"The only free will that we have is when we have no will, and then there is only the Divine Will, which is every moment. Then I have no will on my own, then I am free."

A woman asks Barry Long how much free will does she really have and how she can 'choose' to let go of anger if, as he says, there is no free will. Barry replies that the only real freedom is when there is no personal will at all, only Divine Will operating in every moment.

What we normally call 'choice' is simply the self reacting from past experience, likes and dislikes. Holding anger, Barry says, is like walking on broken glass: once you truly recognise that it hurts, you don’t 'decide' not to step on it – you simply don’t. In the same way, once anger is seen as pain in the body, it naturally drops away without a big inner drama of decision.

Real spiritual life moves towards giving up unnecessary choices and decisions, and living in trust that the Divine Will is already running everything – including the moment when anger ends.

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This Q&A comes from recording two of seven of the 1997 LEICESTER series, recorded in July of 1997. These and many other never-before-published recordings have been meticulously digitised only recently and are now available for listening in high quality. The complete 1997 LEICESTER series can be heard in two ways: through The Barry Long Podcast or The Barry Long Archive.

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From the archive:

📃 Surrender the World – https://www.barrylong.org/archive/articles/132/surrender-the-world – We walk through this world - the world of living and time. And the mortal part of us, the time in us, picks up the time in the world. It's like static electricity we bring in with us from out there. This is a space, an oasis, where we can quickly throw it off. We can surrender the world here. In meditation we learn how to do it, so that when the pressure comes on us in the world, and heaviness is upon us, we can surrender the tension. We can surrender our attachment to relationships. And if you do it often enough, it works … Because that's what meditation is for - to take the pressure off, to take the yoke from us...

📃 The Moment of Decision – https://www.barrylong.org/archive/articles/66/the-moment-of-decision – Always go by the practical. Don't fight against it. The practical is the unfoldment of what is necessary. Watch for the practical. Either you can do something or you can't. If you can't, don't think about it, don't wish, don't want, don't pray for it. Let it go until you can look again and see, 'Yes, now I can do it.' Then do it...

📃 Thy Will Be Done – https://www.barrylong.org/archive/articles/108/thy-will-be-done – You're making the beds, cleaning the house or you're sitting at the office desk, gazing at the wall. Life seems pretty dreary, repetitious, unfulfilling. Want to know what God's Will is? What the divine will is? Do you want to know what is meant by 'Thy will be done'? This is it. Can you stand it?

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Barry Long Answers is a new, free podcast that invites listeners into the intimate dialogue of audience questions and the spiritual master’s answer. These exchanges provide universal guidance to a range of everyday issues concerning man and woman. Each episode begins with a direct question put to Barry and his uncompromising response. The series draws from the Barry Long Archive, a repository of over 20 years of Barry Long’s teachings.

For full-length talks and extended dialogues, besides 'Barry Long Answers', the usual 'Barry Long Podcast' continues as a separate stream, with both free and subscriber-only editions available. Or if you'd like access to the full Barry Long Archive, the Barry Long website offers a subscription to this.

The Barry Long Podcast: https://www.barrylong.org/podcast/about
The Barry Long Archive: https://www.barrylong.org/archive