EP48 Do We Have Freewill? with Angus and Rohini Ross

Explicit content warning

11/08/21 • 46 min

Inspired by remarks Tanner Zagarino made in our previous episode, we wanted to explore the themes of personal responsibility and free will.
When talking about how we generate our experience of life from the inside out, this may sound like we are saying that we have control over what we experience, since it's dependent on our internal perceptions. But while it is true that our experience is created from the thinking we identify with in the moment, it's not true that we are in control of what we experience, any more than we're in control of what thoughts will pop into our mind.
Rohini had a massive insight about free will years ago at a training. She sees that all we can do is our best with the understanding that we have and since we don't have control over our understanding there is no free will. This took a huge amount of pressure off of her and gave her a deeper experience of inner freedom that brings out the best in her.
While Angus, following an Anglican upbringing, had a hard time reckoning with the idea of no free will. He was brought up to believe he needed to use his free will for good and to get into heaven. This was indoctrinated into his psyche growing up. His fear was that if people have no free will, they'll just live by their worst instincts and present their worst version of themselves.
Rohini counters this with her personal experience of being more gentle on herself, and therefore in her relationships too. When she doesn't think she needs to improve herself or be better, she is naturally kinder and more compassionate.
Angus sees how the impersonal does not contain free will, that free will is a construct and therefore just part of our conditioned thinking. He feels he still has more consciousness rungs to climb in this arena. As we all do with an infinite understanding.
This episode explores:

The idea of free will and how it is a concept
How much personal responsibility do we have over our experience and how we feel
Our experience of life is created from the inside 100% of the time
The implications of the above

Angus Ross & Rohini Ross are “The Rewilders.” They love working with couples and helping them to reduce conflict and discord in their relationships. They co-facilitate a private couples' intensives retreat program that rewilds relationships back to their natural state of love. Rohini is the author of the ebook Marriage, and they are co-founders of The 29-Day Rewilding Experience and The Rewilding Community. You can also follow Angus and Rohini Ross on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. To learn more about their work visit: therewilders.org. Read Rohini's latest blog.
Episode 48 features the music of RhythmPharm with Los Angeles-based composer Greg Ellis.

The idea of free will and how it is a concept
How much personal responsibility do we have over our experience and how we feel
Our experience of life is created from the inside 100% of the time
The implications of the above

Previous Episode

EP47 Freedom to Be Me with Tanner Zagarino

We had a great time speaking with one of Angus's long-term clients, and actor, Tanner Zagarino about the impact this understanding has had on his career, relationships, and wellbeing.
In his early days working with Angus, Tanner experienced a significant shift in understanding after Angus helped him to see that the flow state emerges naturally from being present. In that moment Tanner reflected on how all the times he feels most at ease, and happiest is when he is fully present with not much on his mind. Seeing the common denominator in this allowed him to leverage this understanding to help him with his acting craft and in his relationships.
Tanner's excitement about this understanding is palpable. We both enjoyed sharing in his joy for the life-changing spiritual truths we discuss on this show. He speaks beautifully and profoundly about how we can experience flow states like driving by trees. We can let our thoughts pass without having to get caught up in the details.
Tanner also speaks to how once we start experiencing more flow states in our life, it can be easy to get down on ourselves when we lose them. It is important not to use this understanding against ourselves and recognize we are all on the learning curve of waking up and being present. This learning is infinite so we can relax and be grateful for what we see knowing more will always be revealed.
Show Notes
RADA: The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, television, film, and radio. Angus booked a most-coveted audition but showed up a little too under the influence to get a callback
Claritin: Tanner likens talking with Angus and Rohini to taking Claritin for allergies - the conversations clear him right up.
Tanner Zagarino is a former division one athlete and is now an actor and writer, known for Vinny Mancuso's Rules for Good Business (2020), The Price We Pay (2022), and 9-1-1: Lone Star (2020).
Angus Ross & Rohini Ross are “The Rewilders.” They love working with couples and helping them to reduce conflict and discord in their relationships. They co-facilitate a private couples' intensives retreat program that rewilds relationships back to their natural state of love. Rohini is the author of the ebook Marriage, and they are co-founders of The 29-Day Rewilding Experience and The Rewilding Community. You can also follow Angus and Rohini Ross on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. To learn more about their work visit: therewilders.org. Read Rohini's latest blog.
Episode 47 features the music of RhythmPharm with Los Angeles-based composer Greg Ellis.

Next Episode

EP49 Following My Deeper Wisdom with Alvin Dawkins

This is a beautiful conversation with recording artist and Rewilding Guide, Alvin Dawkins, about the unshakable truth of who we are at our core despite our circumstances. We also get a special sneak preview reading from Alvin's forthcoming memoir, From Prison to Purpose, which chronicles Alvin's birth in prison to his being adopted and growing up in Alabama during the harrowing Jim Crow era, to his discovery of music and his true spiritual essence.
Alvin reminds us that no matter what we've been through, the wisdom behind life -- this creative energy force that infuses us all, remains intact no matter what. Not only is it intact, but it is guiding us, and we get to be part of it. He likens this truth to learning the mechanics of music, or an instrument so that we can play it -- but we then do better when we release the mechanical knowledge and become the instrument. That's when the music plays through us. The same can be said of the spiritual energy we are all a part of. For Alvin, music was the most powerful gateway that led him to embody his truth.
For many years Alvin battled with depression and distorted self-limiting beliefs. Through his journey of finding freedom from depression and his many "internal prisons," he realized so many people are still trapped living in their own prisons, not living from their authentic selves, and he wrote his upcoming memoir to show others that it's possible to break free and to point readers to the truth of they are. As Angus points out, one of the best ways we can point people toward their true nature is by telling our own stories, recounting our own insights, so that people might start to see the truth and possibility in finding the same freedom.
This episode explores:

the metaphorical meaning of rewilding
"God's love never abandons us" - Alvin Dawkins
the arts as a gateway to our soul
the nature of life is ever-expanding
telling our story helps us point to the formless

Show Notes
"psyche": Greek for breath, life, soul. Psychology is ultimately the study of the soul.
"higgledy-piggledy": in confusion or disorder / another Angus-ism
Alvin Dawkins is a Rewilder Guide. He's also a jazz bassist, composer, songwriter, and recording artist. He's author of the forthcoming book From Prison to Purpose, which is a memoir that chronicles his birth in prison, and being adopted and growing up in Alabama during the ugliness of Jim Crow segregation, during the heart of the civil rights movement, to freeing himself from depression and finding his calling.
Angus Ross & Rohini Ross are “The Rewilders.” They love working with couples and helping them to reduce conflict and discord in their relationships. They co-facilitate a private couples' intensives retreat program that rewilds relationships back to their natural state of love. Rohini is the author of the ebook Marriage, and they are co-founders of The 29-Day Rewilding Experience and The Rewilding Community. You can also follow Angus and Rohini Ross on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. To learn more about their work visit: therewilders.org. Read Rohini's latest blog.
Episode 49 features the music of RhythmPharm with Los Angeles-based composer Greg Ellis.