My 2 cents - i don't believe we can change our fate. But we can use our freewill to change our habits and perhaps because we change our habits it might lead us to a better path than the path that we were destined to follow base on our birth chart. Freewill here implies to me that you have to recognize a need to change and you want to do it. Ernst said in many of his videos "You are what you get". Fate is fate, and it is going to happen when it happens. But if you change you bad habits then when a fated event happens, you might be ale to handle it more intelligently and more harmoniously.
@tuyetv each time I listened to my inner voice/intuition saying “yes”, it brought up positive things in my life, each time I didn’t listen to the “no”, it brought negative outcome. I can retrace the exact moment I heard it and ignored it. Do I believe that, if I had listened, it would not have happened? Yes, 200%. Does it mean I didn’t learn a good lesson in the process or that I will never experience pain and death in my life? No, that would be immature because of the human condition but I also don’t believe we are robots or puppets manipulated by planets (which is how I interpret “fate” as opposed to “free will”). Actually, Vic DiCara wrote a great book on the topic. And yes I love that quote from Ernst though I wonder if it’s not the other way around “you get what you are” (?).
@mona Yes i think it is important to listen to that "inner voice" because that inner voice is always right. But it takes time and maturity to trust your inner voice. I know i am a certain way because the planets placement are a certain way in my birth chart. As i am approaching my second Sade Sati, i looked back at my life and compared it to my birth chart. I can see why certain event happened or not happened base on my chart as that is my fate. The condition of the planets such as agitated, shame, delight and proud - yes i have experienced them all. The LA course is the most psychological rewarding course for me as had i known earlier in my life of my weaknesses or a disposition to be a certain way, i could have tried to change those habits. Regrets, sadness, lack of fulfillment yes absolutely, but also happiness and proud of all the things that i have accomplished despite of all these bad avashtas i have in my chart. We can only learn from our mistakes and move forward. Freewill can change your path, your destiny only if you recognize you are unhappy and want to make that change, that inner shift...
I started studying astrology several years ago as a hobby. But it has been a great personal and spiritual growth journey for me. It taught me a lot about me. I can make the changes in my habits to have a more rewarding and fulfilling life despite of the fate in my birth chart
tuyet
@tuyetv yes 100% agree. The trick with free will is to figure out whether it really is free (versus conditioned by unconscious habits/patterns)
@mona, since we are talking about inner voice i would like to share an experience today.
I found a ripe mango in the US!!, Something was telling me, not today! It was so tempting and ripe that I cut it and started eating. I found out that I had a small ulcer in between my two front teeth and I started bleeding ! I stopped eating them and kept in the fridge. No damage done! So now I know inner voice exists!
@scoobydoo It exists in each of us for sure, and, in my experience, it’s always so subtle. Then, I go “damn it, I had heard it”. 🙂 i just discovered this French lady who’s doing a lot of work with kids and she says that we don’t need to learn how to operate, but that we need to learn how we operate. I thought this was a perfect way to summarize habitual ways to operate vs the ability to listen to the Self.
If the Avasthas change every year, is one still not limited to which habits one can change during that year, or during that 52-day period, or even every day? There are maturation periods, and Dasas, and planetary returns. Each day, each month, each year, we understand more and more, we change more and more. That’s why I am wondering if changing habits is also fated. This is what I am seeing through astrology and the cards.
The only thing left to do then is to accept our mistakes, learn from them, try to avoid them next time, forgive ourselves, forgive others, release our pain, release our anger - so basically just be ok with all that is. I guess that is our Free Will - hold on to things that make us feel agitated, or make peace with them.
Our Free Will then becomes about accepting our feelings at that particular moment. I am angry or sad or happy or clever or whatever. Full stop. Not add a reason to it as to why we are feeling a certain way.
As children, we learnt to associate our feelings with incidents that happened in our life. So the basis of our feelings are based on assumptions, and we carry it on throughout our life. We associate reasons for feeling a certain way. This situation made me feel happy so I will try to recreate it so I can feel happy. Or this situation made me feel sad so I will avoid it at all costs. And as life goes on, we learn to add more and more drama to situations.
So our Free Will will then be about letting all that drama fall away. Life is just this, in this moment, at this time, in this lifetime. There is no past, there is no future. I am alive right now. I change what I can, and accept what I can’t. This is what is being taught all the time, throughout the ages, throughout different cultures. And that is the hardest part to do. Because that means that the ego/mind has to accept its faults in perception and its limitations.
We think in terms of us, the small ‘I’. But the small ‘I’ is a part of a bigger picture. Everything that this small ‘I’ does creates ripples which are needed to create the bigger picture.
This is just my perspective that I am sharing as I see it at this time.
I agree with everything you say about accepting faults.
My definition of free will is learning to control the mind to act in a certain way (whether mind agrees or not) based on learnings from past life experiences.
As for changing habits, Gita says that every twelve years bodily changes occur naturally that also provides a platform for mental changes to happen. But consciously making effort to improve habits can speed up the timeline.
It also says mental changes are hard because we have to remove the seeds of those habits in subconscious (subtle connections in the brain) in order to prevent recurrence of those habits.
In the end, the only thing we are responsible for is ourselves and the only person we are accountable to is ourself.
From who´s perspective are we seeing this? From an all-knowing God´s perspective it may all follow the plan, i.e. being fated. But if we don´t have access to the plan and even if we had, can´t read it - what point is there to speak about a plan?
Whether a change is already written into God´s book is just not up for up to know.
Mattias