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If you have questions about Buddhist philosophy or history, please feel free to respectfully ask a question of Lopen Karma Phunthso in English or Tibetan. However, please refrain from asking website questions or reporting errors. If you have some problem with regard to navigating the website or if there is a mistake you would like to inform us about, please email research at tsadra dot org.

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Questions & Answers

Does Buddha-Nature as the emptiness of the mind explain the possibility of free will and self-development?

~ Jon Piskor, USA

If I may quote Nāgārjuna, one of the greatest exponents of emptiness (Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, XXIV/14: "That to which emptiness is possible, everything is possible." The fact that our mind, and for that matter all phenomena, is empty and dependently arisen allows its self-development and growth. Thus, for the philosophers who assert buddha-nature to be the emptiness of the mind, free will and self development are indeed possible. The fact that sentient beings are by nature inclined to be free and liberated reinforces the notion of free will.

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Ask the Writer-in-Residence

Get your questions answered!
If you have questions about Buddhist philosophy or history, please feel free to respectfully ask a question of Lopen Karma Phunthso in English or Tibetan. However, please refrain from asking website questions or reporting errors. If you have some problem with regard to navigating the website or there is a mistake you would like to inform us about, please email research at tsadra dot org.

Ask you question