Mindfulness, Free Will and Buddhist Practice: Can Meditation Enhance Human Agency?
Issue: Vol 31 No. 1 (2014)
Journal: Buddhist Studies Review
Subject Areas: Religious Studies Buddhist Studies
Abstract:
Recent philosophical and neuroscientific writings on the problem of free will have tended to consolidate the deterministic accounts with the upshot that free will is deemed to be illusory and contrary to the scientific facts (Blackmore 2011; Harris 2012). Buddhist commentaries on these issues have been concerned in the main with whether karma and dependent origination implies a causal determinism which constrains free human agency or — in more nuanced interpretations allied with Buddhist meditation — whether mindfulness practice allows for the development of at least some potentially free volitions and actions (Harvey 2007; Repetti 2012). After examining some of the key arguments in this debate, it is suggested that the present-moment attention and awareness central to mindfulness practice may offer a way out of the impasse presented by the alleged illusion of free will. The meditative spaciousness of non-judgmental, present-moment awareness can help to foster the capacity to transform those mental formations which constrain autonomous thought and action. This conclusion is informed by the general thesis that free will is not a given — an innate aspect of the human condition — but, like wisdom or rationality, a potential quality of mind which may be developed through training, education and skilful means.
Author: Terry Hyland
References :
Batchelor, S. 1998. Buddhism Without Beliefs, London: Bloomsbury
Batchelor, S. 2011. Confession of a Buddhist Atheist, New York: Spiegal & Grau
Bishop, R. et al. 2004. ‘Mindfulness: a proposed operational definition’ Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 11, 230-241
Blackmore, S. 2005. Consciousness, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Blackmore, S. 2011. Zen and the Art of Consciousness, Oxford: Oneworld Pubs
Bodhi, B. 2000. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications
Brazier, C. 2003. Buddhist Psychology, London: Robinson
Brockman, J. ed. 2005. What We Believe But Cannot Prove, London: Pocket Books
Chappell, T. 2005. The Inescapable Self : An Introduction to Western Philosophy, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Crane, R. 2009. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, London: Routledge
Dalai Lama 2005. The Universe in a Single Atom, London: Little, Brown
Dennett, D.C. 2003. Freedom Evolves, New York: Viking
De Quincey, C. 2008. ‘Reality Bubbles’, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 15, 94-101
Diamond, J. 2005. Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years, London: Vintage
Dyson, F. 1979. Disturbing the Universe, New York: Harper & Row
Doidge, N. 2007. The Brain that Changes Itself, London: Penguin
Foot, P. ed.1970. Theories of Ethics, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Frankfurt, H. 1971. ‘Freedom of the Will and the Concept of the Person’, Journal of Philosophy 68, 5-20
Gilbert, P. 2009. The Compassionate Mind, London: Constable
Goleman, D. 2003. Destructive Emotions: How Can We Overcome Them? A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama Narrated by Daniel Goleman, New York: Bantam Books
Greene, B. 2004. The Fabric of the Cosmos, London: Penguin
Gribbin, J. 1995. Schrodinger’s Kittens and the Search for Reality, London: Phoenix
Gunaratana, B.H. 2002. Mindfulness in Plain English, Boston: Wisdom Publications
Hamlyn, D.W. 1987. The Pelican History of Western Philosophy, London: Penguin
Hanh, Thich Nhat. 1999. The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, New York: Broadway Books
Harris, S. 2006. The End of Faith, London: The Free Press
Harris, S. 2010. The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values, London, Free Press
Harris, S. 2012. Free Will, New York: Free Press
Harvey, P. 2007. ‘Freedom of the Will in the Light of Theravāda Buddhist Teachings’, Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 14, 35-98.
Honderich, T. ed,1984. Philosophy As It Is, Harmondsworth: Penguin
Hume, D. 1964 edn. A Treatise of Human Nature, London:Everyman, Vol.1
Kabat-Zinn, J. 1990. Full Catastrophe Living, London: Piatkus
Libet, B. 2003). ‘Can conscious experience affect brain activity?’ Journal of Consciousness Studies. 10, 24-28
Panek, R. 2011. The 4% Universe. Oxford: Oneworld Pubs
Pashoe, S. 2011. Who’s in charge? The Free Will Delusion: Its Implications and Consequences, (info@simonpashoe.com) mimeo
Pinchin, C. 1990. Issues in Philosophy, London: Macmillan
Pinker, S. 1997. How the Mind Works, London: Penguin
Repetti, R. 2010. ‘Meditation and Mental Freedom: A Buddhist Theory of Free Will’, Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 17, 165-112
Repetti, R. 2012. ‘Buddhist Hard Determinism: No Self, No Free Will, No Responsibility’ Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 19, 129-197
Rubin,J.R. 2003).’Close Encounters of a New Kind: Toward an Integration of Psychoanalysis and Buddhism’, In Segall, S.R. (ed)(2003) Encountering Buddhism: Western Psychology and Buddhist Teachings, Albany: State University of New York Press, pp.31-60
Searle, J. 1985. Minds, Brains and Science, London: BBC Publications
Segal, Z.V., Williams, J.M. & Teasdale, J.D. 2002. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, New York: Guildford Press
Siderits, M. 1987. ‘Beyond Compatibilism: a Buddhist Approach to Freedom and Determinism’, American Philosophical Quarterly, 24, 149-159.
Siegel, D.J. 2007. The Mindful Brain, New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Siegel, D.J. 2010. Mindsight, Oxford: Oneworld Pubs
Sheldrake, R. 2012. The Science Delusion, London: Coronet
Spinoza, B. 1970 edn. Ethics, London: Heron Books
Sprigge, T.L.S. ed,1984. Theories of Existence, Harmondsworth: Penguin
Whitehead, A.N. 1943. Adventures of Ideas, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Whitehead, A.N. 1978. Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, New York: Free Press