My relationship to these topics is a very special one. As an astrologer I have observed since almost 40 years now, that a lot of what we experience inside and outside ourselves “is written in the stars” meaning, that it coincides with certain astronomical conditions. That means, that the celestial bodies in our solar system are in certain relationships to each other, which are usually called “astrological constellations“ by astrologers, when we have certain inner and/or outer experiences. Now – we have to make some very important distinctions first, before we can enter more deeply into this.
Some things are very easy to explain, like when the Sun is above the horizon, we usually experience more light and warmth, since the sunlight penetrates the atmosphere of our planet and heats and lights it up. Or like when Earth, Moon and Sun are aligned, the tides of our oceans are much more powerful, than when they are not. Because when they are aligned, the gravitational forces of Moon and Sun are added and thus intensified and so they create stronger tides in the oceans on our planet Earth. Such kind of things can easily be explained with the laws of physics.
But why certain astronomical relationships between celestial bodies like Uranus and Pluto, which are extremely far away from Earth coincide again and again with disappointing experiences, can not be explained by the laws of physics. But these coincidences happen again and again and I observe them since almost 40 years. So astrologers can not say “this happens because of that” as if we knew any physical cause and effect relationship. We only observe that certain astronomical relationships always (!) go along with disappointing experiences. We can’t explain “how that works” but it works anyway, and we are in aw.
These observations of coincidences, and there are many, many, many different ones, and I observed thousands of them, had consequences for me. One was that this had a strong impact on me, and my understanding of the concept of “free will” was altered and differentiated again and again over the years. This impact, which I received over almost 40 years, in small doses again and again, was so strong, that if an unprepared human being would receive that impact condensed into only one moment, I guess he or she would probably drop dead or enter into a total paralyzed state or into psychosis right away. Becoming aware of the “limitations of free will” is not so easily digestible for human beings. Another further consequence of my observations is, that I know that I know what I am talking about based on these many years of experience, when it comes to the topics of “having a choice and free will” and others don’t. That may sound pretty arrogant, I am quite aware of that.
But whenever I read statements of neurologists or spiritual teachers of non-dual teachings, like Dzogchen or Advaita, which say something like “there is no free will at all, there is no person, here is nobody at all” and so on, I think ‘You are right to a certain extend, but your statements about these topics are not very differentiated, to put it mildly. It might be, you only have a very slight idea, what you are actually talking about. And your statements are dangerous, especially when you formulate these negative statements, as if they were universal truths. Because when they reach someone in the wrong moment, they may have a deeply destructive and discouraging effect on that human being.’
Why? Because using universal terms like “not at all”, “no one”, “everybody”, “always”, “never”, “everywhere”, “nowhere” and so on have a distorting effect on perception, since they exclude differentiations. And the less differentiations we are able to be aware of, the less choices we are aware of! So a statement like “there are no choices and there is no free will” can easily become a self fulfilling prophecy. Did anyone around here study linguistics and hypnosis? Yes! I did! So as arrogant that might sound, I actually DO know what I am talking about here.
Why do some neurologists and spiritual teachers sometimes tend to use universal terms and generalisations? I do not have the slightest idea about why neurologists do that, but maybe there is some ego involved? Might be so, because it feels really great to the ego to say something like, “this is always so and true under all circumstances”, right? But what about the spiritual teachers, who use generalisations and universal terms as well and who supposedly have left behind their ego a long timeless time ago?
I guess spiritual teachers use universal terms, because when we leave the ego behind, we have universal experiences, experiences of universal consciousness, experiences of all and everything, right? So I guess that many spiritual teachers actually do know to some extent, what they talk about. And when we do have universal experiences, we naturally tend to use universal terms to communicate these universal experiences. So that is a natural thing and quite understandable, especially if a spiritual teacher did not study linguistics, hypnosis and the effect that the formal aspects of language have onto the conscious and especially the subconscious mind of people, for example of his or her students.
But even though these spiritual teachers may be blissfully unaware of their incompetence in communication, there may still be some quite negative effects. Because distorted language tends to have a distorting effect onto the human mind and psyche. Besides that, when the next „satori“ or the next universal experience happens, the spiritual teacher may find him- or herself in a totally new realm of universal consciousness and might come to the conclusion, that he or she did not even “touch the little left toe of god up to now” so to say. So all his or her former universal statements were pretty much wrong to some extent! Ups! But now he or she “really got IT” – unaware of the fact, that he or she never lost „IT“ in the first place – and so he or she will go on, even deeper convinced of his or her mission, and still lacking even the most basic knowledge about the relations between language, perception, mind and psyche.
That might not turn out to be totally disastrous as long as there is a “heart connection” which makes sure, that all human beings in a spiritual school “somehow get the vibe”. As long as that is there, that might be sufficient in some phases of the spiritual process. And there is an individual process, even for the pupils of the so called “sudden approach”!
Or do you have any other explanation, why some people – like me for example – spend years and years, to study Advaita or Dzogchen? Okay, maybe they are bad pupils, just idiots like me. That might be possible, okay. But basically the “sudden approach” means “sudden”, doesn’t it? One split second, introduction into the nature of mind, immediate enlightened forever, right? Happy end right after the beginning and end of story! There may be very gifted individuals who meet a teacher just one time, and that’s it, finished once and forever. But for some of us the spiritual journey, which is undertaken according to some teachers “by nobody at all” – which by the way means, that even Siddhartha, who later became known as the Buddha, did not exist – unfolds in a somewhat different way – even though the spiritual journey leads us from here to here and from now to now. Be that as it may.
Let us look at “the world“, which according to some nondual teachers “does not even really exist”. I guess these teachers are either total blockheads or so enlightened, that can not even imagine the state they are in in my wildest dreams. Let us look at that “illusionary” world we all live in, the human “civilisation” on planet Earth in the 21st century. When we look at all the manipulation by politicians, priests, lobbyists and businessmen in our societies, we should rather support the inner freedom and courage in our fellow human beings, instead of showing off with grandiose negative universal statements about things, like “having a choice and free will” which we ourselves do not fully understand.
Allow me admit at this point, that I also only have a still somewhat vague idea, what “having a choice” and “free will” are all about. Some aspects of these topics are clear to me, others are not. But there are still some very strong indications, even after almost 40 years of personal experience with astrology, that “having a choice and free will” actually do exist and are not only mere illusions. Paradoxically enough there are even some astrological constellations, which prove that “having a choice and free will” actually do exist. If you want to know more about it, I will be glad to share this knowledge.
Let us get back „down to Earth“ once again. If the manipulation and the structural and physical violence in our societies on planet Earth will go on the way they do, we will have more and more people on the streets, in prisons and concentration camps, than we already have today. And then, one day, even neurologists, spiritual teachers of nondual wisdom and astrologers will end up imprisoned.
Look at China; according to what we can find in the media, they have millions of people in concentration camps there already and their surveillance systems are even more nauseating and inhuman than the surveillance systems of the secret services in the US and in Europe. And so I believe, that we should not negate, that human beings do have a free will and the chance to make choices, but rather encourage our fellow human beings to be and become free human individuals.
Follow your bliss, if you feel inclined to do so <3
Vincento