Q. Is it predetermined that we will reach a certain level each lifetime when we are born?

M. No, we have free will to run faster or slower. Yes. For example, your car, you put in a hundred liters of petrol. I don't know how much you put in car. I don't know drive a car. But you can go faster with it, yeah, and reach the destination quicker or you go slower. Okay. It's up to you. Yes.

Q. Are the past actions and future effects all fixed. Can they be changed? If the future happenings are already fixed, how can they be altered?

M. No doubt all future happenings are already fixed but there can be many different types of situations, all happening at the same time. While we are choosing a way, other situations still exist too.

For instance, if a person is supposed to kill another person then be put in jail, if it cannot be avoided, a practitioner can instead have the killing occur in his dream. This no doubt is a dream but the killer and the victim both dream about this event. Therefore, when both of them awake from the dream, one will feel uneasy, the other pain. This incident does not happen in this world, it takes place in another world. The same I" may do several things at the same time. All are reality. However, in general people can only see one of the realities.

Q. Dear Master, all things come from inner Buddha nature. If so, is there real free will or free choice?

M. No! We just dream that we have free choice, and we make a lot of mess with this free choice, which we should have given up in the beginning anyhow. But we can only do that with sincere devotion to God or whomever we believe in. And we can only do that through enlightenment, because then we know it's not we who do things, it's the universal plan. Then we will not reject our job, we will not throw away our wife or children or get a divorce or anything, we will know what it is, and we will lead a more contented and happy life. You see, this is free will. For example, God's plan is that I have to put my umbrella here. And now I don't like to put it here. Why should I put it here? I feel I should put it there, I put it there. Why not? Okay? Now I upset the environment and the plan for a while. Then I feel very uncomfortable, and my umbrella will break over there, and I don't know why. If I had put it here, it wouldn't have been broken. So now, eventually, I will have to bring it back and put it here. Now, suppose you divorce your wife or your husband or reject your job, and think now: I am free. That's it, fantastic. I have taken the matter into my hands, and now I am free of her or him. And you think you have done a decisive and very wise thing. And what happens? Maybe a few days or a few months later you will meet someone else. Maybe worse than that one. So, the experience you have to go through anyhow. Maybe you think you have changed it. But no! It's just been postponed. Or maybe God lets you turn around the corner but you go back to the same road again.