In our world, a person has almost no true freedom of will. The nature of creation is the desire to receive pleasure, which determines all of our actions. We evaluate any circumstance in terms of greater or lesser enjoyment and then choose what seems to offer the maximum satisfaction to our egoism. We simply calculate the options and pick the one that appears most advantageous. But where, then, can freedom of will exist if some of our qualities are inherited, others are formed through upbringing, and the rest of our value system is imposed by society? It turns out that we are merely an executive mechanism: our choices always stem from the natural traits we possess and from the influences of the surrounding world. Freedom of will appears only when, in addition to the desire to receive pleasure, a person develops the embryo of the desire to bestow, to give. This quality does not belong to the nature of our world, it does not include the egoistic form of corporeal giving, such as a mother’s instinctive care for her child. When, alongside the egoistic quality of receiving, the true quality of bestowal arises within a person, one finds oneself between two forces, two worlds. At that point, one gains the opportunity to properly relate these two qualities to each other. Equilibrium between the qualities of the Creator and the creature, receiving and bestowing, love and hatred, places us at the point of choice, allowing us to use these two forces correctly. The right choice, which elevates the quality of bestowal above the quality of reception, is made through the group. The group is that missing part within each of us that we must attach to ourselves. By striving to unite with the group, we receive from it the strength that enables us to make our first free movement, our first act of free choice. The effort to compare and harmonize the qualities of reception and bestowal within oneself - this is precisely the place where freedom of will is realized. However, actualizing this in practice is far from simple. During the process of spiritual correction, our egoism rises against connection with the friends. They seem unjust, deceitful, stubborn. Much time passes before we begin to understand that the Creator Himself plays with us, deliberately creating such situations and sending negative thoughts about the group. Then, despite the rejection, we begin to work on ourselves, trying to justify the friends, as if “playing” against the Creator, and through this very game we begin to perceive His character and His actions. He reveals Himself to us as kind, loving, caring, and desiring to unite us on a higher level.