FREE CHOICE OR FREE WILL -- PART THREE

Not only is the will of your Creator controlling this planet but also the will of all those beings more evolved than yourselves who can impose their will on you as well: the beings on the other planets of this Solar Body.



An Analogy
If I can make an analogy, I will compare the time of your incarnation on Earth to a person driving a car along a highway. In the beginning that person is placed in his car on the highway. The will of his Creator is such that he should drive along that highway from point A to point B, and as it is the will of his Creator within him he feels an urge to follow that highway. Of course he may at any time leave that highway if he so desires. He may even not return to that highway. But where can he really go even when he is off that highway?? He is in a car and therfore he can only leave the highway along the roads leading off it. He must keep to the roads that have been planned, that are already laid out, for he cannot suddenly invent new roads.

Let us say that God is the Being Who planned that highway, Who planned those roads. Therefore any person can travel only along the highways and the roads that God has planned. How far can he go along those roads? He has only so much petrol in his tank, and when he runs out of petrol what then happens? He is forced to stop. So just as that motorist is limited by his petrol tank, so your physical life has a limit as well. The petrol tank, that limit, is already determined by your Creator. The roads are planned by your Creator. So what may you do but stay within the limitations of your Creator??

Our Limitations

People who are poor and dwell in a poor part of a country will not have the opportunity, unless their destiny decrees it, of travelling all over the World, of mixing with many people. They will be confined to one small part of the World as their Creator intended. A tribe dwelling in a jungle will not suddenly find itself uprooted and placed in a metropolis of one of the technologically advanced countries of the Western World. So the limitations of your Creator are there if you will but recognise them.

Even you who live in the so-called civilised countries of the Western World are limited. In spite of what you might think, Humanity today, with all its modern material and scientific methods, still does not create, for all creation is drawn out of Infinite Mind. Infinite Mind, which is part of Infinite Spirit, releases to Humanity only what Humanity is allowed to have. Humanity has the choice to use the knowledge that is released to it either for good or evil, but that inspiration would not be given to Humanity unless its Creator intended it for it.

Greater Forces in Control

Man today has the means of destroying the Earth. He has his hydrogen and his cobalt bombs, and therefore people today think that Man could easily destroy the Earth. He has the power to do so but, of course, greater forces than Man control this Earth and he will not be allowed to do it. So all those people who fear the total destruction of this Earth through hydrogen warfare need not worry. It will not take place, for not only is the will of your Creator controlling this but also the will of all those beings more evolved than yourselves who can impose their will on you as well: the beings on the other planets of this Solar Body, especially those from Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn, who are at present around the aura of the Earth influencing, guiding, helping, repairing where Humanity´s ignorance has destroyed. Their will, will be done. They will not allow the Earth to be destroyed in its entirety.

The Principle Lesson

Remember that there are many beings with a greater will, a greater power, than you. You are an infinitesimal speck on the Earth struggling to evolve. You are like a young boy at school: you may be given a loaded gun to practise shooting, but there is always a teacher close at hand to see that you do not shoot yourself or one of your fellow pupils.

The will of your Creator is that you should evolve spiritually through life in a physical body on the Earth. You are here to experience life on the Earth as well as upon the other planes of existence. This Earth is but a school onto which you incarnate to learn its lessons. The principle lesson of this Earth is one of sacrificial service, and Humanity has the choice of whether it wishes to sacrifice or not.

Those of you who do indeed sacrifice, who do think of your fellow brothers and sisters before yourselves, who do think of the other Kingdoms before your own, who are totally aware of life on this planet, will begin to appreciate the will of your Creator, and if you understand the will of your Creator for this Earth then you will understand the Earth, the part that it plays in the whole, together with the function of those who dwell on it.

Only Free Choice

You are all born under great planetary influences, or wills. You all vibrate under one of the seven major Rays which control this planet, and you are further individually restricted by the Ray under which you vibrate. These Rays bear down upon you at all times, restricting you, controlling you, and guiding you. You are restricted even more by your own evolution.

