The influence of สิ่งแวดล้อม¹ are directed out from the individual to his environment; the influence of สิ่งแวดล้อม² are directed inward from the environment to the individual.

If you have no merit there will be no wind. But either way, if you do not open the window you will get no breeze.

To the villager, a person is shaped—he does not shape himself—and, therefore, relating properly to one’s environment is of the first importance. You cannot think or will yourself into being a particular kind of person; you can only select and relate wisely to the influences impinging upon you. This implies a sort of limited free will; one can choose among available alternatives, but cannot create new alternatives.

¹: This first sense of sing waetlom (“environment”) is as the resources that one has around.
²: This second sense of “environment” is as our context—that which holds and shapes us.

Since thoughts are produced by what is not-self, how could they be self?

Where will stops, there is freedom.

Ajahn Brahm explains his belief in “Free Won’t.”

Just as a river is geographically conditioned to flow in a certain direction, [compassionate] efforts are predetermined to move toward success (as sentient beings are endowed with Buddha nature). But just as a river will never dry up, their project will never end.

A lengthy summary of Tan Sitong’s 仁學 (Rénxué), which outlined his eclectic Buddhist defense of non-discriminating compassion’s agency in the unfolding of history, this paper shows how one Chinese philosopher grappled with the challenges of modernity emerging at his time and how his themes continue in the work of Buddhists such as Thich Nhat Hanh.

… a fair number of occurrences in the Buddha’s life would be difficult to explain if he had been omniscient

What kind of person isn’t thrown in jail for stealing half a dollar, a dollar, or a hundred dollars? A person who is rich, affluent, and wealthy.

Karma, contrary to later oversimplifications, is not a strict formula, whereby a certain action always has the same result.

He doesn’t assume consciousness to be the self, or the self as possessing consciousness, or consciousness as in the self, or the self as in consciousness.

The Buddha gives a long discourse on the five aggregates ending in his own repudiation of the idea that not-self contradicts the law of karma.

… hypnotic response and meditation involve opposite processes

Meditation plunges us into the depths of the (normally) subconscious processes of intentions forming and contending in the mind. As we become more familiar with these processes, we can more quickly and accurately identify when, how and why the mind moves: pushing back the curtain of ignorance on the workings of our subconscious mind and reducing our tendency to be hypnotized and controlled.

And for a more recent study confirming the result, see “The association between mindfulness and hypnotizability” American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. 2018 Jul; 61(1):4–17. doi: 10.1080/00029157.2017.1419458

Sensual pleasures give little gratification and much suffering and distress, and they are all the more full of drawbacks. Even though a noble disciple has clearly seen this with right wisdom, so long as they don’t achieve the rapture and bliss that are apart from sensual pleasures and unskillful qualities, or something even more peaceful than that, they might still return to sensual pleasures.

A lay person is puzzled at how, despite their long practice, they still have greedy or hateful thoughts. The Buddha explains the importance of absorption for letting go. But he also criticizes self-mortification, and recounts a previous dialog with some Jain ascetics.

… someone is a sequence of choices, and the question is: Will my next choice be conscious, and will my ability to make it be unfettered?