A Perspective on Karma & Free
Will
It is said, a view into space is at the
same time a view into the past. Space is visible time, however
visible only in one direction. We can see worlds which are
thousands of light years away and one day we may find out that one
of them is our own world, not as it is now but many millions of
years ago. If we look into space in a starry night, it is not a
universe of the present but that of a past that we are
seeing. It is a universe in which the
different parts do not even exist simultaneously though it is seen
in the same moment.
As it is now, we are living more in the
past than in the present. Our body themselves are actually the
visible appearance of our pass consciousness. It is actually
materialized karma, the consciousness of past moment of existence
made visible. Karma is but the acting principle of our
consciousness, which as effect becomes visible appearance, this
appearance is thus essentially ‘past’. The position of the body as
the product of a passed consciousness and also as a basis of the
present one give rise in us one part that is conscious and subject
to our will such as our movement, speech, action and functioning of
our mind, and another unconscious part such as the growth and decay
of our body.
Our usual and normal reactions are
habitual, and are based upon the past, stored up in form of
instinct, memory, concept and emotional association. These functions are necessary for our daily
existence, even though it forms only the passive side of our life.
It made us an individual and become our common inheritance. As long
as this inheritance predominates, we are essentially living life
preoccupied with the past or the future, both of these attitudes of
the mind would also means bondage. Fortunately, our consciousness
can partake in both the present and future if given the
opportunity, and can free us from the burden of the past which are
subjected to the law of cause and effect and the necessity of
retribution. The only part in us that can be raised from the
unconscious to consciousness is our breathing. Thus breathing is
able to combine the present with the past, the conscious and the
unconscious. It is the only function in which we can lay hold of,
on what has become and what is becoming and a good starting point
for a meditator.
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.