Volition in Buddhism

 After the evening meditation tonight, we watched a video regarding the role of volition in the 12 links of conditioned arising. I started to wonder, is there truly such a thing as free will in Buddhism? One of the participants was sharing that only the Buddha has total free will, as otherwise we are all influenced by our conditioning. I reflect now that this kind of conditioning need not be seen as a form of despair. For instance, going to the meditation center may be to a certain degree 'conditioned' by one's previous encounters or readings of Buddhist or spiritual teachings in general. However, these very same conditions become reasons for bringing a person closer to liberation. In this sense, we follow the conditions that are most conducive to that liberation, until liberation becomes a foreseeable possibility. It isn't that one 'gains' liberation, but one is turned around to the extent that they no longer see the necessity of posing a 'free' self over and against the rest of the world. And in that moment, there is no attachment to gain or loss.
    Seeing that there is no singular 'free will' can be in itself an interesting experience, because doing something no longer means having to muster the 'will power' to do it. Undertaking any task simply involves arranging conditions so that they are most favorable to the task you want to accomplish. Just before I started writing this blog entry, I had no idea what I was going to write! However, somehow, I created the conditions, such as giving myself a timeline to get the writing done, opening my computer, signing into blogger, etc. Eventually, after asking myself for a topic, my mind alighted upon the recent discussion in the meditation hall. Without all of these conditions joined together at a point in time, this article you are reading would not have been completed in the form in which you are seeing it. Looking at it from this perspective, there isn't a single will that is moving anything. It is more the confluence of motivations, associations, and cognitions that come together at the right time, forming the sentences.
   This isn't to say that effort is not involved in what one does. But it is to suggest, rather, that there are many things behind what we do, and this interdependence is very interesting to watch. Seeing one's actions in this way, there is less anxiety to do things frantically or without consideration for the causes that make it work a certain way.