Is will free or free within limits?

Is will free, or free within limits?

As to free will, each and every Soul is but a separated part of the One Life, and as such, its highest aspect has but the Will of the Father, that is, to do His will on earth in a separated body as it is done in the bosom of the Father. As it gets more and more immersed in matter, the True Self sets up many side issues as it were; makes many new karmic debts. And while the True Self never changes in its desire and will to be reunited with the Father, the lower or animal consciousness (the sum of the consciousness of the atoms composing the various bodies through which the Soul has garnered experience) has set up a will of its own. This has crystallised into an entity with a will opposed to the Will of the Real Self. This lower will is not free, for it can, and indeed must, ultimately, be subservient to the Will of the Real Self.

But perhaps this does not answer your question, for probably what you mean by free will is freedom of choice as to the guidance of the environments and experiences of life. But, in this case, as in the former, there is absolutely free will for the Real Self. For, being a separated part of the whole, the desire is to gain such experiences as shall fit it to fill the place which is its own in the Temple of Truth. At each incarnation, the Soul chooses such an expression in the earth life as shall give it the best opportunity to gain the needed knowledge. The Soul wills not that the perishable mortal body of flesh shall skim gaily through its allotted time, for only too well does the Soul know the dangers of such carefree lives and the depressing lines of Karma that result, which must be worked out ere it can go on with other needed experiences. It wills to suffer and conquer and learn. After the result of each petty life period is garnered, the Soul creates a new path in which to walk, perhaps even more strenuous than those already traversed. The Soul sees what is needed to impress the most important lessons upon the true consciousness, for the Soul never has experiences that are not needed. It wills to learn, and when the lesson is learned and the experience assimilated, it wills to experience something else, and so on and on until consciousness of all conditions on the earth-plane is garnered into the storehouse of the Real Self.

The Teacher

Boy with pigeons at Circular Quay, Sydney, 1935 | Sam Hood | State Library of New South Wales