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Free will and the world order
Posted By bandara On May 13, 2014 @ 12:01 am In COLUMNISTS,OPINION | No Comments
[1]
Lord Buddha said,
If one sees that the
world is but an
illusion, he or she
escapes suffering.
Lord Buddhas
teachings, in a
nutshell, lead to the
realisation that
there is no
experiencer in an
experience, no
thinker behind the
thought, and no
doer in the doing.
This is the most
radical part of the Dhamma that is veiled by most of todays practices with emphasis on the
development of self for a better life!
If there is no self, who attains Nibbana? A million dollar question. But the human mind cannot
grasp this to find the answer as the mind is the culprit which keeps instituting the self and
taking this artificial person on a long sansaric journey. If there is no self, can there be a free
will too? Or a person behind a decision making?
Of course there is, and that would be the immediate reaction of the majority as the entire
world order is contingent upon this state, leave alone the ones who are eminent speakers
today on personal development, motivation, leadership with the notion that follow Bill Gates,
you will become one, follow Abdul Kalam and you will be one.
Free will
The teaching that there is no free will is a harsh version that is now cutting across the world
among people searching for peace and happiness that they cannot realise within the
framework of self and the world that they have identified to be true. Buddhism is a
philosophy that needs to be viewed with an open mind certainly not by adding more
knowledge to what is already gathered though books and sermons.
Dr. Seth Schwartz in his article quoted, One of the oldest questions in psychology, and in
other fields such as philosophy, is whether humans have a free will. In a conventional model
of thinking of life, the existence of doer is real and the entire world order is built on this.
From the metaphysical perspective, the question is raised What is the point if we cannot
choose our own paths? Yet from the scientific viewpoint, anything can happen without being
caused by another. In psychology, the debate continues as to whether we have free will or
not.
Deepak Chopra, famous author on spirituality, says: Even when you think you have your life
all mapped out, things happen that shape your destiny in ways you might never have
imagined. So do we have a choice of our thoughts? Thoughts among which decision-making
takes place? Or is it a thought that arises to combine the choices of thoughts to establish
that there is a person making a decision?
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Testing the phenomenon
Many neuroscientists, fully equipped with functional Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (fMRI) and other brain scanning tools, tested the phenomenon and
said: If we can peer into the brain, we can see that there is no agent
inside the brain making choices.
John Searle in his publication in 1997 stated consciousness from a biological
angle to say that brain is no more free than the liver or the stomach. The
most recent study on a well-known personality reveals that the brain had
determined a conscious decision a second or two before the decision was
actually made.
On the other hand, the brain works at lightning speed without prior
consciousness; for instance, to swiftly move the hand away when it
touches a flame and there is no person taking that decision. In effect a
subsequent thought tells you that it is the person who shifted the hand
away from the flame. How ironic?
Free will has to be accepted in the world order because of obvious reasons.
There will be practical issues otherwise. A criminal, if he/she didnt have a
free will, cannot be punished. A child who fails an exam cannot be blamed. The world order is
a manmade scenario which changes from time to time assuming what is good and bad. It is
like a court of law one day becoming interested in knowing the background of a thief or a
prostitute to see why they were dragged into such acts.
Life is fragile
In search of the freedom, we dont have much time. Life is fragile.
Most live in the fallacy that they are immortal. At least their
behaviour says so. The mind masks the fact that one day your body
will become weak and will stop functioning, over which humans
have no control. If freedom is not found in this life, one needs to
come back to fulfil the unfinished business.
Most interpretations of theistic religions, there are two views viz.
compatibilism and libertarianism, but the writer does not wish to
get into a theoretical explanations with the notion truth has to be
found beyond knowledge and education through an experience
which is the only reality in life. Neither Buddha nor Jesus Christ
targeted educated freedom seekers in their service to humanity.
So whats Lord Buddhas take on all of this particularly when he
says in Kalama Sutta dont believe in anything until you realise the
truth yourself? What is the truth and who realises it? One needs to analyse with clues or
pointers as language cannot offer experiential convincing in spirituality. That is the
underpinning line for freedom seekers and that applies to the Buddhists too, whether they
want to carry a label or not.
Food for thought
In the Anaththa Lakkana discourse, Lord Buddha gets the disciples to analyse the self in
form, sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness to see if there is self in
this, permanent or otherwise. In that analysis one could also contemplate whether the self
is a mere thought or stream of thoughts establishing the self all the time. Lord Buddha says
you are not an integral, autonomous entity. Can the individual self, or we may call it ego, be
a by-product of these aggregates? Food for thought for Buddhists during Vesak.
When the me collapses, only the suffering would exist. No sufferer. Can the human
language explain this? No it cannot, because language is created to explain experiences of
five senses interpreted by the mind. The experience without the experiencer is a discovery
not made by the mind. That is the challenge before the followers of Buddhism to find this
truth through self inquiry with an inward journey. Anything else that we see happening in
todays world is only nurturing the self one way or another, prolonging the stay in the
imprisonment of mind in this sansaric sojourn.
(The writer is a former Diplomatic Officer, currently at the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau and a
teacher offering discourses and meditative sessions for tourist groups).
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