//Yes, according to this line of reasoning, even
"will" is dependent on conditions... none of which is within "our"
control. In short, whether we have the will to change our course
and get out of samsara or not is also not in "our" control.
Everything just happens accordingly. Is that
correct?//
Karma in Buddhism is strictly psychological
and not metaphysical. The Buddha said ‘Volition, O monks, is what I
call actions’. In other words, when there is intention, there is
karmic action which results in the consequences of character
forming and determines our inclinations and thus our future actions
and reaction. Character thus, is the tendency of our will, form
from repeated actions.
Free will is the expression of one’s own
will, the will that correspond to one’s own nature. It also presume
and includes the idea of individuality or individual character, if
it is free, it express the particular character of the individual.
The difference between a law of nature and free will is that one
acts automatically and with universal sameness, while the other is
conscious and individual. Free will is a relative term. It is the
relationship of a conscious individual towards his surrounding or
toward a certain situation.
It also means the freedom to express one’s
own will according to one’s own nature and insight. It is not
a mechanical reaction, and may or may not follow general laws,
but one can modify them and converts them into individual laws.
There can be no absolute free will. When necessity from outside
coincide with the inner law or nature of the individual, it becomes
a truly genuine expression of freedom, of free will
itself.
To the Buddhists, Free Will is a freedom
inside the limits of Necessity, namely the necessity of retribution
based on the Law of Causality. It is the freedom to move within the
boundaries of causation, a freedom inside the prison of Dependent
Origination.
Life itself is a constant movement towards
an issue in final deliverance. It is an evolution of our moral
progress. When all good deeds have brought their fruition as in the
Law of Karma, final deliverance will be attained in Nirvana. The
absolute is reached, causation than become extinct and Free Will,
will become an inconsequential factor in one’s
life.
The Buddha
stigmatized one of his comtemporaries, Gosala Maskariputra as a
‘bad man’. Gosala believes in an extreme form of determinism that
denies absolutely freewill and all moral responsibility. To him all
things are fixed and nothing can be changed. Everything depends on
fate, environment and nature. He denies all moral duty and was
unrestraint in his personal behaviour. To the Buddha, he is like a
fisherman, catching men only to destroy them eventually, and that
is not what Buddhism taught us to believe, act and
behaves.
Thank you for the explanation. My difficulty in
understanding all this is:
How is it that we can use terms such as one's volition, one's
will, one's nature and individual laws if there is no one (no self)
in reality to begin with? Isn't volition simply a thought
that arises out of emptiness as well (like all other thoughts),
hence not within "one's control"?