Yogi: If everything is cause and effect and there’s no free will, then why don’t I just indulge in my greed all the time? It’ll go away eventually or it won’t; it’s just conditions eventually.

Sayadaw: We understand cause and effect incorrectly if we think that it is just an independent process because in every moment we create conditions for the next event. And that’s where wisdom can choose or the unwholesome can choose.

If we choose the unwholesome all the time, then there are the effects of the unwholesome; and if we choose the wholesome, there will be those effects.

What wisdom is doing is that it is trying to understand the right conditions so that it can fulfill those conditions in every moment for wholesome results to arise.

One definition of anatta is that we cannot control things. What is misunderstood instead is that we cannot control the result. What is happening now is the result of past conditions – and you can’t change that – but what you can change/choose are the present conditions. That’s why we practice meditation, or else, what is the point? If we choose the right current conditions, the result will be different.

That’s where we can exert control if we understand.

For example, when we choose to practice any of the Paramis – the 10 wholesome qualities of the mind that can be perfected – again and again, these qualities become more established in the mind, and they have their wholesome results.