Awakening means emerging from unconsciousness into awareness. We are driven by unconscious patterns much of the time, which is shaped by the past experiences, in some spiritual religions, by karma from previous lives. To awaken means we are aware of the patterns and gain the capacity to allow them to continue or to interrupt them. This is where free will exists.
Free will does not mean “doing whatever you want”. Neuroscientific experiments by Benjamin Libet demonstrated that electrical activity occurred in brain before the intention are be aware of. For example, half a second before the participant noticed the intention to push a button, the electrical activity was already begun. It seems that the intention is out of our control and prove that there is no free will. That is the evidence how we are driven by unconsciousness, we believe we are choosing but it’s actually not our conscious choice.
However, Libet’s research also demonstrated something important: When the participants were aware of the intention and decided not to act, there was no previous brain activities occur. In other words, while we may not initial every action, we possess the ability to veto or stop actions. That veto power proved that free will exists. This capacity to stop unconscious pattern is awakening.
In Buddhism unconsciousness is referred to as “ignorance.“ In Chinese , the term can be translated literally as “non-brightness”, which is a vivid metaphor suggesting that human beings are alive and active yet living in the darkness before awakening. Awakening, therefore, is bringing the light into the darkness. With the light we can see clearly. We can perceive the truth and respond consciously, rather than react blindly from unconscious patterns.
People come to therapy due to various symptoms: depression, anxiety, relationship conflict, emotional overwhelm or shutdown. Yet beneath these symptoms often lies a common root: living in the unconscious patterns, hijacked by habitual thoughts, automatic behaviors, and triggered emotions. We have the illusive expectation that life can be controlled through our efforts. Yet the truth is that without awareness, we are controlled by unconscious patterns and beliefs shaped in the past and no real free will. All the symptoms are simply the signals of reminding us to see the truth and awaken from there.
For example. some children were sent to live with grandparents for various reasons and grew up feeling abandoned and lonely. As adults, during conflict with partners, they may feel overwhelmed by fear or anxiety and react with unbridle expression or shutdown. They don’t understand what is happening and simply react in the same way each time. Through therapy, they began to see that they are not the abandoned child any more. They gradually develop the strength and the ability to respond to the current circumstances in an adult way rather than reacting from the helpless abandoned child.
That is awakening. That is free will.