Not only does the self not exist in the Buddhist tradition, but the delusion of the self is the foundation of "all of the evil in the world" (Ibid). Because the self does not exist in a real way, the will does not function as an expression of the self, but only as an expression of a temporary and relative state of being. There is no such thing as "free will" springing from a pure place and setting itself up in opposition to the external world.
Both the Christian tradition and the Buddhist tradition envision an eventual human destination of unity with a higher existence that in some way negates the singularity of corporeal existence. But the similarity ends there. For Augustine, the path to this existence involves not only a recognition of his unique spiritual will, but an active exercise of that will (with the help of divine grace) to achieve union with the will of God. For the Buddhist, the path to nirvana involves the disintegration of the false sense of individual self and the dissolution of boundaries between singular being and the eternal Self. It is a realization of the irrelevance of the will, not an act of subjugating or elevating it.
Nietzsche can be seen as nearly the polar opposite of the Buddhist philosophy. For him, everything but the human will is illusory, irrelevant, and dangerous. The ultimate destination...
For him, the self is not a combatant that must be subjugated on the way to salvation, nor is it an illusion that must be dismantled on the way to enlightenment -- in Nietzsche's philosophy, the self itself is the destination and highest achievement of man, and the unfettered expression of that self must be man's goal.
Because Augustine acknowledges the existence of the soul and the will, and because his theology rests on a supreme action of the individual will, it can be said that Nietzsche and Augustine do have some common ground. They are at least speaking in the same terms. The Buddhist, however, denies the validity of the very concepts at the core of both Christian and Nietzschean philosophy, and cannot be reconciled with either.
Works Cited
Nietzche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morals: A Polemical Tract, trans. Ian Johnston. Vancouver: Vancouver Island University, 2009. Web.
Rahula, Walpola. What the Buddha Taught. New York: Grove Press, 1974.
Saint Augustine. The Confessions of Saint Augustine, trans. Edward Pusey. Rockville, MD: Arc Manor, 2008.
