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The Illusion of Self-Control
Last night, I gave a talk on Anatta — Buddha’s teaching of no self or no soul.
Someone in the audience, a senior Buddhist, made the remark that one key meaning of Anatta is the lack of autonomy or self-control. This is true by definition. The central tenet of Buddhism is Dependent Origination (Pratītyasamutpāda). The Buddhist worldview is that everything in the universe exists due to its relationship and interdependence with other things. The self is no exception — we have no independent self. What we are is a product of our time, our environment, our upbringing, our genes, etc. What we call the “self” is a bundle of relationships and interdependencies. The notion of self-control, free will or autonomy is therefore an illusion.
A college student may think that she has the freedom to skip a class. My wife may think that she has the freedom either to cook or not to cook for me. On a lower level, such freedom does exist. Yes, my wife may choose not to cook and a college student may choose not to go to class. But such choices are driven by deep-seated cultural values, which are ingrained in the person’s psyche. Depending on the culture, a wife may feel certain social pressure and guilt if she does not cook for her husband. These subtle cultural values create different propensities for certain behavior. These values and preferences, which we acquire from our environment and…
