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Originally Posted by Jason S  I just read through this thread... seems kind of a closed loop... I didn't see anyone trying to reconcile LOA with other concepts such as FREE WILL... |
This is quite easy to reconcile.
(As a matter of fact, if you have some experience in meditation, you won't even need to reconcile it intellectually. Your direct experience in meditation will explain this matter).
All of us have free will. But the ability to exercise it is another question. We can expand and develop this ability, but it certainly has limits. And that's because we are habit-forming creatures.
When we have thought a certain thought, it becomes easier to repeat it. When we have repeated the thought many times, it becomes a habit, a conditioning.
A habit, or a conditioned pattern of thinking, may serve us well, or it may serve us badly. Or it may be appropriate for certain situations, and inappropriate for other situations. The problem is, once the habit is formed, we cannot escape it so easily, even if we wanted. We lapse automatically into the habit / pattern.
And there goes our free will - our ability to consciously choose our response.
By "habit", you may think of easily observable, external forms of behaviour. Such as smoking, or regular exercise, or swearing, or brushing your teeth. Instead we actually form habits, or patterns, about just anything and everything in our lives.
For example, the way you spend money is a habit. The way you treat your spouse is a habit. The way you tidy your home is a habit. The way you trust or do not trust certain people is a habit. The way you regard your job is a habit. The way you walk is a habit. The way you respond to bosses, or peers, or old ladies, or sales staff, or pastors, or rude drivers, is also a habit
We form patterns, habits, around all these things.
So patterns / habits / conditioning all zap our free will. They make us respond in a certain automated way. We are unconscious, so to speak.
Free will is when you are sufficiently conscious, to consciously choose your response. For example, suppose your colleague criticises you in front of everyone. Depending on your personality, your automatic response may be to get angry, or to retreat and sulk.
But if you have a high degree of free will, you are able to decide consciously on your response. Then a range of other possibilities open up:
(a) you could ignore your colleague;
(b) you could pause to consider the possible reasons why your colleague said such a thing;
(c) you could ask everyone else for their honest feedback on what your colleague had just said;
(d) you could decide to punch your colleague in the nose;
(e) you could deliver a calm, sharp, witty rebuttal to your colleague's comment;
(f) you could calmly explain to everyone why you do not think your colleague's comment is justified.
Whatever. My point is to illustrate free will.
Now in a LOA/IM context, free will really relates to your ability to choose your thoughts. Given any situation, instead of automatically thinking what immediately comes to your mind, you choose only to think the most helpful, constructive, pleasing or positive thoughts.
And because thoughts create reality (this is the assumption in our discussion), such positive thoughts would translate into reality.
Of course, the problem is that we all have, to a lesser or greater degree, negative patterns of thoughts which make it challenging to exercise this free will, all the time.