People often wonder if we really have free will or is everything predetermined? The answer according to Tantra yoga is yes to both of them! The answer lies in understanding the concept of Karma.
Actions and Reactions
Karma is a Sanskrit word literally meaning “action”. It generally means the law of action and reaction. You reap what you sow, so to speak. It is said for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You hurt me then later someone will hurt you. However the “equal reaction” only occurs if there is a reaction immediately after the action. If it takes times for the reaction to occur then the reaction will be with interest!
For example if I offend you and apologise immediately after saying the offensive words, the reaction towards me will be much less than if I say nothing. The offended person will carry the hurt and over time the reaction will likely become much greater than the original action when expressed.
Mental Distortions
When an action occurs it leaves an impression in the mind (not the brain) and these mental impressions are called “samskaras”. In other words, the portion of the mind that gets distorted from our action are called samskaras.
This distortion is unnatural for the mind, so as soon as the circumstances and environment are conductive to rectifying this distortion, the mind undergoes the reactions. You could loosely say we get attracted to situations that enable us to express these samskaras or distortions of the mind.
Inborn Samskara
Generally when we die we still have many unexpressed samskaras. The mind then leaves the dead body and through the guidance of the Cosmic Mind, the bodiless mind or soul, is guided into another body at about the time of conception. These samskaras are called “inborn samskaras” and determination what type of body we get, male or female, our health, disposition, the kind of family we are born into and many of the major life events that will occur.
It is important to remember samskaras are about giving us a particular experience, pleasant or unpleasant. How that experience comes about is according to our circumstances. For example, we may have to undergo the pain of an insult because we insulted someone in the past, or we may have to experience the pleasure of being praised because we gave pleasure to someone in the form of praise. However there are many way to experience praise and insult and it won’t necessarily come from the person we originally praised or insulted.
Imposed Samskara
There is a subsection to inborn samskaras and they are called “imposed samskaras”. There are five kinds:
- Education (including the media) we have which molds certain view points, biases and belief systems.
- Environment – where we live, eg near the sea or in mountains or the desert etc;
- Company – who are friends are, the type of people we mix with all effect us.
- Responsibility – certain responsibilities and obligations are imposed on us with karmic implications. If we ignore our responsibilities this will create a negative samskara which can force us to learn to be more responsible in that area previously ignored.
- Habit – All of these imposed samskaras results in the last imposed samksara which is called “habit samskaras”. As the mind continually takes on the thoughts and actions imposed by the environment, education, friends etc, the hormones are effected and gradually that behaviour becomes our nature which greatly effects our destiny or fate.
Acquired Samskara
But there is another type of samskara which is not effected by our inborn or imposed samskaras and they are called “acquired samskaras” and are collected through independent action or free will.
If someone insults you, this happens because of an inborn samskara, which is to say you caused some insulting-type pain to someone in the past, usually a past life. However, how you respond will determine what new samskara, if any, you will create now.
You can respond positively or pro-actively and create a positive samskara. Alternatively you can react badly and create another negative reaction or samskara which you will have to experience in the future—this life or the next—whenever the appropriate environment is there for its expression.
Or you can chose to not create any samsara by applying Cosmic ideation. This means to see yourself and the person you are interacting with as expressions of your higher spiritual Self or God Consciousness, rather than individuals. It is the ego self that creates the samskaras and so as soon as you act from your higher spiritual Self there is no ego to create the reaction (samskara).
The meditation taught in Tantra yoga is usually designed to express or burn our samskaras either in the meditation or in our daily life. If you do the meditation properly you’ll find life will become more eventful as our samskaras are quickly expressed or exhausted.
So to the question, “do we have free will or is everything fated?” The answer is that life is partly fated according to our inborn and imposed samskaras, but we also have free will in how we react to the expression of our samskaras.
Meditation 