Fate Vs Free Will

Photo Credit : richardmasoner (License)

The question whether we are driven by our fate or if we have a free will to choose the path we walk on has always been intriguing. In the east, it is a common belief that the life is guided by the fate and if you are from west, you most probably believe that life is what we make out of it i.e., we have free will.

Are we carrying out a pre-written agenda that someone out there has handed out to us upon our birth or is it that our life is for us to make is a question as ancient as our consciousness itself. Are we merely steering towards our destiny which is already fixed or is it that we determine where we drive? Is there no point in striving to do better since everything is already decided and our action or inaction does not make any difference?

Did you find yourself asking this question anytime? I have. In this article I want to share my perspective of this age old debate.

Let us for a second consider that life is all pre-determined, that is irrespective of what we do or not do, we are bound to end up at the place we are ‘supposed to’. How does that make us feel. It makes me feel vulnerable, the very idea of being the puppet carrying out the script without any control whatsoever makes me feel weak. If fate is what determines our lives and further assuming that it is fixed the day we were born, why are we still praying God/spirit? How many people in the world would pray God or believe in spirit if there is no hope for change? To me hope dies the minute we conclude that something is ‘fixed’.

I don’t know about you but I am selfish. When I pray God, I ask for many things – I ask him to show me ways to keep Healthy, make me wealthy, to have right people in my life and for right circumstances. If someone told me that the life that I live is just the way it was supposed to be and I did not make it that way by consciously choosing it – hope/faith/trust, whatever you call, would have no longer have any meaning for me. The only reason for anyone to believe in supreme power is that change is always a possibility, that will and persistence make a difference.

For example, assume that spirit created us with an internal GPS (Global Positioning System), as per fate theory, there is already an address feed in there, all we are doing is going through our lives only heading towards the destination set for us. May be this is true, it is true for everyone who had forgotten that the same spirit also gave us the freedom to change the address at any time. Spirit has always handed the controls into our hands, whether we make use of them or not is upto us. Even if our destiny is set, we will not even reach there if we stop taking action at all, you see GPS only guides you but you still have to do the driving to reach any destination – whether pre-set or made out of free will.

What if we had the choice all the time to make the change? Greatest tragedy in life is to have this freedom at our disposal all the time and never to have use it. Even if you firmly believe in fate, try to entertain the thought that change is indeed possible. If you are a believer in free will, entertain the thought of being driven by fate – this contrast will lead us to a great sense of freedom. Fate seekers will see the possibilities and free will believers will learn not to be hard on themselves if something does not work. When we appreciate the contrast we get great insights.

It was believed that if a man was born to fly, God/spirit would have created him with wings and Wright Brothers were criticized for even going against the God’s will or FATE of humanity. It was also believed (even today in some parts of the world) that birth of children is God’s will, you will have as many as he wills i.e., according to your fate. If humanity accepted these beliefs as destiny/fate do you think we could have ever taken a flight or develop birth control methods? Any invention ever made is always a result of free will powered by the supreme spirit.

The idea that everything is left to our choice and that life is ours for making is comforting but is more scarier than the idea of having a ‘fixed’ fate, because it means that we are now 100% responsible for where we are or where we are going. Suddenly, we realize that our parents, teachers, boss, spouse, kids or our pets are not to be blamed for what is going on in our lives! Free will is a great freedom and a great responsibility.

Fate or free will – what we believe in will be true for us. One of the hardest concepts to understand is that whether we believe in fate, free-will, miracles or in mundane survival, whatever the belief is, it will become our reality. Because the way we perceive our outer reality is always driven by our minds ‘inner reality’, nothing ever exists without our minds. What drives our minds? Thoughts! How are these thoughts driven depends on what we believe in, if we believe in fate – everything looks like a mere existence and if we believe in free will, everything looks like a miracle. Albert Einstein once said “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

The whole essence of Buddha’s teachings is ‘to watch our thoughts’.

Below quote (author anonymous) reiterates the teachings of Buddha, ponder on it and try to sink it into your being:

Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.

All the great teachers I have learned of have always said one thing and one thing only, your life is for you to make and the only way is through the thoughts. Once we place our belief in something, we will be shown ways which will lead on to prove what we accept in our lives as true.

You always have a choice, whether to believe in fate or free will, choose yours carefully!