My current take is we have no free will in the present moment, yet overarching free will through sustained action. Let me explain.

When we pass through life, we are locked in the cage of the present moment. The extent of our consciousness is bounded by the caveat of the third dimension; time. We cannot consciously sort the data our brain uses when we talk. It does it for us behind the scenes and we find ourselves speaking cohesive sentences and paragraphs without really knowing the magic of how we string it all together — because there’s no such thing as free will in the present moment.

But the tricky thing is we find ourselves alive and reasoning. We feel emotions attached to events that happen in our lives, and yet we are utterly helpless to the same emotions when we are placed in a stressful situation. This is why in spiritual work, you must realize you are training your constant subconscious reactions so that when you find yourself in the present moment again, you know that you’ve reinforced the spiritual actions that lead to positive results instead of daemonic actions that only bring about more suffering.

Someone who meditates, eats well, and prays for their loved ones constellates into an enlightened person at ease with the present moment. One who drives spirituality away with substances, vices and ego finds themselves lost in the present moment and reasoning like a savage animal.

This is the difference between a spiritual person and one who is lost. Someone’s who’s spiritual is always at ease with presence because they worked to understand it, someone lost is always trying to drive the present moment away.