A few things about choice…
As human beings, we have a range of options available to us. We move along the different spirals of development (cognitive, moral, value memes, etc.), we notice patterns and dynamics of behavior, we can see directly how thought/sense gestalts are created, we can get to know and embrace disowned aspects of ourselves, and so on.
There is a disidentification with one thing, and identification with a new more inclusive pattern. And in each of these cases, the landscape of options available to us is a little larger, so there is a sense of a little more freedom.
At the same time, for all of this there are infinite causes. There is no freedom in that sense. Whatever happens – any sense of choice, decisions being made, any thoughts, actions, reactiveness – it all has infinite causes, stretching back to the beginning of time and out to the extent of the universe.
There is doing but no doer. This human self make decisions, but there is no “I” there. Actions follow thoughts, there is evaluation of options, there are decisions, but no evaluator or decider.
Finding ourselves as Big Mind, we are already and always free from all of this. We are this field of awakeness and its content which goes beyond and includes anything in the world of form. The human self and its wider world is all awakeness, inherently absent of an I with an Other. There is only doing and no doer. There is of course still relative freedom and choice for our human self, and it will still work on finding more of it (or not), but the substance has gone out of it.
So there is a range of options for our human self, which widens as it heals, matures and develops. There is no freedom of choice since every decision has infinite causes. And we are already free from it, as awakeness and what happens within, to and as it.
Initial draft…
A few things about choice…
As human beings, we have relative choice. We can move along the different spirals of development (cognitive, moral, value memes, etc.), we can notice patterns and dynamics of behavior, we can see directly how thought/sense gestalts are created, we can get to know and embrace disowned aspects of ourselves, and so on. And in each of these cases, there is a sense of a little more freedom. A disidentification with one thing, and identification with a new more inclusive pattern. The landscape that is familiar to us is a little larger, so there is a little more freedom.
At the same time, for all of this there are infinite causes. There is no freedom in that sense. Whatever happens – any sense of choice, decisions being made, any thoughts, actions, reactiveness – it all has infinite causes, stretching back to the beginning of time and out to the extent of the universe.
Finding ourselves as Big Mind, we are already and always free from all of this. We are this field of awakeness and its content which goes beyond and includes anything in the world of form. The human self and its wider world is all awakeness, inherently absent of an I with an Other. There is only doing and no doer. There is of course still relative freedom and choice for our human self, and it will still work on finding more of it (or not), but the substance has gone out of it.
So there is relative freedom and choice for our human self, which widens as it heals, matures and develops. There is no freedom and choice since every choice has infinite causes. And we are already free from it, as awakeness and what happens within, to and as it.
it seems that with infinite causes and the inherent absence of I and other, there is no choice and there never was – only the illusion of choice that comes with the sense of I and other. Do you think this relative choice exists in any meaningful way? Is there anything but the illusion that there is someone moving along, noticing or embracing anything?
I definitely feel that I’m making choices, but I no longer believe it.
Hi Sean!
Hm… It probably depends on definitions and how we talk about it.
“Choice” implies a “free” choice, which probably doesn’t happen for two reasons: There is no individual doer attached to this human self, and there are infinite causes for any decision. (And if there is something outside of causality, which I guess would be something truly random, then it is random and in any case also free from a separate I, so there is no free choice there either.)
So we can say that there are decisions, but not “free” and not made by an “I”. They are made by this human self, as a thought that is expressed in action, although they have infinite causes so are really made by life/existence/the universe as a whole.
Or you could say they just happen.
There is doing but no doer, as they like to say in advaita.
In the same way, something is definitely moving along, but there is no “I there either, and no doer. Just the universe evolving locally in this human self.
And what is moving along and evolving is really just awakeness itself, temporarily taking the form of something evolving, so in that sense nothing is really happening. It is just the timeless taking on an appearance to itself, including the appearance of space, time and evolution.
Those are only words, so what is more important is exploring how this shows up here and now.
I do something, maybe scratching my chin or rocking my body to music, and can look for where the decision came from.
For me, If I look directly (without going to thought), I find that it just happens, out of thin air. There may be a thought, and then an action, but both happens out of thin air. If I am honest, I don’t even know if there is a link between the two.
At the same time, if I go to thought, I can find many reasons and causes for it. For each cause, I can always find one more. So if there are indefinite causes for the decision, where is free choice or a doer?
I rewrote it so it is a little clearer. Using the word “choice” in the first paragraph wasn’t the best choice 🙂