Free Actions

As we have already said more than once, the meaning and content of the world process is the self-actualization of supra-real reality, the Great Spirit, which occurs through the differentiation within it of the primordial duality of mind and environment and their subsequent interpenetration and mutual reflection. This process is realized by the mind’s reliance on its conduits — beings — and their knowledge of the environment and of themselves in the diversity of reactions and interactions — in active existence. It is precisely the activity of beings that leads to the revelation of ever-new aspects and potentials both within the flows of mind themselves and in their reactions to environments “provoked” into interaction, and it constitutes the form in which the self-cognizing activity of the primordial reality is carried out.

At the same time, it is activity that becomes fixated on itself — on its own goals, fruits and consequences — that is the cause of the cycle of being which keeps the mind trapped in limited existence.

In order, on the one hand, not to miss the opportunities for new self-knowledge and self-realization that the diversity of interactions in active manifested existence provides, and on the other hand not to become entangled in that process, it is necessary to discern the subtle boundary that separates evolutionary, realizing activity from cyclical, “samsaric” activity. That threshold lies in the key area for Magic: freedom. Actions are more evolutionary the freer they are.

Freedom of action means both their minimal determination by impulses that are “external” with respect to the agent and the mind’s non-attachment to their outcomes.

In other words, the source of energy for performing a free action is the agent’s own desire, and its result is an act of knowing — a widening of the realized flow of mind.

Just as fulfilling others’ desires, as well as one’s own whims and caprices, leads only to the dissipation of energy and deprives the mind of creative activity, so attachment to the result robs the evolutionary impulse and locks the action into the manifested level, depriving it of prospects for development.

At the same time, non-attachment to the result does not mean that its attainment is unimportant. Indeed, an action is accomplished to the degree that it is effective, and the sole measure of an action’s reality is the result achieved. No matter how much energy or time is spent, the absence of a result renders the action meaningless. Yet the result itself is merely a marker, a “flag” denoting successful completion of the action; it has no intrinsic value, and the action was carried out not for its own sake.

Even when a being is “forced” to perform a particular action under pressure from the energetic currents of the “environment” or “society,” that action can be either more or less evolutionary or degrading, depending on its level of awareness and the non-attachment to its result.

The moment a new possibility for self-realization opens in the mind — a new space for movement — it begins to seek ways to reveal the aspect that has ripened for manifestation, to study its possibilities, and for that purpose enters into new interactions and performs actions whose only real task is this very self-examination. In other words, the sole reason, broadly speaking, for which any action is undertaken is the development of mind. All an action seeks is to be performed consciously. Goals, results, consequences — these are merely husks layered over the action as a consequence of the imperfection of the present conduit of mind.

However, this does not mean that performing a free action is easy or requires extraordinary effort. On the contrary: it is precisely the high inertia of the environment, multiplied by habitual destructive models and patterns of activity, channels streams of desire into narrow channels, attempting to limit or extinguish them. Therefore, ordinarily to make an action free — that is, evolutionary — requires considerable effort and the display of notable skill.

Thus, the only real way for the development of mind is its self-actualization, and for this it must perform free actions — namely, first, realize its own creative impulses; second, not cling to results; third, persistently direct energy into appropriate channels for it; and fourth, be skilled enough to find those channels.