The Overself...

A man's attitude toward the question of free will changes after he has surrendered to the Overself. It has to change. For henceforth he is to be loyal not to the ego's desires but to the Overself's injunctions.

If the two coincide, it is well and pleasant for him. If not, and he obeys his higher self as he must, then it can no longer be said that he has full freedom of will. But neither can it be said that he has not.

For the Overself is in him, not outside, not something alien and apart; it is indeed himself at his best and highest level.

Because the Overself is under no other law than that of its own being, which it always obeys, both freedom and fate are harmoniously united in it.

Hence, the truly wise man will reconcile and unite the tenet of karma and the tenet of free will. He knows that only a limited vision will range them against each other.


-- Notebooks Category 9: From Birth to Rebirth >
Chapter 4: Free Will, Responsibility, and The World-Idea > # 140
Paul Brunton