buddhistethics posted: "ISSN
1076-9005 Volume 25, 2018 Freedom through Cumulative Moral Cultivation: Heroic
Willpower (Vīrya) Jonathan C. Gold Princeton University Although abstract
speculation on “freedom of the will” is hard to find in premodern Buddhist
writings, this"
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New post on Journal of Buddhist Ethics
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 25, 2018
Freedom through Cumulative
Moral Cultivation: Heroic Willpower (Vīrya)
Jonathan C. Gold
Princeton University
Although abstract
speculation on “freedom of the will” is hard to find in premodern
Buddhist writings, this is not for Buddhists’ lack of attention to
responsibility and effortful moral acts. This paper studies early
teachings on the dharmas
called “effort” (vyāyāma)
and “heroic will-power” (vīrya),
which are key to such quintessential Buddhist lists as the Eightfold
Path, the Four Right Endeavors, and the Perfections cultivated by a
bodhisattva. A look at effortful action as treated in traditional
Buddhist texts helps to show why the western philosophical
preoccupation with “free will” is not self-evidently worthwhile from a
practical or moral perspective. Effort on the Buddhist path accumulates
into moral strength through numerous and different kinds of enactments
at the level of individual mental events. The goal of this model of
practice is that one arrives at the ability to transcend the busy, messy
work of having to decide
to act morally—one’s virtue becomes spontaneous. This structure
suggests that not only is the capacity for moral choice not a necessary
precondition of effective practice or moral significance; it may get in
the way.
Read article
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