Free Will vs. Determinism/Self Effort vs. Grace in Tantra

Recently, we've been reflecting a lot on Is There Free Will? and also How To Really Worship Kālī | Free Will vs Determinism to explain Sri Ramakrishna's very subtle position on the issue: God alone is the Doer ("not even a leaf moves but by the will of God") and yet there arises in us by God's will the "feeling" of free will which makes our decisions meaningful! But ultimately, we realize
(a) God only has been doing everything and playing all the roles (absolute determinism on the level of the individual) but also
(b) you are God (absolute free-will and voluntarism on the level of the true identity)

But while the "free will vs determinism" discussion is a supremely important theme in our personal spiritual lives, another equally important and very related theme is that of "self-effort vs grace"! In this talk, we explain why

(a) grace is the only factor in spiritual life and
(b) grace can never be caused by anything since that would contradict God's freedom of which grace is an expression and yet
(c) we should still do intense spiritual practices anyway since
c.i. the very fact that we want to do spiritual practices (and that we have a guru to show us how) is itself a function of grace and
c.ii. spiritual practices are worth doing in and of themselves, just for fun and without any desire for outcome!

Of course, since we gave this talk as part of our Paramārthasāra of Abhinava Gupta series (which meets on zoom every Friday at 11am PST via the house link here), we use three verses from our text to substantiate our claims on grace:

आदर्शे मलरहिते यद्वद्वदनं विभाति तद्वदयम्।
शिवशक्तिपातविमले धीतत्त्वे भाति भारूपः॥९॥

Just like a face  shines in a mirror free of impurities, exactly like this, this Shining One (śiva/Self) shines resplendently in that intellect which has been made spotless by Lord Shiva’s grace.

परमं यत् स्वातन्त्र्यं दुर्घटसम्पादनं महेशस्य।
देवी मायाशक्तिः स्वात्मावरणं शिवस्यैतत्॥१५॥

The Goddess Māyāśakti is the Supreme Freedom of the Great Lord  to accomplish (sampādanam) that which is impossible/inconceivable (durghata): the covering (āvarana) of his very own self (svātma).

एकस्मिन्घटगगने रजसा व्याप्ते भवन्ति नान्यानि।
मलिनानि तद्वदेते जीवाः सुखदुःखभेदजुषः॥३७॥

If the space within one pot is filled with dust, the space within other pots is not stained. Just like that are these individual beings who experience the duality of pleasure and pain/happiness and sorrow.

We also gave these two talks on grace some time ago:
Śaktipāta & The Role of Grace In Tantra | Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra and also
How To Receive God's Grace | Śaktipāta in Kashmir Shaivism

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