The question is "does free will exist or does there exist only a predetermined destiny?". According to Ramana Maharshi, all that we live is established from the moment of birth, our freedom lies in feeling involved only, reacting with desires or repulsions towards the experience.

Desires and repulsions produce thought forms that are subsequently projected into other "incarnations" (not particularly meaning incarnations of the same entity). In short, these thought forms produce new names and new forms that seek completion. It is a spontaneous mechanism of the evolution of consciousness in space time.

However - always mentioning Ramana Maharshi: "from the point of view of the Self (absolute impersonal Consciousness) there is no progress or regression but from the point of view of the mind evolution is continuous."

And in truth if we take a detached attitude, letting ourselves flow into the great evolutionary flow, it does not mean that our predispositions can not interact with situations. The detachment allows a better performance. But even this attitude is somehow "determined" by the ongoing evolutionary process. This is why in the Book of Changes (I Ching) the two tendencies: the involutionary (the way of the ignoble) and evolutionary (the way of the nobles) are distinguished as indicators of the level of adherence to reality.

And life is enjoyed when there is no repulsion or desire but when one pursues one's own nature with satisfaction and innocence.

Paolo D'Arpini