier to focus on better thoughts.
I meditate in a similar way actually. I wish I practiced more often. Its pretty sporadic for me. But I agree that it gets easier the more you practice. I find that sometimes the body enters a pretty cool state, like it falls asleep while the mind stays active, or I see a very intense bright light in my minds eye. Those events tend to be exceptionally rare for me though.
Sometimes I also skip practicing for days depending on schedule but I always come back to it. I think maybe you should just do at least 20minutes on busy days. I'm familiar with the body asleep and mind active part but I've not experienced the lights part, I have heard about it in other people's experience.
I really should do 20 minutes. It seems like a small amount in relation to a 14-16 hour wakeful day but yet I still have a hard time making that time for myself. I need to work on that
Yeah, some do an hour and above but 20 is good for a busy person. It will be great if you try work on that.