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I don’t think so.

Free Will is the ability to decide and act free from the influence of past events or the environment. Free Will implies complete freedom to make absolutely any choice. If you spend a moment reflecting on this, you would appreciate why we don’t have Free Will. Because our decisions and actions are never divorced from our past or our ecosystem.

We have a conditioned mind. Our memories, past impressions and experiences bias and shape each of our thoughts and actions in the present. It’s our karmic imprint. Not just what we are born with but also what we accumulate while living. Alternatively, we can consider it the result of our genetic code, upbringing and environment. It’s our backstory.

The only way to experience Free Will is to get rid of all such conditioning; to neutralise our karmic imprint; to be independent of our psychological coding. That’s possible only if we can purify our mind by letting go of all our ego, attachments and fixed beliefs. Only when we can reside in the truth of our being. Clearly a tall order for any of us to achieve in a lifetime.

But we do have choice in most situations, right?

You could argue that the above is a rather exacting definition of Free Will. What we usually mean by Free Will is that we have a choice in most situations. Even if we may not have complete freedom to make absolutely any choice, we clearly have some choice. For example, who you choose to marry, what profession you pursue or how you react to someone’s aggression. Sounds reasonable. But here’s the catch.

While we do seemingly have a choice in most situations, our ability to make that choice too is significantly restricted by our predispositions. Our karmic imprint or our psychological coding is quite powerful and dictates the choice we make. Subconsciously, you are likely to fall in love with a person of a specific personality type; pursue a profession with certain specific…

What makes the human experience interesting, rich and fun are our six senses, the sixth being our mind. However, the same senses act as a nearly impossible barrier for us to realise the deepest truth about ourselves.

These senses are our window to the external world. The greatest pleasures in our life seemingly come from experiences derived from these senses. The eyes admire beauty, the taste buds relish gourmet food and a lover’s touch makes the heart sing. However, these senses are fundamentally flawed. This apparatus, while a valuable gift to experience the world, comes with some serious design limitations.

The design flaw

Our mind is severely constrained in what it can perceive through the five senses. We cannot see everything as our sight is limited by the light frequencies our eyes can process. Likewise for our hearing. Snakes and dogs who can see and hear different frequencies must be constructing a different world. We can’t register any visuals that appear faster than 1/8^th of a second as distinct. That’s why we perceive a series of rapidly shot still images as a continuous video.

We are able to process only a tiny portion of the energy vibrating out there and consider it as the reality. We believe the sky to be blue; although it’s the scattering of the blue light absorbed by the atmosphere that makes it appear so. The moon doesn’t rise, but is only visible at night. The house you live in is not exactly still; but is constantly rotating and revolving at great speeds along with the earth. You get the idea!

The reality

For the past five millennia, scriptures, sages and mystics have appealed to us to explore and contemplate the absolute reality. The reality of an all-pervading, all-encompassing and all-knowing energy field. That we are made of the same energy and everything and every being is an integral part of this whole. And that there’s no separate self even though we clearly perceive ourselves as distinct from everything else….

Photo by h.koppdelaney

Do you feel disappointed every time you meditate but don’t experience thoughtlessness? Do you wonder how some meditators seem to routinely enjoy this calming blank space between thoughts? Have you given up your practice because you had too many thoughts while meditating and couldn’t seem to shake them off?

Be anxious no more! In this post, I would like to deconstruct the myth of thoughtlessness and clarify the real objective of meditation. However, before we examine this myth, let’s understand why do we have thoughts in the first place.

Why do we have thoughts

Thoughts are an outcome of our desires which in turn emanate from two key sources. Firstly, they are rooted in our sense of identity. The identity of an independent self, the ‘I’, which is experiencing everything from pain and pleasure to sadness and joy. This identity is intertwined with our human experience. As long as we are in a human body form, we stay attached to this identity and continue to have thoughts.

Secondly, the human form contains the intelligence of our past karma. That’s the storehouse of the net psycho-spiritual effect of all our cumulative intent, volitions and actions across all lifetimes. It includes the seeds of all our desires, aversions, and attachments. This karmic imprint also dictates our judgmental nature – our tendency to judge everything as good or bad.

We remain a prisoner to our desires and attachments. This coupled with our preference for what appears favourable and distaste for the seemingly unfavourable, continually generates new thoughts and emotions.

Myth of thoughtlessness

There are innumerable meditation techniques out there – from chanting, observing the breath and mindfulness to transcendental meditation, zen and vipassana. Irrespective of the specific practice, a commonly held belief is that the aim of meditation is to experience thoughtlessness. Given the extent of constant mental chatter we experience, this sounds like a really attractive goal.

But it’s quite misleading! When we make thoughtlessness the central objective of our meditation…