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> > The common notion in western thought, a myth in fact, is that we&apos;re free to do as we please.  This is the notion of free will that Buddhism rejects.-> Consider someone with an IQ of 80.  How likely is it, that this person is going to be a famous physicist?  She might want to be, but no amount of will is going to make you push beyond a handicap like that.   >  Plainly [i]Tabula Rasa[/i] is false or at least only partially true. No arguments here Matt.   > It accepts free will, but not, as I said above, in the western sense.  A small quote from Nietzsche:  "A thought comes when IT wills!" >  > Buddhist training teaches you to become an observer of your own mind.  It trains your volition. >  > Free will is a muscle in Buddhism, meditation is how you learn to exercise it.   This rings of dissonance again for me. No self [i]versus[/i] free will however partial. My will is dependent on its environment (I would include my body in this sense as environment). -> I&apos;m using ego in a more technical sense.  I think the ego in Buddhism more closely maps to Freud&apos;s "id."  At any rate, as I said above, when I learned exactly how little of what I did was volitional, when I  learned how much I was ruled by my passions, it was THAT that I found scary.  I felt less in control of myself.  I&apos;m still not, but I&apos;m getting better. -I understand Matt, I find it&apos;s not just passions but everyday events that control me. I&apos;m not saying there is no feedback to the environment, but any line I draw between my &apos;self&apos; and its environment is purely arbitrary.   > Obviously I share your interest, but the only thing I can probably relate to you is that meditation feels like waking yourself up while in a dream within a dream.  You become aware that you&apos;re dreaming, try to wake up, but perhaps barely realize that you&apos;re still not awake.  There&apos;s techniques though to help mitigate this inevitability, and supposedly there was a man who accomplished it 2500 years ago...-This reminds me of the much maligned Blackmore and her first of the [i]Ten Zen Questions[/i], [b]Am I conscious now?[/b] After much meditating on her part the conclusion she came to was the answer is [i]No[/i].-Even without any meditating, just simply interrogating my experience, I can see why she would say this.-> I started reading "The hero with 1000 faces," and had to set it down.  It is a DENSE read.  I needed to learn more mythology.   >  Yep, I got to about page 30, and decided this was something I didn&apos;t need. Read the last page though, albeit somewhat later. >  > I own the "Power of Myth".  Maybe I should tackle that before "1000 faces." I found it a great book. I have read it three times now and dip into it as the occasion arises. Each time I have read it I have found something new that touched me. It&apos;s much easier than "Hero". Let me know what you think.