The Library
Out of his own nature and in conformity with the universal plan, a stream of influences flows over him out of the past and forces his acts and thoughts to take a certain direction. He may believe that he is following this direction quite independently and freely. In this incapacity to see how limited is his present freedom lies his subtlest illusion.
6.9.4.18Listen It is often not easy—but the sooner he does so, the sooner his mind will become less resentful and more tranquil—to recognize that this happening, this position or this person is part of his fate, that his only freedom in such a case is a moral one. He can select his mental attitude.
6.9.4.23Listen His moral response to a happening, as also his mental attitude toward it and emotional bearing under it, are largely free. It is in this realm, moreover, that important possibilities of further spiritual growth or else materialistic hardening are available. He may renew inner strength or fall back into sensual weakness.
6.9.4.24Listen Hemmed in as he is by inheritances not only from his personal past history but also from society's, it would be futile to talk of having complete freedom of choice. But it would be an error in thought and conduct to behave as if he had no freedom at all. Some measure of it does exist, since in most of his situations, if not in all, he is always faced with at least two possible lines of choice—a higher and a lower one.
6.9.4.28Listen A single decision may entirely shape the next fifty years of a young man’s future.
6.9.4.29Listen The circumstances in which he finds himself and the events which happen to him are not more to a man than what he thinks and does about them. For his reaction, his attitude are more often within his control than they may be.
6.9.4.30Listen No man has free will if he is enslaved by things or affected by events outside of himself. He has it only when he is inwardly detached from them.
6.9.4.58Listen Freedom is not in itself a good or bad thing; the way it is used, whether wisely or recklessly, will determine its value.
6.9.4.68Listen If you demand freedom you must accept the responsibility which accompanies it. This is not only a human and social law but also a divine and karmic law.
6.9.4.72Listen The really determined spiritual man has more powers of free will than others--powers to mold his life and to offset his karma and to create good karma to wipe out threatening or existing bad karma.
6.9.4.81Listen Man is forced in the end by life itself to undertake disciplines he resents or resists. The neophyte in philosophy, for the sake of his own personal development, anticipates them, accepts them, and co-operates with them.
6.9.4.86Listen Who possesses complete independence? Who has all the freedom he wants? Who is able to make his choices freely, unaffected by his circumstances, by social pressure, by events, or by heredity? The answer, of course, is no one. But, to the extent that anyone learns to control his thoughts, to become master of himself, he begins to control his fate.
6.9.4.88Listen The destiny of an entire lifetime may be set by a single mistake, itself the consequence of ungoverned emotion or passion.
6.9.4.90Listen Fate hands him the opportunities and the difficulties: what he does with them is his choice, for which he is responsible.
6.9.4.92Listen Coaxed by pleasure in some incarnations and driven by pain in others, man slowly learns to use his faculties and powers aright.
6.9.4.94Listen There is a shorter and better way to practical wisdom. What the ordinary man arrives at only after the several events of long years, the wiser one will arrive at earlier by intuition and reflection.
6.9.4.98Listen Where is man’s free will? He is free to choose whether he will conform to the pattern of the World-Idea, whether he will obey or not obey the higher laws.
6.9.4.114Listen ... There is no room for a hopeless fatalism in this teaching. Destiny is alterable. It is made more pleasurable by our good deeds, more bearable by our wise decisions, more painful by our bad deeds, and more unbearable by our foolish decisions.
6.9.4.117,Listen The man who wins is the man whose dice are loaded with invincible optimism, with unfailing effort, and with creative thought.
6.9.4.119Listen Since the gift of creativity belongs to all of us and is usable in all spheres of a man's life, he can do much to mold that life if he exerts strength and holds to determination.
6.9.4.121Listen Life is presented to each individual in a pattern that is given by a higher power—call it karma or God, destiny or divinity. He may be able to put in the smaller details, but the larger outlines are preordained. The freedom he thinks he has is illusory. But where he does not suspect it, he does have freedom, and that is his higher self, his Overself.
6.9.4.134Listen … Man is intended to grow up into consciousness of his Godlike essence, and through that into joyful co-operation with God and deliberate participation with God's World-Idea.
6.9.4.136,Listen No man is really and fully free since all men are carrying out the World-Idea. The feeling which he usually possesses that he is acting under his own power and making his own choices is due to his ignorance.
6.9.4.137Listen A man's attitude toward the question of free will changes after he has surrendered to the Overself. It has to change. For henceforth he is to be loyal not to the ego's desires but to the Overself's injunctions. If the two coincide, it is well and pleasant for him. If not, and he obeys his higher self as he must, then it can no longer be said that he has full freedom of will. But neither can it be said that he has not. For the Overself is in him, not outside, not something alien and apart; it is indeed himself at his best and highest level…
6.9.4.140,Listen In the end the only freedom we have is to conform to the order of the universe and be what we have the possibility of being, and that is to move upward, transcend the little ego, and discover the hidden greatness of Overself.
6.9.4.142Listen ... I am conscious of the truth, for I have been lifted like a babe out of all anxiety for the future, all regret for the past. In the spiritual self, I feel a timeless life: I breathe the calm air of the Eternal. I feel safe and I could not worry even if I wanted to…
6.9.4.144,Listen Jesus had a passion to urge every man to live up to his higher possibilities. The man who is living a lower level than his best is not performing his proper function in life. This attitude of Jesus was in direct contrast to the widespread fatalism of the Orientals.
6.9.4.147Listen The infinite wisdom of the World-Mind is behind the world and rules its course, which is not left to the accidents of chance.
6.9.4.152Listen ... The ego is surrounded by truth and goodness. Why not reach out and up to the Overself?
6.9.4.159,Listen
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