There’s an idea that I think might be important. It is the interplay between desire, freewill and fate. All humans have desires and things that they want or need. These desires can motivate people to do amazing things, but they can also fill people with fear and anger and cause them to do absolutely horrible things. Desire can cause people to do heroic and self-sacrificing actions, but it can also cause them to do selfish and evil actions. Some Eastern philosophies suggest that to become free of all desire is to reach a state of self-actualization, but I don’t think that actually works because humans will always need, if they are alive. They need in the very least food and water for survival. I believe that instead of becoming free of desire, human beings have to develop a new relationship with desire.
Here’s my example. In the United States, most people need money because money buys shelter, food, and necessities. I have seen many people do horrible things to get money and once they have money, they will continue to do the horrible things to get more money because no matter what they do, the desire for money will never go away. There will never be enough money. Most people don’t understand this fact. So, they just continue to try to meet their desire for money. I also have a desire for money to buy necessities, but I also recognize that it is a desire that can never be satisfied. Therefore, I don’t really make my desire for money a priority. I know it can’t be satisfied so there’s no reason to go above and beyond to try to get more and more money when no matter how much I get, I will always need more. Most desires are like this. Once I recognize that most desires can’t be attained or satisfied, then I can let them go and be free of them.
Then, there’s the question of free will versus fate. This idea has been brought to my mind recently. It’s a paradox. God has given us free will, but God is timeless and knows everything. He sees all time at once. So, if He knows my entire life, every minute of it, then how can I have free will? It doesn’t make any sense in terms of human thinking. In human thinking, it is either free will or fate, but God exists outside of dualities. At least, that’s what I have come to believe. God exists where evil and good seem the same because God doesn’t place those values on things. It is the same with happiness and sorrow. In God’s existence, free will and fate can happen together. His understanding of the Universe is without values, without time, and without space. It blows my mind to even try to conceive of it, but I know that it exist.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
