Expert: Joe McSorley - 2/6/2004

Question
Dear Joe,
Your answers are very much the same as my friends gave me. My reason for saying there's no free will is because: if we live being governed by dualism such as like, dislike, love, hate, want, don't want, etc, then where is free will? How free are us when our life is governed by dualism? If we are not governed by dualism, we won't be 'living', right? A puppet may still move freely and choose where to go but it is still a puppet being controlled. I don't understand about ultimate free will. What's that?

Another thing is many people nowadays say that truth is what we believe. We all prefer to believe the truth but how can we be sure that what we believe is really the truth?

Answer
Choo, if I am understanding you right you think there's no free will because life is conditioned.  You can call it dualism in humans but everything is conditioned by its composition.  An animal is conditioned by the fact it's a mammal or fish or whatever and must do those things it has to enable to survive. A fish's life is governed by the fact it has to live in water.  Would you say this is not free will?  We are who we are because of dualism.  Without dualism we do not exist.  So to simply do away with dualism is to do away with that which enables us to be, think and to will.  Dualism gives us the freewill to choose between those things.
In Zen the separation of self or creation of the dualistic self is the birth of us as an ego.  Ego is not something we have but who we are as an act of separation.  It is not that we have an ego, we ARE the ego.  So this rise/fall from nature creates not only our dualistic person but our very self.  This doesn't make us a puppet but an individual.
 The idea of ultimate free will is a specious argument that appears to be along the lines of what you are talking about.  The reasoning is that since we can't do whatever we want, like fly, breathe underwater, etc, that we don't really have free will because we are conditioned.  So the thought is that only some kind of uberman/ god who can do these things have ultimate free will.  I find this line of thought more than a little undeveloped and problematic.
   Belief and Truth are almost self-negating terms.  Belief is a state of conscious thought that may or may not have any basis in reality and does not have to be tested to be believed.  Truth, on the other, seems to be some staid, static reality that is unchanging.  There is on Buddhist expression that says ‘Change is the only truth' and a similar one is ‘impermanence is the only truth'.  Buddhist is good about recognize the relativity of truth.  It is true that if you drop a rock on earth it falls but in space it is not true.  There are ‘truths' that are relative to the situation at hand but to define an ultimate truth is impossible.  I see the problem here as belief.  Who is it that follows a belief or chooses to believe, who seeks the truth?
  Choo, you can chase these philosophical concepts forever and get nowhere at all.  The story of Hui ka coming to Bodhidharma is significant when dealing with these situations.  Hui stood outside waiting for Bodhi and when he finally came out he didn't tell him to philosophize, meditate, chant, believe, seek the truth, or do any other form of practice.  When Hui told him ‘My heart/mind is not at ease' Bodhi replied, ‘Hand it to me that I may pacify it'.  In other words, face the source or your problem, here/now, and then it will be solved.  Who is Choo that ponders these questions, seeks, learns, sleeps, eats, and ultimately will die?  This is what you must face.
  Take care,
         Joe