So as you walk your path in life recognise that you have free choice, and that you must be responsible for that choice, but also recognize the will of your Creator in everything around you. It is not your Earth. Your brothers and sisters around you are not of your creation. The Animal, the Vegetable and the Mineral Kingdoms were all created by a greater force than you. Humanity creates nothing and therefore Humanity can control nothing. Only when you can create may you exercise the Will.

This article is from "The Fantastic Teachings of Ramala".

FREE CHOICE OR FREE WILL -- PART TWO

Do not think that Humanity has always had free choice. It has not. Do not think that all other beings in your Solar Body have free choice. They do not. Be aware that free choice is a gift to Humanity at this stage of the Earth´s development, in its present incarnation, so that Humanity may advance its consciousness to perform the will of its Creator.

Learning the Limitations

When Humanity first incarnated on the planet Earth, when it dwelt in perfection with the Angels, the messengers of Infinite Spirit, it did not have and did not need free choice. For many aeons of time Humanity dwelt without that gift, for it was not necessary. Then the Beings of whom you know so little, your Solar Logos and the Lords who control this Solar Body and the Earth within it, decided that in order to advance its consciousness Humanity itself had to learn the limitations of its being.

Humanity was therefore reincarnated on Earth with the gift of free choice from its Creator, and in that Humanity now had this gift it could evolve and advance its consciousness, for by its choice it would learn goodness from evil, it would recognise light from darkness, it would know life from death. Ever since this reincarnation on the Earth Humanity has been advancing, albeit slowly, by exercising this gift. It is only because of the way that Humanity has misused this gift that the Earth finds itself in its present state of consciousness.

The Choice

Humanity has not chosen correctly. Humanity has the choice, even today, of choosing between spirituality and materialism. Humanity has the choice between thinking of itself and thinking of its fellow human beings. Humanity has the choice of thinking about its world, the Earth, and of thinking about other worlds, the other planets, in this Solar Body. The choice, depending upon the level of soul-evolution, is always there. For those who are incarnating on the Earth for the first or second time obviously the choice is simple and limited. For those who have evolved their consciousness through many lives on Earth the choice is more subtle and complicated.

But every being on this Earth is here to exercise his or her choice and to learn and to evolve through that choice. As the act of exercising your choice is the prime reason for your existence it is surely worthy of your most earnest consideration. Therefore do not make a choice lightly, without thought. Remember that how you choose will have an effect not only on yourself but also on others. So choose with thought, after meditation.

Does Humanity Have Free Will??

Let us now examine the question of free will. Does Humanity have free will? This question touches on the whole concept of life within this Solar Body and, indeed, within Creation. Unevolved Man likes to think that he is supreme, that he does indeed have free will, that he can do whatever he wants, when he wants and where he wants. He believes that he can control the destiny of Humanity and the destinies of the Animal, the Vegetable and the Mineral Kingdoms. He believes that he can control the destiny of the World, of its races and peoples. With the thoughtlessness of supreme egotism he believes that he is God on Earth. Unevolved Man still has a great deal to learn, for the more evolved you become the more aware you become of forces, of controls, of disciplines, of wills, of orders, of hierarchies way above the level of Humanity´s consciousness.

The Minuteness of Humanity

If you look down at an individual being dwelling on the surface of this Earth and then withdraw into Space seeing first the street, then the town, then the country, then the hemisphere, then the Earth, then the Solar Body in which the Earth dwells, then the Galaxy in which that Solar Body dwells, then the "Super" Galaxy in which that little Galaxy dwells, you will recognise the minuteness of Humanity and the complexity, the control and the organisation of Space and of life in it.

It is not possible that unevolved Man living on the surface of the planet Earth could control, even if he were allowed to, such complexities of Space. When Man does not even understand how the Earth rotates and functions, when he does not even understand the influences which act on the Earth both from within and without, how could he control other, far greater, forces??

