Wisdom/will
Great article in the NY Times today by Dennis Overbye who, without coming to conclusions, updates us on the state of science on the age old free will / determinism controversy. The sciences are split in ways that perhaps only theologians and ethicists can resolve, with many of the new sciences pointing to the complexity view that in all complex adaptive systems - like human beings and ecosystems - there is never a single internal controlling agent, nor is there ever random chaos.
This is an observation at least as old as Buddhism that invites us to ponder the koan question: How free are you to experience peace? If we think we’re free and we’re not free to experience peace - whatever our circumstances - how free are we?
The question points to the idea that if we think we are responsible for our experience and we have free will, but only feel free to be at peace in the present under certain conditions, we actually then don’t have the will to be this free. From a Zen perspective, peace is not something we create or choose, it is a continuous quality of the present moment. If we choose to be in the present, we get to experience it.
We are only free to choose the present moment if we understand this. We therefore only have freedom (will) to the degree that we have clarity (wisdom). Without wisdom, the only thing we can do is be controlled by our sense of past and future. With wisdom, we expand our new possibilities in the present.
