Free will and Flow

Free will. Choice. These are highly valued among humans in society today. What do they mean, I wonder?

Another word comes to mind that brings clarity for me, to these other words. Flow. There are many moments each day when there is little question about what next to do. In those moments, life flows. There is no doubting whether what one is doing is the best choice. There isn't even much sense that there is any other way to move. It is as if one is the movement that is happening. No looking back to see who is moving. No wondering whether some other place or movement would be better. No comparisons, no judgments, no thinking.

Makes me wonder if free will isn't what happens when we aren't in the flow. Does that mean that someone else is in charge of us, when we are in the flow?

And what about 'habits'? Are those being in the flow?

When we are in the flow, there isn't anyone in charge of anyone. We are the movement. The movement is what is happening.

What is happening, for example, as I write this? There are moments when the words are flowing and other moments when they pause. Am I in charge of what words are perfect and what words are not? Certainly there are times when I backtrack and begin again. But if the words flow, then they do, and if they don't, there is nothing I can do to make them flow. So I would say that there is no sense that I am in charge of the flowing.

Yet there is preparation, perhaps, for flow. There are things we can do to foster it. Letting go of thinking is big on my list, for fostering flow, especially when I'm writing. If I start to think about what comes next or what to say, then I've lost it. But when I let me fingers go and watch what comes out, it moves with ease.

So perhaps it is a willingness to get out of our own way.

Maybe that is what free will and choice are really about. They occur when we are making believe that we are real, enough so that we are in the way. When we see ourselves and wonder what to do next, then we are at the height of free will, and perhaps at the height of suffering as humans.

So then, what about habits? Habits are more places where we get into our own way. They are places where flow can't happen, because there is something in the way. Sometimes we can lose ourselves in habits in much the same way that we do in flow. And so it can be hard to differentiate between the two. Yet flow moves without regard to limitations. And habits are all about our limitations.

Some things to think about... What does habit energy feel like? What fosters flow? What fosters habits? Who is in charge of us? What happens when we stop and ask ourselves what we want?

Questions for you to ponder, and for me to ponder. We'll see what comes of them...