Most Things are Planned

What is carried out on the surface of this Earth is the will, the power and the influence of the Beings who are responsible for this Earth and, more especially, of our God, our Solar Logos, Who stands above us all. Man might like to think that he has free will, but he does not. If he did but understand it, most things in his life are planned.

Within the boundaries of his life Man has only a narrow choice to make, for he incarnates into a planned family, into a planned country, into a planned way of life. He vibrates under a certain Ray, he is born under the specific influence of certain planets. He has chosen to meet certain people in his earthly incarnation from which he will learn certain lessons. He has chosen many of the incidents that are to happen in his life: all this before he even incarnates into matter!

Part Three follows....

This article is from "The Fantastic Teachings of Ramala".

FREE CHOICE OR FREE WILL? -- PART ONE

Free choice and free will would appear to have very similar meanings. Very often they are misused by people in their everyday speech, so let us establish just what it is that we mean by these words.

Understanding the Significance

When one considers the totality of Humanity´s spiritual life, the subject of its free choice and free will would appear on the surface to be of very little relevance. In actual fact, however, to understand completely the significance of Humanity´s free choice and free will requires the mind of an Adept, a very highly evolved being, for if you can truly understand the limits of Humanity´s choice, and the limits of Humanity´s will, you will understand creation in its design and structure in the whole Universe.

Free choice is fairly self-evident. It means that a person is free to exercise their choice. It means that a person has a choice before them and that they are free to choose one path or the other, one way or another. Free will, on the other hand, by its very terminology -- will -- implies a force, a power. If you impose your will on somebody else you are directing a power, an influence, onto that person and they have no choice in the matter: they are obeying your will. Therefore will does not involve choice.

Will is a power directed or employed by a higher vibration, by a more evolved person, onto a less evolved person. Consequently a less evolved person cannot impose their will on a more evolved person. It has to be the more evolved person who imposes the will.

Free Choice

Having defined free choice and free will let us now examine whether or not you are actually free to exercise your choice and your will. Let us begin by looking at free choice. Throughout your everyday lives you are continually faced with alternatives, some simple, some complicated. If you think about it you exercise choice at almost every minute of the day. You are forever deciding what you want to do, and by the very act of making a decision you are choosing between two alternatives.

This is the way in which you progress in life and learn; for the result of your choice has an effect, and depending upon the reasons or the motivations for your choice so the effect upon you will vary. Now I am not saying that you can choose rightly or wrongly for there is, in reality, no such thing as right or wrong. You will choose, and how you choose will have an effect upon you. What is it, then, that leads you to exercise that choice??

The Mind

You can make a choice over many things. You can choose, for example, where you want to live and with whom you want to live. You can decide what colour to paint your house, what type of car to buy, what kind of food you want to eat, and so on. In the material world in which you live today there are many choices which have to be made and, although perhaps you would not think so, the influences that lead you to make those choices are numerous.

The factors which influence your choice and impinge on your mind -- for the mechanism of deciding a choice is within the mind -- are very varied. It is the mind that decides your choice, and there are many sources from which that mind draws. It could be the soul, it could be the personality, it could be any one of your finer bodies reacting on your mind to influence your choice. So when you exercise choice try to establish which factors are leading you to make that choice and, as in all things, try to establish what the motivation is, what the motive force is, for that choice.

The Act of Choosing

You incarnate on the Earth with the divine gift of free choice, and it is by the exercising of that choice, properly controlled, that you will learn. If the choice is not controlled then you will learn and evolve very slowly. Those of you who have begun to control your physical and other bodies, and to impose the discipline of your soul on your mind, will begin to make a responsible choice, and I emphasize the word "responsible", in all your everyday actions, and so you will evolve more rapidly. Therefore think before you make that choice so that you make the correct one, not only for yourself but also for those around you. It is important that you think about the act of choosing for it involves the whole reason for your incarnation and existence.

Part Two follows....

This article is from "The Fantastic Teachings of Ramala".