Humans have free will, but the blind actions of free will make us less and less free.
Are you pursuing freedom or following karma?

Today, let’s further explore the reality of life.

We know that humans have subjective agency, that is, humans have free will and creativity. According to natural science, based on the second law of thermodynamics, an isolated system tends to increase in entropy, eventually reaching a state with maximum entropy, which is the most disordered state of the system.

However, in an isolated system, if there is an organism with free will, the entropy of the isolated system can continue to decrease before the organism dies. This seems to violate natural science.

Let’s consider a simple example: a river flows eastward. This is in line with the law of nature. In the river, everything without free will inevitably flows eastward. However, living organisms with free will can swim against the current all the way to the source of the river. Furthermore, things driven by organisms with free will can also move against the current.

Human beings are called spiritual beings, because their spirituality is reflected in their free will. However, although humans have free will, they don’t understand the reality and truth of the universe and life. Thus, their free will tends to act ignorantly, which is blind action. The actions of free will produce inertial force, which doesn’t disappear but is stored as energy in each individual’s mind.

Free will is constantly acting, and in the process, it accumulates more and more inertial energy. We refer to the inertial energy accumulated from the actions of free will as “karma”. The energy accumulated through repeated karmic actions is known as “karmic habit”.

Karma is categorized into positive karma, negative karma, and neutral (neither positive nor negative) karma. The habituation of positive karma is called positive karmic habit, the habituation of negative karma is called negative karmic habit, while the habituation of neutral karma is called neutral karmic habit. These karmic habits are stored as energy in each individual’s mind.

In our daily lives, we have heard the term ‘Zào Yè’ (creating karma). ‘Zào’ means creating or generating, while ‘Yè’ refers to the inertial energy accumulated from the actions. Creating karma doesn’t mean “committing sins”. “Committing sins” specifically refers to creating negative karma.

In our daily lives, we have also heard terms such as ‘Shì Yè’ (career) and ‘Jiā Yè’ (family property), where ‘Jiā Yè’ refers to the wealth and assets accumulated by family members through hard work.

It’s important for us to have a clear and profound understanding of the term “karma”. “Karma” is inertia energy, and the habituation of karma is called karmic habit. Karmic habit, in turn, exerts a force on free will, and this force is called karmic force. As the karmic habit and karmic force grow stronger and stronger, the freedom of humans becomes less and less.

Let’s take smoking as an example.

If a person doesn’t smoke at all, then in regard to smoking, they have neither karmic habit nor karmic force, they are completely free.

However, one day, tempted by a friend, they decide to try smoking. Initially, they only smoke occasionally without getting addicted, so the compulsion to smoke is very weak. In other words, their karmic habit of smoking is very weak. In regard to smoking, they still have a relatively high degree of freedom.

After a period of habituation, they gradually increase their smoking frequency from one pack every two days to one pack per day. The karmic habit of smoking gradually intensifies, and they start to become addicted to smoking. At this point, somehow the karmic force of smoking makes them feel compulsive and lack freedom. We refer to the sense of compulsion and lack of freedom brought by the karmic force as pervasive suffering.

As the addiction to smoking intensifies, they have to smoke two or even three packs per day. At this point, the karmic force generated by smoking already becomes very powerful. In regard to smoking, they have very little freedom.

If they choose not to smoke, the karmic force will make them experience great suffering; if they succumb to the karmic force and smoke, they will experience the suffering of change (happiness), which further strengthens the karmic habit.

From then on, the pervasive suffering brought by the smoking addiction drives them to live a life of continuous smoking under the compulsion of the karmic force, thereby constantly switching between suffering and suffering of change (happiness), creating a vicious cycle. In regard to smoking, they have transitioned from a state of freedom and peace to a state without freedom and peace.

Let’s take playing games as another example.

If a person doesn’t play games at all, then in regard to gaming, they have neither karmic habit nor karmic force, they are free.

However, one day, tempted by a friend, they decide to try playing games. Initially, they only play games occasionally without getting addicted, so the compulsion to play games is very weak. In other words, their karmic habit of gaming is very weak. In regard to gaming, they are still relatively free.

After a period of habituation, they gradually increase their gaming frequency from one or two hours per day to four or five hours per day. The karmic habit of gaming gradually intensifies, and they start to become addicted to gaming. Somehow the karmic force of gaming makes them feel compulsive and lack freedom. In other words, they start to experience pervasive suffering.

As the addiction intensifies, they may often play games all day long, and even stay up all night. Some individuals have even played to the point of exhaustion or sudden death. These news reports are not isolated cases.

At this point, the karmic force generated by gaming already becomes very powerful. In regard to gaming, they have very little freedom. If they choose not to play, the karmic force will make them experience great suffering; if they succumb to the karmic force and continue playing, they will experience the suffering of change (happiness), which further strengthens the karmic habit.

From then on, the pervasive suffering brought by the gaming addiction drives them to get addicted to gaming under the compulsion of the karmic force, thereby constantly switching between suffering and suffering of change (happiness), creating a vicious cycle. In regard to gaming, they have transitioned from a state of freedom and peace to a state without freedom and peace.

In summary, the blind actions of free will generate karma, and the accumulation of karma forms karmic habits. When a karmic habit exerts a force on free will, the karmic habit is also called karmic force.

Karma inevitably brings about a sense of compulsion and lack of freedom to humans. In other words, karma inevitably leads to pervasive suffering.

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