Existential Buddhism offers new insights into the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer (b.1788, d.1860). His ideas are mainly detailed in his masterwork, The World as Will and Representation. This article argues that his conception is more comprehensible as a world of Will and understanding. As such, it explains how and why the Will drives craving, and how Buddhism is effective against it.

We learn from the Second Noble Truth of Buddhism that the cause of suffering is our craving the world. We also learned from our analysis of the Not-self Doctrine that this craving is conditioned by our existential Nothingness. But what is it that moves the human mind to want to be something? Why not just be the Nothingness?

Schopenhauer made the Will the main theme of his philosophy. He explains that craving is more than just a wish for pleasures or merely an avoidance of pain. But that it is the manifestation of more fundamental force.

He realized that what wills the human body to move is the same entity that moves all existing things down to the very elemental forces of nature:  

The will, which, considered purely in itself, is without knowledge, and is merely a blind incessant impulse…[this]Eternal becoming, endless flux, characterizes the revelation of the inner nature of will. Finally, the same thing shows itself in human endeavors and desires. (The World as Will and Representation).   

The Will is the driving force of the universe. It manifests as elemental forces (gravity, magnetism), elemental matter, primitive cell life, plants, animals, and up to the human will.  

Schopenhauer observed that we experience the body not only as an object among objects. We also as know it as volition, as the manifestation of Will. Its movement is triggered (but not caused) by our sensory contact with the physical environment. A movement towards sources of pleasures and away from pain.  

In humans, as in animals, movement is often instinctual, or reactive, to motives. Just like with the relentless forces of nature, the Will incessantly drives humans and animals to live, devour, and procreate. This urging creates conflict, injury, and for humans, suffering.

The Will is pure movement finding ways to manifest itself.

The human will, he noted, often leads to frustration because all objects of craving are invariably not lasting. Want is always a lacking and always a source of suffering. It is a hope that never finds rest.

Schopenhauer also keenly observed that animals show understanding. This understanding is based on an innate perception of cause and effect:

All animal, even the least developed, have understanding; for they know objects, and this knowledge determines their movement as motive. (The World as Will and Representation)

From understanding humans evolved knowledge and reason, using thinking to analyze and create abstract concepts from experiences. Abstract concepts allow for memory and imagination. Higher order animals have understanding but cannot reason. They are only aware of the present moment. 

The philosopher Emmanuel Kant described practical reason as that which guides the will. For most persons what motivates the will is an external object (an empirical object). We use practical reason to find our way to the object we want. These are typically the desires for sex, power, wealth, and self-preservation.

Kant also discovered that practical reason can be a pure practical reason. This is the will that is motivated purely by moral principles. It often goes against the instinctive or natural cravings.

Reason in itself has no desires. It is solely the ability to judge concepts. This we do by comparing objects according to the Categories of classification (Kant): difference, existence, and cause and effect.

In this respect, we often see that highly educated people have more self-control. They have more perseverance and are less moved by emotions. They are more “reasonable.”

People who are strongly moved by their cravings and emotions are often criticized as reckless, impulsive, thoughtless, selfish.

Schopenhauer was resolute in having the Will be the fundamental cause of everything in the universe. Not only the underlying substance of everything physical (the In-itself) but also the origin of consciousness itself (the for-itself).

It is plausible for the Will to be the basis of the energies of the universe. It is likely the force behind the tenacious expansion cell life and vegetation. As well as the ruthless urge for procreation and the will to live of animals.

But it is difficult to see how this “blind incessant impulse…Eternal becoming, endless flux” can of its own give rise to understanding, self-consciousness, and reason. His obstinate idea makes his philosophy convoluted. It reduces it to a vision of a callous vicious entity. A groundless force using conscious beings as pawns in a hopeless, absurd game of existence. 

With the practice of Mindfulness, we can know the emergence of our impulses and instinctual drives. We can resist them if judged inappropriate. We can understand our emotions and desires and ignore them.

