A Paradox: Free Will? Surrender, First.
In our Age of Individuality, it is deeply unfashionable to speak of Destiny or Fate, uncool to question Free Will. But, I come from another tradition, where we learn early on to accept the vicissitudes of fortune—good and, especially, bad— without the additional burden of our doubt or resistance. Part of it is religious, yes, but the other part is cultural. For example, having experienced some great loss, a believer will simply point to their forehead and say: Maktoob ('it is written').
This reminds me of lines from a poem I greatly admired, as a teenager, The Rubaiyat, by the not-exactly-religious, Persian poet-mathematician-astronomer, Omar Khayyám (1048-1131)
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
―Omar Khayyám
And, because I believe Truth agrees with itself, decades later, I wholeheartedly embraced another philosopher's formulation from another tradition. The Stoic trick was maintaining a will (prohairesis) in harmony with the natural world—a sober self-control that yielded to fate.
The great philosopher of Late Stoicism, Seneca (4 BC-65 AD), illustrated this world-view with a powerful metaphor:
An animal, struggling against the noose, tightens it... there is no yoke so tight that it will not hurt the animal less if it pulls with it than if it fights against it. The best alleviation for overwhelming evils is to endure and bow to necessity.
Below, is my own brief meditation, in verse, on this vast, elusive subject.
does one get ahead,
but by allowing
oneself to be pulled
by the constant
tug of all things.
Follow the invisible,
indivisible silken thread
drawing you forth.
We exercise our free will
by following our Destiny.
Think of existence
as a great love story—
every shy creature,
or mysterious truth,
wishes to be courted.
Proceed as the way opens,
the Quakers say.
©Yahia Lababidi
My search within has revealed pretty much the same conclusion. We are free to struggle against the tide and then suffer and tire ourselves out. Or we are free to swim with the tide and get where we are going to be with ease. That said, I do not believe our fates are decided for us; cased closed, rather forces of have been set in motion and one cannot stand against them; one cannot change the past; she can however redirect in small ways, perhaps choose a better landing, so to speak. We do this by attending to our psyche/spirit, which then creates a clearer mind. Any free will realized comes from having a free and clear mind, one not caught up in resistance and judgement. Everything else is out of our conscious control and we are good to have faith that it is working as it should. Faith, not always religion, but faith, creates a clear mind:) This is the Tao. Beautiful and true by any name.
Another wonderful piece, Yahia:)
Thank you, for the echo, Pryde, I thought this would resonate with you, given your appreciation for the Tao. Yes, I also believe we can redirect in small ways by not standing in our way. There is a famous Christian prayer (by American theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr) that I grew up with, on a wooden plaque on in our family home, which clarifies this distinction for me:
Thank you, for listening with an open heart, Pryde
_/|\_Wow your article is pretty convincing. Also I feel so anxious and frighten from your main picture. It portrays a very explicit yet raw with its concept of invocation of a disguised angel (you might know who). But it somehow reflects the world generally. Yeah everything in your article is great! I commend you for that bravery. Sometimes everyone neglect the reality that everything matters in spiritual, not the physical.
I'm glad you got something out of this, @davealemana. I do believe that we are, essentially, spiritual beings having a human experience and like to explore this mystery in my writing.
As for that main image, I used it because I found it quite beautiful (in a complicated way, obviously) as a kind of dramatization of the ongoing struggle for goodness, hope & transcendence.
The image is from a film, Endless Poetry (2016) by Chilean-French artist: Alejandro Jodorowsky—
You are either very brilliant or excellent at researching. This is so thorough and well-said.
I didn't know the translation of Maktoob, but it is so beautiful. I love it.
Is it not possible to be both ;)
One of Aristotle’s definitions of genius (I paraphrase) is a facility for metaphor — to see hidden remains.
Glad you enjoyed it and Maktoob resonates with you 🙏🏼
This part of the poem speaks a lot of untold..!
Pushing through everything cant guarantee a success. The ability to learn and adapt with the situation and act thereby, thats what make us more wise and confident...
Best regards.!
~ Tennis Girl 🎾🎾
Sometimes, our wants tend to scare things off, and we must step back to allow things to come to us...
Radical acceptance & radical gratitude is success 🙏🏼
exactly... we need to learn to balance between acceptance and eagerness...
This is very nice, alot of people still believe in destiny, that its all written in the stars but yet the amount of free will we have, the ability to do and undo says otherwise
Thanks, but if you read, closely, you'll see that I'm one of those people who still believe in destiny. Let me put it, differently. I believe we can fine tune the stations we receive or listen to static, but we are not free to switch stations, entirely :)
Thanks for share motivational article for us.....carry on