Does Buddhism say there’s free will?
THANISSARO BHIKKHU: As with so many other issues, the Buddha took a middle path— in this case, between the two extremes of determinism and total free will. If all your experiences were predetermined from the past—through impersonal fate, the design of a creator god, or your own past actions—the whole idea of a path of practice would be nonsense. If your choices in the present moment were totally free, with no constraints from the past, that would mean that your present actions would in turn have no impact on the future.
The Buddha’s alternative was to teach that present experience is a combination of three things: the results of past intentions (your old karma), present intentions, and the
