Q. Re determinism: if everything is predetermined, and we are just leaves floating down a stream, and there are too many factors to predict outcomes, can we not at least get some clues about the forces at work? What about "nudges" from the universe and coincidences....predetermined does not mean random, I sense...
G. Yeah, "nudges" are interesting. They occur a lot, and have a certain feel to them, more sensory and less mental. Adya spent a lot of time in one retreat talking about how to realize a real "nudge" (he didn't call them that - don't remember what he did call them) as distinct from something "from the mind".
Adya said to ask it why he should do that, etc. If there is an answer, it's the mind, with all sorts of reasons and explanations, and subsequent counter arguments. If there is no answer, that's the Universe (or whatever) - listen to it (the Universe doesn't like to repeat Herself).
It is a fascinating philosophical question. If i listen to the "nudge" after "testing it", is that "free will"? Do i have the ability to disrupt the entire course of history for all time for unknown others by listening to, or ignoring, the "nudge"?
Nah, it's just like everything else, thankfully, so the infinite unknown others can be at peace, or not as the case may be. Whether i listen to the nudge or not, whether i listen to what Nisaradatta is saying or not, whether i act on my latest desire or not, is all determined by the genetics, conditioning, experience, parenting, environment, education (and whether i listened or not), etc.
i cannot diverge from my "true nature" as it is what i am at the level of the dance and i didn't select it as it developed. There are lots and lots of Bhagavad Gita verses on this very subject, if that is dispositive.
On "coincidences", they represent for "me" one of the clearest empirical proofs of "something" being "everything". The probabilities are so minuscule, and so astonishingly difficult to arrange, and so "useful" and "appropriate" that it could only be done if She were Everything. Doing it from an "outside agent" is just too incomprehensible otherwise - too much data to gather too fast continuously on every element.
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