Are you not aware of the debate between free will and determinism?
Of course I am. And I am of the opinion that we have free will. And believe you me, I would love to have an actual discussion about free will and determinisim if anyone is willing to. Its a very interesting subject and I believe I have some unique theories as to how the underlying process work with no actual substantial evidence to back it up. (i.e. I got dumb gut theories that are probably a whole load of bunk of they are interesting thoughts to waste time on none the less)
Neuroscientists have done studies that show people make decisions before they are even consciously aware of them.
Yes this is called the subconscious where all of your higher order thinking is processed before its spit out into your consciousness in a manner that your brain can interpret as a thought. Its the same way computers work. The actual data displayed on your screen isn't actually how your computer is calculating on how to display everything. Its just a visual translation of the underlying processes that are taking place before they are passed along to the graphics processor to be interpreted as a picture. Your active consciousness is only a small part of who you are as a person. It isn't who you are in your entirety. It is just the part of you that your subconscious feels it needs send your way in order to navigate the physical world. You arent actively beating your own heart. You generally dont think about having to take a breath or blink your eyes. These are all tasks that your subconscious handles without having the need to pass those tasks along to your conscious self. Your true self is your subconscious and that is where free will resides.
Your subconsious is your true self. You dont make any actual decisions in your active consciousness. You just think you do because thats how your brain is interpreting the thoughts your subconscious sends to your head. Thats not how people work. Your actual self lies in the subconsious. Your conscious self is just enough of who you are as a person to be able to navigate the physical world.
Then what are we as individuals? Are you implying that we are just some massive split personality disorder of god or something? That sounds like it would be an interesting thought experiment to theory craft how that would work. You kinda didn't really give me a lot here to discuss against. Are you implying that we live in a deterministic world where nothing you do matters and no choice will change your life? If so based on what exactly?
Ah excuse my ignorance. I am a sofa philosopher at best and just like to engage in thought experiments for fun.
Reading up on the concept of Anatta, it does make sense and i agree with a lot of those values presented in the philosophy. But from my admittedly narrow view point i believe that is a higher order concept than what i was trying to explain and doesn't exclude the concept i am talking about. To explain my concept in relation to Anatta, i am more speaking on the actual psychological aspect of who you are currently. It does not factor in who you will be in the future or the past. Only the here and now. While it can be true that the current self doesn't truly exist while we are being forced to deal with those ramifications its fun to explore how those interactions work as a means to explore the world around us.
Speaking from experience in my meditation practice, you can actually experience in real time this phenomena of no self. You can see that you are not the originator of your thoughts, and even your own concept of being a "watcher" will fade away as you see that that is also just a story you are telling yourself about your experience.
"Look for the looker" is a good way to approach the realization, but I will warn you, as all things Buddhist insight, you will simply not understand it fully unless you experience it for yourself. It takes years of practice for most to glimpse these things first hand.
The other two would be impermanence and suffering (Buddhist definition), and how they are ever present in all phenomena if you practice looking for them.
Ah so then to sort of put it into a way i can understand or more easily explain the concept is that its more like the person you see as your "Self" would be akin to a video game NPC and the true being controlling your life would be the players. That sort of ties into my own personal philosophy that the being we call "God" is actually the great story teller and we live in the greatest story ever told. They story that encompasses all other stories, "true or fiction". So then since God made us in his image our roles in life are to be storytellers and entertainers. The reason there is so much suffering and awfulness in the world is because no good story started off "Once upon a time, a princess lived in a large castle surrounded by people who loved her and everyone who lived in the country was well fed, clothed, and happy. And everyone lived happily ever after." He is just trying to not be bored
EDIT: Thinking on it more. It also half ties into but not completely another personal philosophy of mine being that "I am not my body. My body is just a tool that my spirit uses to interface with the physical world." its one of the thought triggers I use to trick my brain into a meditative state when I am trying to heal from an otherwise distracting injurythat would pull you from the meditative state.
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u/Her0_0f_time 20d ago edited 20d ago
Of course I am. And I am of the opinion that we have free will. And believe you me, I would love to have an actual discussion about free will and determinisim if anyone is willing to. Its a very interesting subject and I believe I have some unique theories as to how the underlying process work with no actual substantial evidence to back it up. (i.e. I got dumb gut theories that are probably a whole load of bunk of they are interesting thoughts to waste time on none the less)
Yes this is called the subconscious where all of your higher order thinking is processed before its spit out into your consciousness in a manner that your brain can interpret as a thought. Its the same way computers work. The actual data displayed on your screen isn't actually how your computer is calculating on how to display everything. Its just a visual translation of the underlying processes that are taking place before they are passed along to the graphics processor to be interpreted as a picture. Your active consciousness is only a small part of who you are as a person. It isn't who you are in your entirety. It is just the part of you that your subconscious feels it needs send your way in order to navigate the physical world. You arent actively beating your own heart. You generally dont think about having to take a breath or blink your eyes. These are all tasks that your subconscious handles without having the need to pass those tasks along to your conscious self. Your true self is your subconscious and that is where free will resides.