DETERMINISM
A mind cannot think freely when it is shackled to the distracting wants and desires of a body. And a body cannot be free when it is unable to see that identity is an illusion. We surround ourselves with constant reminders of who we are. It is as though we will forget what interests and values we posses if our trinkets and ornaments ceased to exist. Our memories are just as restrictive, channeling us down narrow paths and blocking our freewill.
We act predictably and without thought. Memory tells us how to behave and we abide by it’s rigid laws as though such rules are sacrosanct. Until we realise that materialism is unnecessary and that our memories do not need to dictate to us our future, we will continue to act like mindless drones.
Our environment and memories control our bodies and our bodies control our minds. It should not be this way. Until this is reversed we will not posses free-will. Physical reality manipulates our bodies into acting and behaving in a predictable way. We do not see it, but we are reacting to stimulus without thought or decision. We are bio-chemical reactions, and such reactions produce predictable results. If you heat water to a certain temperature it will boil at a set point. If you put the reward of a cake in front of craving dopamine receptors then they too will react in a predictable way. Any decision to deny the cake is just as predictable providing that the reward system sees future gratification as a benefit from it’s immediate denial.
The environment controls the boiling water and allows us to know what will happen before it even boils, it follows laws of physics that can be predicted with intricate accuracy. Likewise, our bodies abide by such laws, and they too are just as predictable.
In the primordial soup billions of years ago, certain chemicals and organic compounds began to group together and self-replicate due to complex bio-chemical reactions. Over time these compounds formed cells and the cells then began forming more complex organisms such as bacteria. Still, they behaved in predictable ways, reacting to stimulus in the way that bio-chemical reactions do. At some point in our long evolution, we became conscious. We gained the ability to act in an unpredictable manner due to the development of complex neurological chemistry sensory input feedback loops that create awareness. Such loops are of near infinite complexity. Evolution gave us an ability to react to stimuli by allowing us to make logical choices and we no longer had to react to changes in our environment by following a single, pre-defined route.
We gained the ability to consciously manipulate physical reality rather than simply react to it. But many of us do not use this skill. The bacteria can be forgiven because it does not decide to self-replicate or remain alive, it just does. Humans can not be forgiven so easily. We posses the ability to act freely and break from the rules and laws that the bacteria and water are subject to but we do not.
We gratify our bodies and just like the bacteria and water we predictably react to changes in our environment. We are chained to impulses, desires and urges. We therefore do not posses full control over our bodies, and by extension our environments controls us, dictating our paths in life to us.
If we wish to think freely then we need to realise that our brains and our minds are two separate things. The brain is a physical tool that channels an esoteric energy consisting of quantum probabilities, but for many people their brains are what governs their minds with almost 100% predictability. Neural plasticity has shaped our brains into seeking positive affirmation at all costs. Our brains cater to bodies that are constantly in need of pleasure and comfort and they are never content when they get these luxuries in ample amounts.
As a result of this constant pursuit of gratification our brains blindly search for ways to feed their dopamine receptors and in doing so they suppress conscious decision making and free will. We act as though our reward systems are being neglected when in reality they are being spoilt. If we stop feeding our dopamine receptors they will search for gratification elsewhere. Seratonin will start to regulate your brain and you will begin to find pleasure in the simplest of things… Your reward system craves what it does not have and it will find pleasure and comfort in just existing if you deny it it’s artificial diets.
Gorging upon unnatural abundance will lead to the destruction of this planet and all that dwell upon it. It will be unfair for the species that did not yet get a chance to evolve to our level but it will not be a tragedy, no, because no one is even alive to witness this destruction. We are all dead. And the dead do not need gratification but only the living know this…
Even the monk who wishes only to eat and drink is an addict and only denial will free him. His body will turn to worms and the worms will turn to dirt but he will have departed ways with it long before it breathed it's last whisper.