The human will is subordinate to reason. We can argue ourselves from eating, sleeping, and even living. We can force the will to go beyond pain and even against our self-interest.

Schopenhauer makes a strong argument that the Will, as in-itself, as a ground of everything, has to be unitary (singular):

It is free from all multiplicity, although its manifestations in time and space are innumerable. It is itself one. . . as that which lies outside time and space. (The World as Will and Representation)

Therefore, the Will, if unitary, cannot contradict itself. It cannot be subordinate to itself. It has to be all Will to be a singularity.

What Schopenhauer called the understanding, I call the Awareness. Human intelligence appears to have arisen as both will and awareness from a more fundamental substance. In particles and simple organisms, the Will predominates. With increasing material complexity, the awareness becomes more manifest and dominant. This is the intuition of the primordial Yin and Yang.

Animals have awareness (understanding) but lack the ability to use reason against their instincts.  

Buddhism is the method by which Awareness uses reason to detach itself from the drive of the Will. It then stops chasing empty desires. It is pure practical reason that controls and overcomes the primordial Will. When Awareness does this thoroughly, it finds peace of mind and lasting happiness, or Enlightenment:

Bhikkhus, when a noble follower who has heard (the truth) sees thus, he finds estrangement in form, he finds estrangement in feeling, he finds estrangement in perception, he finds estrangement in determinations, he finds estrangement in consciousness.

When he finds estrangement, passion fades out. With the fading of passion, he is liberated. When liberated, there is knowledge that he is liberated. He understands: ‘Birth is exhausted, the holy life has been lived out, what can be done is done, of this there is no more beyond. (Anatta-lakkhana Sutta)

Schopenhauer himself noted that observing great works of art, music, or nature, provided rest for the mind. It allowed an escape from the power or the Will. This can be possible because the understanding, or Awareness, is inherently independent of the Will.

What motivates the human mind to look to the world for a sense of Being is the Nothingness of consciousness. But what moves the mind to want the world is the primordial Will.

Most people are unaware of their Awareness. This makes it difficult to control your will from going after the things of the world. Your Awareness becomes a slave to the wanton urging of the Will. Your mind becomes the Will.

For example, you are sitting on your couch, feeling bored. Suddenly, you think of the ice cream in the refrigerator. But what gets you from of the couch and to the ice cream is the will.  

You can experience the urge of the Will as a restlessness. It is the disquieting feeling that you need to do something, that you are wasting your time. This is commonly described as boredom. The philosopher Jean Paul Sartre noted this boredom and the intuitive perception of the Nothingness.

The Will is also what drives addictions. Presently much of the world is overweight and becoming obese. Alcohol and drug addiction affect 26% of the US population. About 6% of Americans are addicted to sex.

Most people in the US are not addicted to something. But most of us are affected by powerful desires that rob our peace of mind. This is the need for wealth, companionship, entertainment, and sex. It usually comes in the form of “I would be happy if I had this.” Not to obtain what you want brings great unhappiness. Morality, laws, and ethics exist to control the reckless wanting of the human will.  

Also strong is the drive of the will to not have something. This is the cause of depression, but also jealousy, envy, racism, anger, crime, murder, and many injuries against others.

Although Will is what keeps the world moving, it amounts to a great deal of suffering and unhappiness for humans.  

With Buddhism, we learn to be mindful, to be aware of what moves our will. We can use pure practical reason to do what is correct and wholesome. We can then use our power of volition for the good and happiness of all. The Four Noble Truths is the way to freedom from the Will.

The Will is the force of creation. It is the underlying energy driving the universe from the Big Bang to the miracle of the human mind. It is what drives the evolution of living things.

Unfortunately, there cannot be evolution (creation) without conflict, without suffering. The Will has to be this “blind incessant impulse” for humans to have free will. Truly, the suffering of human life can only be justified by freedom. Suffering is the price we pay for being self-conscious and having free-will.

The suffering of existence also gives us the opportunity to learn kindness, compassion, virtues, and love.