determined through the workings of karmic cause and effect?
This is just something I’ve always wondered about, so I thought I would see if anyone knows how its resolved. Kendall responds: I asked Lama Zopa Rinpoche this question once. Rinpoche replied that the more wisdom there is, the more “free will”. This makes a lot of sense to me in the sense that wisdom is that which knows the nature of reality. Thus, if you know clearly and directly how things exist (both from the point of view of their emptiness and their dependent-arising natures – the karmic mechanism of the whole “machine”), then it makes sense that the mind will more easily and consciously create the reality that it wants to experience. If we don’t know the nature of reality directly, it is much harder to overcome a karmic wave of delusion that is compelling us to act in ways that will bring harm to ourselves and others. Even when you tell the child “hot” and “no”, they still will invariably put their hand on the stove and burn themselves. But once they have seen directly this cause
