In the name of God, for the presentation of the twentieth article, with the title "Temporal Determinism and the Freedom to Choose a Positional State of Mind or Station", we are at your service. In this article, we try to complete the materials of the previous session. In the previous session, we spoke of substantial motion, meaning temporal territorialization, and of territorialization or choice of place or elevation. Now, with two other words, we complete the topic: one is determinism, which is placed alongside time, and is related to the discussion of temporal territorialization or temporal chains, and we name it "temporal determinism"; and the other is freedom (choice), which is in relation to place, meaning the selection of the elevation in which the human mind can stand; we say they have chosen place.

Text of the Article

According to the substance theory, or substantial motion, the human being is situated within temporal determinism. Cycles, durations, and conditions expose humans to shaped changes in life. However, by attending to mental or intellectual experiences, humans can be situated in a positional state of mind. By examining the works or remains of previous human generations, we find that regardless of their physical life, they convey specific mental and intellectual experiences. For example, attention to external factors appears in the form of imagining myths, totems, gods, both principal and subordinate deities, and so on.

Therefore, temporal determinism refers to the determinism of the shaped transformations of human life. But in the mind’s positional motion—which involves mental experiences and the extraction of abstract concepts—levels of mind and freedom of choice emerges. In temporal motion, which causes stage-like events, life may be confined to the Practical (Subsistence) Reason. Yet through concentration, humans can enter abstract thinking, extracting hidden meanings and separating them from shaped appearances. This constitutes a gnostic life. By choosing a positional state of mind and pursuing a gnostic life, humans can distance themselves from temporal determinism. The physical body remains subject to temporal motion, but the human mind is volitional in intuitive or mystical motion.

Explanation of the Article

Previously we said that human possesses substantial motion. We have all seen this topic that whenever we examine a chain of events, we see occurrences that happen successively and we are merely observers of them; for instance, in cell division and the process that happens successively for the formation of embryo from the combination of male and female cells, we are merely observers. We call this "the chain of event" and possessing time. In the previous article we explained that as if it begins from a mineral life and state of stillness, but successive links in a row shape a chain. On this basis, one can define temporal periods or temporal conditions in which human lives in exposure to those chains and sees the shaped changes around themselves.

Alongside this, human also has mental and intellectual experiences; both in looking at personal experience in the present, and in looking historically at past periods. We see that humans in different periods are placed in different stations; meaning they place specific and known mental or intellectual experiences at our disposal and it is revealed that, alongside that same successive temporal motion, another motion also exists: humans show us that they have also taken elevation; meaning they have examined various chains and are now in a position where they want to choose which chain to continue up to where, or create changes in some of them. This selection of chains, or combination of different experienced links, represents the mental experiences of human.

If we look closely in the historical course, we realize what human's mental experiences were. In the far past, in confrontation with events such as sunrise and sunset, the display of stars in the sky, the coming of wind, rain, and snow, and the occurrence of events whose control was outside human's hands, humans saw themselves not as actors, but merely as viewers and observers of those phenomena. For this reason, correctly, they performed projection and said that because they do not bring about these events themselves, so there must be powerful factors at work; from this very place, myths and beliefs in various forms emerged that were considered involved in the occurrence of events.

For example, consider the concept of idolatry: behind it a mental analysis was hidden, but in appearance, humans chose a tree or a stone and performed actions in front of it. This shows that human, in confrontation with the determinist chains they faced, thought that one can interfere in them, but did not perform this interference themselves; did not consider themselves selectors, but believed another factor must come and change those chains at will. Human had perceived the determinism of time; they saw what shaped transformations occurred in their life. They had seen birth and death many times, without being able to say either of these is in their will; neither in birth could they say everything is in their own hands, nor in death could they claim they can prevent it. This was that same determinism observed in the temporal chain.

But in rational, mental experiences and in extracting abstract concepts, human gradually perceived that a concept named "freedom" (ikhtiyar - free will/choice) also exists; meaning they can proceed to analysis and experience and in regard to chains that are occurring, play a role themselves too: the role of replacing some links, meaning linking one chain to another chain. From this, human can, by applying their mind, in confrontation with the temporal determinism around them, bring about selection, control, or evaluation.

In the previous article, we spoke of some levels resulting from this thinking, with the titles of Practical (Subsistence) Reason, Law-oriented Reason, philosophical reason, and intuitive reason. Human civilizations, in truth, were the result of recognizing that same temporal determinism; but alongside that, human perceived that they possess a tool named "thinking", and ultimately "reason", which can give order to the method of occurrence of temporal chains. In the same way, human using thinking was able to enter other stages of his life.

If we want to summarize: the choice of place or station, meaning the position in which we stand and are in the state of thinking, is in truth a gnostic (ma'rifati) life. Human, in this life, distances themselves from the determinism of time; but this distancing does not mean complete release from it, but means that human no longer sees themselves incapable of any action and is not obliged, empty-handed, to proceed only in those same temporal chains to reach the end. This is that same distance that human has obtained with thinking: the ability to play a role in these chains, and linking some links to other chains.

This is that same meaning of elevation: the ability to see various chains, examine the beginning, end, and different parts of them, and reach for the combination and bringing close of these chains to one another. Those who have a narrative life are the same ones who accept the determinism of time and only want to traverse those same links without thinking; they say it has been this and it will be this too. This word, from our viewpoint, is a sign of being trapped in a single temporal chain and not seeing other chains.

If someone asks: "This same chain that you have gone to its end many times, do other chains not exist?"—one can remember the story of "The Little Black Fish": must we always spin around this pond? The answer is negative; one can, instead of constantly spinning in this same limit, go to other places too and see other chains; perhaps there fresh experiences are waiting, or one can even enter much larger and macro chains. But if we constantly spin around that same habitual and experienced pond of ours, we must know why we do such a thing and whether we have the right to choose something else or not.

So, the determinism of time is those same links, and the freedom of place means that human by thinking and expanding their mind, can take elevation; that is when cognitive, mystical, or intuitive movements will occur. An effort was made so that an introduction about the words "determinism" and "freedom" (ikhtiyar), relying on what has been said so far, is placed at your disposal. I thank you for following these ten articles in this second season, and I wish that these articles can open a fresh path in your life.