Those who have heard only a little about Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies & religions may have the idea that “karma,” in the sense of a cosmically ordained fate, is central to these belief systems. The reality is more complicated, even though some people who follow some of these belief systems do take this view. But such beliefs are only one way to understand the natural truths beneath these ancient language games. There is a way that does not require abandoning natural science or adopting rigid simplifications of cultures past.
Some science & materialist philosophies say that we cannot have “free will.” Since everything derives from the physical laws, everything built up from them is determined; even the random factors are ordered by the laws of probability. We can play the odds, like good gamblers learn to do, but in the end, the House—natural law—always wins.[1]
Most people are deeply uncomfortable with that. There are many ways it is expressed, but they all come down to “It isn’t really that way because we really don’t want it to be that way because then we don’t know how moral philosophy would work & people would just run amock.” But these approaches run out of chips before the House does. No matter what you may say, our cells know it, our gut knows it, & our irrational actions prove it—we know this. The path that starts by declaring philosophical free will, & therefore moral necessity (& any moral or social theories you may build on top), is a dead end—in all senses.
So what to do?
Gotama realized trying to derive a useful way of being from this kind of discursive thinking is useless. He saw that what we actually have to work with is a razor-thin moment in the flux of experience to turn one way or the other. Free-swimming microscopic cells move toward food or away from pain, toward light or away from darkness; natural laws & probabilities have created them & largely determined their activity, generally. But still they move toward survival, as best they can.
This does not look much like what us self-focused, proud humans would call “free will.” But Gotama understood how the moment of intention could become the fulcrum, and training in his practices could be the lever; together they can shift our existential problem.
In brief moments of decision, if we are seeing clearly enough to break down the flux of experience, & see through the illusion of a solid self, we can see how our intentions have been conditioned toward short-term pleasures & turn toward the deeper pleasure of equanimity.
This is not complete freedom—the broadest, unqualified philosophical free will—but it doesn’t need to be. The object is to relieve dukkha, suffering & stress, nothing more—& nothing less. We leave a mass of philosophical & material problems behind, because in terms of relieving dukkha they are not the issue, except as far as believing they are the issue is part of the problem. (We could also argue that all the other philosophical, moral, and social theories have happiness, the end of suffering, as their goals as well. They are just more roundabout.)
Before Gotama’s teachings, kamma, which literally means “action,” was seen in ancient Indian thought as a combination of duty & therefore fate. Only by faithfully performing the correct rituals could we extract a degree of contentment with our lot. The correctness required of the rituals was so exact that special consultants, brahmins, were needed to ensure they were precisely performed. Whatever misfortune came later would be caused by some slight error, which could be as small as a less-then-perfect pronounciation of a single word during the ritual. In effect, the point of rituals like this is to repeat with excruciating detail, whatever was perceived to have worked in the past in hopes it will have the same “effect” in the present (even though there was no real cause & effect relationship in the past). This helped humans live with a world even more out of any individual’s control than ours.
Gotama took the language games that had arisen around these ways of thinking & gave them new, ethical meanings. By understanding how our experience in the moment unfolds, we can use the slight leverage of intention in the moment to improve the quality of that experience now & in the future. Through training, understanding, & practice, we could learn to turn toward the wholesome, away from the unwholesome, & perfect our ability to relate to experience without suffering & stress, dukkha. He saw that the brief moment of intention could have enormous leverage for improving our experience. We could avoid unconscious conflict with our natural benevolence & suffering as a result. We could see that our painful thoughts are not who we are, & therefore avoid the likelihood that they will recur in the future.
Rather than accepting our flawed sense of self & our unskillful thoughts as fate, or mindlessly repeating the past, he offered the ability to change our habits, & improve the future—including the very next moment. This is a far-reaching change in understanding. It takes a seemingly tiny amount of limited freedom, the flash of the smallest span of awareness, & gives it the power to change the way we experience the world. By seeing our conditioned responses as coming from the past, & either continuously reinforced or overcome in each moment, he shows us the connection between this moment & the future: Rather than ruminating about an unchangeable past or fearing a doomed, uncertain future, find the leverage in this very moment.
This ethical perspective connects our actions with our relationships to other beings as well as ourselves; it harmonizes with Gotama’s understanding of the true nature of the self, as a changing process rather than a solid something. Rather than a solid self that experiences the world, he saw an experience of apparent self arising, dependent on micro-moments of unconscious & semi-conscious conditioning. He saw that we can alter our interpretations of these constellations of reactivity over time. Seeing the patterns clearly is the secret to escaping them.
As the false notion of a self fades, we can see this web of ethical actions flowing through time, interacting with both determined & random events as described by natural laws. We can perceive the illusions of separate persons arising out of the flux of these actions, rather than solid persons within a world of experiences.
On the scale of individual human psychology, this becomes the cycle between the world—individual-seeming whorls of consciousness—& their respective unconscious patterns. Ethical effects (phalla, or “fruit”) appear as lawful results of this process, subject to the natural laws of physics & probability working on the upwelling of randomness. There need not be a centrally administered cosmic accounting system; cause & effect suffice to explain everything to the extent possible. There is determinism, arising out of randomness in lawful ways determined by probabilities. But that is not the whole story, & not binding on individual decisions, in the same sense that the laws of probability do not determine that the coin will come up heads next time: only the likelihood. Human actions, involving complex cycles of cause & effect with feedback loops, are both regular & predictable in some ways, & irrational & bizarre in others. But there is a scale in the flux of experience where a small turn toward the wholesome (meaning a behavior that does not cause psychological suffering) can lead us to a worthwhile freedom.
This is not grand free will, or a concession granted by an otherwise omnipotent & benevolent diety. It’s the human-scale version of a single cell going right instead of left. The trick is to admit our limits & work with them skillfully.
This is how Gotama saw the point of leverage in relation to dukkha, suffering & stress—the “thorn in the heart”. In each moment, intention (volition, or willed action, cetanā) can be seen, & because of training & understanding, a wiser course can be chosen. So key was this understanding for Gotama that he redefined kamma, to be the same as cetanā, rather than its common meaning at the time, “action” or “fate.” In other words, see that the pulse of mental flux, the flash of intuitive choice, is trainable, not fated. Training & setting up the intention of freedom in a split second of experience, we have grace & power. Like a great athlete, whose physical & mental training allow the game to slow down for her, the seemingly miraculous can be accomplished. We can be free—as free as we need to be.
pubbe cāhaṃ bhikkhave etarahi ca
dukkhañceva paññapemi dukkhassa ca nirodhaṃ
“Formerly & now, monks, all I teach is
suffering & the end of suffering”
—Alagaddūpama Sutta MN 22
[1]: There’s recent mathematical analysis based on information theory to show “causal emergence”, that is, a causal agent independent of underlying physics. https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-theory-of-reality-as-more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts-20170601/ (https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-theory-of-reality-as-more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts-20170601/) But this may still something our feeling of free will finds uncomfortable.