”Free will”…?

Imagine a strange magical prison with a prisoner in the middle of the room. For every step he makes, the prison moves one step in the same direction. Simply put, although the prisoner can “freely” move, the prison moves with him, and he is still forever caged within the prison walls.

Imagine that “prisoner” being you, or your ego. Imagine the “prison” being your mind. How’s that? Too far fetched? What if there is:

– two glass windows in the prison, which allows the prisoner to see things outside the prison walls – two small holes in the walls to allow for fresh air. – a small flap door to let outsiders bring food inside.

How’s that? You only see what your eyes can see, hear what your ears can hear and smell what your nose can smell. What difference in principle is there between the “prison” and our bodies?

Then are we justified to say that our body is a “prison”? Faiths that believe in existence of souls may agree with that, but I wouldn’t make that inference so hastily.

Imagine that you are indeed the prisoner, locked up in that magic prison. One day your “prison” disappears. Are you free? No doubt “free-er”, but then you are still locked up in your body. And now, imagine what would happen if your soul (assuming that it exists) leaves your body. Would you be “free” this time?

If you were thinking the things that you would “see”, “hear”, “smell” or whatsoever in your new acquired “soul”, or if you imagined a soul which could only sense things around the “soul body”, you are STILL TRAPPED. You are trapped by your mind. Imagine “seeing” and “hearing” everything happening in the entire universe simultaneously. And not even that. Imagine sensing all the basic particles moving around in seemingly total chaos and even being able to comprehend all that overwhelming amount of information! Imagine that! Could we say… “God”? And yet, why confine yourself to a single universe? Or even a physical one? Why limit your mind to things that exists? How about the non-existent?

And while the list can go on forever, one thing is clear — your mind will never be able to comprehend such an infinitum of concepts. Your mind is locked within a finite space of ideas and concepts, so very like the “magic prison” we have above. You may try to enlarge the prison, even to destroy it — only to find in the end that the prison remains. Breath at the expense of depth, volume at the expense of detail. You are still right inside, only perspectives change.

Perhaps the only way to set free is for the mind to cease to exist — which breaks all concepts of freedom itself.

Of course, I do not seek to refute “free will”. The debate between “free will” and “determinism” is not entirely on topic. I simply see “free will” as much as a person inside the “magic prison” is a free person.

This was felt so deeply in my darkest days.

Of course, what matters is the illusion of freedom. All are illusions.

And illusions are good as long as you never find out or believe the “truth”.

But there is no truth.

（原文於 2015 年 2月發佈，大概撰寫於 2007 年左右）