We Have No Real Choices
posted by Rick Hurst | April 7, 2011
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IcerocketWe have no choice in the time of our birth or in the gender we will be. We have no choice in what family we are born into or the color of our eyes and hair. We have no choice in what language we will speak or the traditions we will follow, or the kinds of foods we will eat. We have no choice in our name, the religion of our birth, the values we will be taught, the education we will receive. We have no choice about the amount of love or hatred our parents will have for us, the approval and disapproval we will receive from our peers, or the right or wrong thoughts, ideas or beliefs conditioned into our head.
Before the time of understanding we have no choice in our loves and hates, or the relationships we will be attracted to. We have no choice about our angers and resentments, slaveries or compulsions. All in all we have no choice in the deeply flawed, imposed "worldly nature" that grows up in us.
We have no choice in the story of our life, but we make a big mistake to think that the story defines who we are. Whether a rich guy from New York, a surfer from California or a pygmy from Borneo, it matters not what our story is, it does not define the essential us who only by chance played the illusionary role we had no choice in. What matters is that we discover who we really are behind the charade.
We can choose from a menu or from a rack of shoes but we can not change the color of a single hair, or save ourselves from our unique conditioning. We can be "born again" but we can not give this gift to ourselves. The only real, truly free-will choice that we have is to be still and know the truth of our existence, to sit quietly for our daily bread of objectivity to self, and our "story", allowing the Light of Reality to expose and dissolve our worldly conditioning, setting us free, gradually, to be who we really are...or not.
Paradise was lost when man fell into his mind, into knowledge, into thoughts and judgments of good and bad. Paradise is found when men give up "knowledge" and return to the place outside of his thinking mind where he was on the day he was born. "Except ye become as little children again, ye can not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven" This saying is far more than just a "religious" saying. It is a fundamental truth.
Comments
Perhaps.
— Apr 09, 2011
Could it be possible, that we do actually choose?
Some say that we live many lifetimes. If that in fact was the case, then would it not be reasonable to think that we may choose certian characteristics and circumstances to learn/experience something?
Going one step further, having no choice would cause one to consider that perhaps life has no meaning, other than procreation and death.
Would this fit with the overall theme of a benevolent, loving and merciful Universe?
Your Questions
— Apr 09, 2011
"Could it be possible, that we do actually choose? Some say that we live many lifetimes. If that in fact was the case, then would it not be reasonable to think that we may choose certian characteristics and circumstances to learn/experience something?"
I can not say much about this. I persoanlly have no recollection of living any past life. When I look at the fact that there are, for example, no two fingerprints, or two snowflakes or two spotted leopards, with the same identical patterns, I am given to suspect that Creative Impulse is not only capable but likes to make each thing made something unique and special. A unique expression if you will.
"Going one step further, having no choice would cause one to consider that perhaps life has no meaning, other than procreation and death"
Although the conditioned self has no choice how it will be conditioned, the Higher Self always has the choice to Be Still and Know the purpose for which it was created. Admittedly, this happens only after some degree of head banging and creating our own suffering first.
"Would this fit with the overall theme of a benevolent, loving and merciful Universe?"
I don't agree with the premise. I do believe that the overall theme is Love however. A love that can not be manipulated or created, but must be freely given. The Supreme Ego wants to be appreciated and loved, but He can not make that happened otherwise it is not real. A tree has to be obedient. It can not be other than it was created to be. A man is the only creature able to be other than he was created to be. But what better way to obtain love and appreciation this than by allowing a falling away into illusion and a free willed return to Reality?
Agreement, yet
— Apr 10, 2011
It is interesting to note, that we are given a set of circumstances which lead us on a certain path in life. The conditioning we receive, creates a perception through which we experience our uniqueness.
This individual set of circumstances, brings some people unerringly to the point of "head banging, and suffering," which leads directly to an awakening.
As you said, the Higher Self always makes a choice, but the ego self has considerable practice remaining in the illusion.
Yet, it seems almost reasonable that we would at some level, choose the circumstances of our conditioned life, specifically to facilitate just the right amount of suffering to get over the "hump."
Choosing the Circumstances of our Lives?
— Apr 10, 2011
"it seems almost reasonable that we would at some level, choose the circumstances of our conditioned life"
Perhaps. It depends on who the "we" is. Look at something Alan Watts wrote and see how it might apply to your comment:
"God also likes to play hide-and-seek, but because there is nothing outside God, He has no one but himself to play with. But He gets over this difficulty by pretending that He is not Himself. This is His way of hiding from Himself. He pretends that He is you and I and all the people in the world, all the animals, all the plants, all the rocks, and all the stars. In this way He has strange and wonderful adventures, some of which are terrible and frightening. But these are just like bad dreams, for when He wakes up they will disappear."
"Now when God plays hide & seek and pretends that He is you and I, He does it so well that it takes Him a long time to remember where and how He hid Himself. But that’s the whole fun of it-just what He wanted to do. He doesn’t want to find Himself out too quickly, for that would spoil the game. That is why it is so difficult for you and me to find out that we are God in disguise, pretending not to be Himself. But when the game has gone on long enough, all of us will wake up, stop pretending, and remember that we are all one single Self-the God who is all that there is and who lives for ever and ever"
