My personal definition of free will is this: the ability to choose. Everything about a human being revolves around choice. Circumstances arise, and we choose how to react...or not react. Concepts arise and we choose what to think and feel about them...or choose to think and feel nothing. Even choosing not to make a choice is a conscious decision!
If we possess so much power over our own lives; if nothing enters our perimeter of awareness without our making a choice about it...why do we so often end up suffering? Who'd choose to be miserable?! Nobody, of course - the problem is that we're often unaware that we have a choice. We forget that we possess the power of conscious action and end up being pulled, willy-nilly, into unconscious reactions.
We forget who we are.
The mind's a nifty tool - it's hardwired with incredible amounts of storage; an associative search tool complete with customizable interface and indexing system; utilities for processing a wide variety of data; and a learning CPU. It also comes equipped with all the latest software, courtesy of society, genetics and upbringing - not to mention a lifetime of free updates. Best of all, it doesn't require constant monitoring. Give it a few basic parameters, and it can function automatically.
With such a great interactive tool at our disposal, it's easy to get complacent. As a tool, however, the mind possesses no more free will than a computer; and left to itself, it really isn't much more than a semi-intelligent autopilot - it just runs the programs it's given. It doesn't act, it reacts. It needs input to create output.
Now, what do we call a malicious or damaging piece of software? A virus. There is one particularly nasty mind-virus floating around out there that has already caused an incredible amount of suffering for many, many people. It loads itself into active memory and then creates an infinite loop that is incredibly difficult to shut down.
If I had to come up with a title for this virus, I'd call it 'Psuedonym'. The main reason it's so difficult to get rid of is because it creates a new 'user account' and erases the original. You end up unable to control the mind - and if you're not careful, you'll become controlled by it. If you could look at the new account name in this analogy, it would read: User Name = MIND.
..And that's it. That's all it does. Wherever you 'downloaded' this idea from (probably another infected user), it's simply set a new parameter that tells your mind it's in charge. Everything goes downhill from there.
The mind obligingly processes the information that it is the Self - and the first order of business becomes survival. By linking various elements of its functions, such as anger or joy, to a sense of identity ("I am happy, I am angry...") it ensures its survival; because we will then reinforce it, and fight to protect it...believing we are protecting ourselves.
So what, you ask? ..So, now you've got a computer without an ounce of free will running your life. You no longer have any say over what programs it runs, or what software gets downloaded. The CPU can still learn, create programs and modify them to a certain extent; but everything it does is still dictated by the core programming, which may itself become fragmented and distorted. You behave, in short, like a creature of habits and instincts...an animal.
Quite a nasty virus, isn't it? Persistent, too. Once infected, you'll have to either purge the whole system and start programming from scratch, or debug each function in real-time (a long, but less drastic/dangerous process). I'm personally working with the latter solution - catching false identifications when they crop up and replacing them with "I feel angry" or "I feel happy" is a good beginning, as it immediately puts into words the fact of our ownership, instead of creating a direct association. Advanced debugging involves the gradual re-establishment of your 'user account' in the mind (ie. remembering who you really are) - the Self.
Once you've remembered that you're something other than the mind, Self is easily identified - because you are the wielder of concepts, you are beyond them entirely; much as a computer and a programmer are separate and distinct from one another. Whatever thought you've having at this moment...that isn't you.
To believe that the mind is the Self is to relinquish the power of free will - the ability to choose.
C.