conditioned will

The subject of "free will" came up in class discussion last week.  I honestly don't see the place for free will in Buddhist thought.  Even when the study about cognitive evidence for free will was brought up in class, I still don't see that as evidence of "free" will. I would like to read the report for myself, but it sounded as though there was evidence of a small moment of "free will" in brain activity decisions.   The thing is, however, that even those cells that make up such activity are formed from various causes and conditions.  The decisions of that will are constrained by the causes and conditions of the situation.  A person does not suddenly decide I will take my next step on Pluto, before coming back to Earth.  Our will is not completely free.  There are still certain conditions that restrict it.

This does not mean that I am advocating determinism or the idea of predetermined fatalism. 

I believe the truth of action lies somewhere in between.  We do have will power that influences every moment of our activity.  However, all these moments of will are influenced by the conditions of that moment. 

No will completely determined.  No will is completely free.  All will is conditioned.

The important thing in relation to Buddhism though, is we can increase the influence of our will by increasing our awareness of each moment.  One of the critical types of klesas, the causes of suffering, according to Buddhism is ignorance.  The way to combat ignorance is through increasing awareness.  The more awareness we have the greater our power to unify thought patterns and exercise will ---- and the greater power to exercise will in skillful ways that can help reduce or even eliminate our patterns of stress and suffering.  But with such awareness, we must be realistic.  We must be aware of our conditions in the present moment.  For each moment provides the conditions in which to act.  Skillful will does not try to walk from Kansas to Pluto in one step.  Skillful will puts one step in front of the other because it is aware of where it is.  It is conditioned, but with greater awareness, will can use those conditions to break free from patterns of stress and suffering.