Howling Spirit: Free Will

Welcome

The Buddha said that his teaching are not to be followed like laws, but to be used as guidelines in finding your own spiritual path. Rabbi Brad Hirschfield explained that if there are aspects of religion that you don't like, return to where you were raised and make the changes from there. If you like the ritual, keep it. If you don't, drop it. True religion is different for everyone. This blog is a reflection of the journey I take to finding my personal spirituality. The basis for my spirituality stems from a cross between Buddhism and Judaism, but also includes bits and pieces from other religious faiths.
As I develop my individual spirituality, I am moving from the life of college student into the workforce. Included will my journey to find a job I truly love (this seems to be rare nowadays), that agrees with my personal ethics of peace and non-violence.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Free Will

Free will is a commonly disputed topic throughout the religious world. Some say that we have complete free will while others believe in predetermination, or everything we do has been planned out already. Well, not so surprisingly, I heard the best explanation of free will from Noah Levine on one of his podcasts. Before I can explain it though, you will need to know what the Buddhist idea of impermanence is. This idea states that nothing can always be the same. If there is something that you really hate, it will go away. Same with pain, something you like, etc. Noah says that impermanence is a force of nature much like gravity that we can't do anything about. Free will comes in when we decide how to react to the impermanence. If something is happening that we do not like, we can either choose to just roll with it, or we can be miserable and try to stop it even though we can't. Same goes with things we like and things that cause pain. Free will is our opportunity to react to what life throws at us. How will you react?

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Work/Experience

I am currently working at the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, NY.

Previously I have worked at Northwind Kennels, been an intern at the International Wolf Center, a volunteer at the New York Wolf Conservation Center, Animal Embassy, and a coyote research project performed by a graduate student at State University of New York - Environmental Science and Forestry.

I was the president of the Student Buddhist Association at Syracuse University from 2009-2010 as well as a member of the Students for Inter-religious Understanding in 2010. I graduated from SUNY-ESF in May of 2010.