If we have free will, who is it that wills?

‘Free will’ requires of course a ‘willer’.

Who or what in the context of human consciousness is that ‘willer’?

Having a ‘willer’ seems to suggest that there is an entity that is independent, independent of the consciousness and having its own will, that is, a soul. This entity would then ‘run’ consciousness as it were, running it like a machinery. Such a ‘soul’ is stable and above the fluctuations of the consciousness and has some ‘superconscious’ power that gives it this power to have a ‘will’.

But it is not at all necessary nor is it logical to suggest such a ‘superconscious’ soul.

As I have discussed in my book, “The Circle of Fire“, the concept of such a soul runs contrary to logic and science.

Instead, it is our consciousness itself, our minds, in which resides this ‘willer’. Here we have named that which wills as the Buddhi. So we may ask, what is this buddhi?

In this context, we have first to ask, what is consciousness?

We know that consciousness is somehow generated in the neurons of the brain. This consciousness is generated, not in the cells or their processes, the axons, but in the signals which are transmitted between the cells. The cells, the axons and the signals are all only elecrophysical substances, but it is in the interplay of information which is intensely relayed within this collection of neurons which generates consciousness. We can foresee an alien species which has silicon chips for cells and fiberglass cables for nerves, and light signals in place of electrical signals, but which could still generate the same consciousness as in a human. It is not in these material things that consciousness resides but in the interplay of information. It is this information flux which is consciousness.

Of this information flux that resides in our brain, there is only a part which is conscious and the rest is unconscious. During any particular moment of being conscious, we are accessing only a part of the huge information pool that subsists in our brains. We are using only a very small part of the memories, for example, which resides in our brains at any given moment and the vast part of our memories remains unaccessed, or subconscious. Yet they are always within reach, so to speak.

So of the information flux that generates our individuality, we can discern at least two parts, a part which is conscious and a part which is unconscious. Now how much is which is something that can be known only in the future. We can hazard various guesses regarding the relation of the conscious part of our individuality and the unconscious part. The conscious part may be, for example, only like the display of our computer screens while the larger and main part of our individuality lies unseen working behind this display. Or it may be that consciousness is somewhat larger, like the tip of an iceberg, but the larger part of our individuality is still formed by our unconscious part. Again, we may say that consciousness forms the major part since those memories for example, which are not being accessed at any particular point of time are still accessible to the consciousness, and hence within its realm.

All these things are very much within the realm of future cognitive sciences, and at present we can only hazard a guess.

Similarly, regarding the buddhi also, we can hazard many different guesses. The buddhi is the part of the information flux that generates individual actions and plans which are independent of previous templates. How much of this buddhi is conscious and how much is unconscious is impossible to say right now. This buddhi can be said to lie entirely within the consciousness part, partly within the conscious and partly within the unconscious parts (most likely) or  entirely within the unconscious part (much less likely).

The thing is, it doesn’t matter. As long as we can define an entity that can generate free will, it doesn’t matter whether it lies within our conscious part, our unconscious part or the more likely guess, partly within both.

We can understand that the buddhi must be the association of a particular processing center. But this need not be a single group of cells but spread across many parts of the brain as is most often the case with all organs in the brain, such as the organ of speech, hearing, etc. It can even be spread across the entire brain so that we can say that the entire brain is the buddhi, which means saying that this free will is generated by the entire brain.

Where exactly the buddhi is located is something best left to the future neurological sciences rather than hazarding guesses at present when we are still so far from understanding the human mind.

It is sufficient to say that this buddhi is generated somewhere within this information flux. Where exactly is not the precinct of the logician or philosopher but the neurologist. As long as we can define that somewhere within this information flux, free will is generated, that is sufficient for us.

Again, when we come to the question of what it is that wills, it is important to understand the whole concept of individuality.

In this concept, an individual is not just his conscious self, his memories, his genetic hardwiring, etc. but the entire flux of information which is contained in his brain. This entire flux is his individuality. It is this flux which is a person. His consciousness is an important aspect of it, but the flux contains beside the conscious urges, desires and so on, unconscious urges and desires, his various roadmaps in the form of genetic and environmental hardwiring, his experiences, his memories, and so on. All this entire information is contained in this flux which is an individual. At any given moment, some parts of the flux may be more prominent, so that a person remembers certain events but not others, but those which are not remembered are also contained still within this flux. Consciousness is one aspect of this flux, but it is certainly not all that is.

When we ask who wills, it is this entire flux that wills. There may be certain parts of the flux which actually determine the free action that a person does. But it is this flux which generates it and other parts of the flux no doubt also have a say. We say it is still free because this flux can generate actions which are entirely new, not just in terms of actions but in terms of not being predetermined by the roadmaps which are also within the flux. That is, parts of the flux, the parts which we term buddhi, have the capacity to overturn other parts which are mildly deterministic, and hence generate actions which are not deterministic. Ultimately some day we may be able to say which part of the flux it is that generates an action and which has the capacity to overturn the road maps but for now we can safely say that there is a part of the brain which can do this and hence this gives the flux overall its freedom of will.

For a discussion on this in the context of the Upanishads, please look up the following link.

If you wish to read more on this topic,  you can look up my book, The Circle of Fire- the Metaphysics of Yoga.You can also read similar articles on Quantum Physics, Mass-energy equivalence, etc. from the Articles page on my website, www.thecircleoffire.com.