So if I decide I want to walk up the high street dressed as a penguin on stilts playing the accordion and singing a Reggae version of “I’ve got a lovely bunch of cocoanuts,”  I had no choice but to do that ?

For me it's a non-problem.

God gave me free will, and I willingly gave it back.

That was a long time ago, way back in 1979, even signed it in blood.

Life had been really hard, but changed immediately after that, for the better.

I still consider that contract to be irrevocable.  Thats my belief anyway.

I doubt if anyone on their deathbed has ever celebrated being an aethist.

Queen Victorias last words were, *My kingdom for ten more minutes*.

Osho says that only those who are awakened can consciously cross over into death.

I dont know if thats true, but I do believe that God guided me to awakening, and then gave it to me.  I also believe that when I die I will go home to the Spirit in the Void, and that that is where I belong in the universe, whatever may happen to anyone else.

Exactly. Only it’s what you choose, rather than what you want.

The higher the level of spiritual evolution of a being, the more free will they have.  A completely unawakened person is asleep and so acts mechanically and automatically and not mindfully.  That’s why it’s vitally important to meditate.

Zen is ‘designed’ to train people to act and think and live spontaneously and freely and not mechanically.

            As for the logical argument: If I say ‘I do not have free will’ and it ‘turns out’ I don’t, that means I had no choice but to say that I do not have free will.  If I then say ‘I do have free will’ and it again ‘turns out’ that I do not, that means I had no choice but to say it even though I was convinced that I did in fact have the choice.  Both are effectively ‘no win’ situations, if you like.

            And if I say ‘I do not have free will’ and it ‘turns out’ I do,  that means I do have a real choice but choose instead to say or believe that I do not have free will (which is rather pointless and self-defeating).  If I then say ‘I do have free will’ and it ‘turns out’ that I do, that means I do have a choice to say or believe it, and chose to say it.

            I believe in the fourth and final option because it is the only one that does not lead to absurdity, contradiction and hopelessness. And also because it is the only ‘win’ situation of the four.

            It seems to me that if I say I don’t have free will, then effectively I don’t;  and if I say I do have free will, then effectively I do.  And this changes all the time according to what I say and believe. 

            But saying one moment that one does not have free will and then saying the next moment that one does, is a self-contradiction and totally senseless.  And given that actually believing one moment that one does not have free will and then actually believing the next moment that one does, would be a sign of madness (if it weren’t well-nigh psychologically impossible in any case) : it follows that the only sane, positive and creative option is to believe in free will and to say it.

            For me the only way out of the absurdity and contradiction is to actually believe that I have free will and act and live my life accordingly.

            I’m not sure whether you will have followed my argument which may not be entirely logically coherent lol. But I hope you get the drift.

            It all comes down to a question of belief and how awakened one is.  We can create our own reality.  And I choose to create a reality in which I have free will.

It would be great if this meant I could do anything I want, but it doesn’t.

But there’s no contradiction there.

There is no either/or when it comes to buddhas, only unrealized buddhas.

That is not to say we are buddhas, or unrealized buddhas for that matter

there is no such thing as freedom

nor a will to be restricted

where there is no prison,  what freedom is there to be sought?

There's no such thing as free will just as there's no such thing as a free lunch.

This is the timeless supreme wisdom.  

More spiritual truths to follow.  Don’t hold your breath.  It’s bad for you.  And don’t hyperventilate either.

As that great Zen master, philosopher and Pope, John-Paul Sartre II said, ‘man is condemned to be free.’ He also said, ‘because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.’

We have to believe in free will, otherwise we have no responsibility for our own actions. The social and spiritual consequences of this latter belief are highly undesirable for reasons that should be fairly obvious to the majority of rational beings to which I, like most practitioners of Zen,  of course do not belong  eBl.