MENTAL FREEDOM AND FREEDOM OF THE LOVING HEART: FREE WILL AND BUDDHIST MEDITATION

Buddhist meditation enhances mental and volitional control, but the central dynamic of the path is better understood as a process of habituation. This involves not only dis-identification from mental and emotional content, as commonly emphasized in modern mindfulness or insight (vipassanā) meditation, but also a transformation of the heart through complementary psychological and somatic qualities associated with calm abiding (samatha) and concentration (samādhi), as emphasized in the Pali Nikāyas and commentaries.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In Buddhism, Meditation and Free Will: A Theory of Mental Freedom, Rick Repetti explains how the dynamics of Buddhist meditation can result in a kind of metacognition and metavolitional control that exceeds what is required for free will and defeats the most powerful forms of free will skepticism. This article argues that although the Buddhist path requires and enhances the kind of mental and volitional control Repetti describes, the central dynamic of the path and meditation is better understood as a process of habituation. This not only involves the dis‐identification from mental and emotional content that Repetti discusses—and is commonly emphasized in modern presentations of mindfulness or insight (vipassanā) meditation—but also a transformation of the heart that is effected through the complementary psychological and somatic qualities associated with calm abiding (samatha) and concentration (samādhi) and emphasized in the Pali Nikāyas and commentaries.