top of page

On The Illusion of Choice

In asking a simple question such as, “What is a choice?”, we find it very difficult to locate “that choice” – and find instead only trajectories, collisions, and inconceivable networks of influence. Complexity and simplicity are two sides of the same coin.


The path exists as a method for bypassing or hacking the illusion of choice. On the surface, it appears that we are making individual choices every moment. However, when we further investigate what look like “choices”, we only find the causes and conditions that produced them. Continuing this investigation, we might find that choosing our motives is the closest we can get to making a “conscious” choice. This is what authentic mentors constantly invite us to consider.


Looking at the causes of a decision helps us map the path of the decision itself, forward and backward in “time”. How is it that we came to that decision? Why did that specific decision manifest, and not any number of other possibilities? When we try to answer those questions, we come face to face with the fact that perhaps our decisions were already made long ago, based on a certain type of collision trajectory that we continue to allow ourselves to ride. That collision trajectory ultimately reveals to us what it is we value, and what our true motivations are. 


“Real decisions” only occur at the level of motivation. Therefore, making a “real decision” or “real choice” – that is, choosing a new trajectory – is much easier said than done. This is because we are very tightly bound to our trajectory decisions by the force of momentum. For example, it’s easier for a car to make a hard right at 30 mph than 70 mph. 


Therefore, while it would be nice to already have the ability to make conscious decisions and change our trajectories effortlessly, this is not the case for most of us. However, the path we are investigating offers us methods for learning how to do this – for actually developing our ability to see into our own motive structures and to realign ourselves or deliberately place ourselves on the type of trajectories that lead toward meaning, purpose, and fulfillment – and later, toward enlightenment.


Investigation of choice requires the difficult task of “cleaning out the mind”. This means facing the “stuff” we don’t want to face – the “stuff” that we have hidden away deep down in our psyches. In attempting to do this, we find ourselves constantly contesting with ourselves, placing ourselves in opposition both to ourselves and others, and condemning ourselves and others for having performed such and such action or such and such thought at some time in the past. 


Without a mentor to guide us through this process, we can very easily get lost in an endless inner war, thinking somehow that we are doing “shadow work”, and that “shadow work” is somehow a real thing that is a real part of some fantasy path we have created for ourselves.


At any cost, we will justify some one thing over another, such as valuing “inner over outer”, “mind over matter”, “spirit over body”, “self care over other care”, and so on. 


An authentic mentor will show us the folly of such attempts, and point us again in the direction of reconciliation. An authentic mentor will remind us that it is precisely our inability to transcend our habituated sense of isolation that is causing all of the drama in the first place. An authentic mentor will also gently remind us that, ultimately, inner and outer, mind and matter, and spirit and body cannot be separated from one another and are not mutually exclusive – and also, that other care is self care. 


What this means is that it is impossible to separate causes from effects – or to locate “any part of ourselves” that does not include and is not influenced by “another part of ourselves”. It is vital to understand that everything influences everything else – and that nothing “comes into existence” alone, without relevant causes and conditions.


We mistakenly think we can put an end to our troubles by dealing with or rearranging the surface events, rather than by digging to the roots and replanting. If we want to change course, we must create the necessary causes and conditions that can produce the type of change we desire. To clarify, a “messy mind” is the product of causes and conditions. It would make no sense to think that we could create a “clean mind” by engaging in the activities that produced the “messy mind”. I am not saying “a messy mind is bad”, and “a clean mind is good”. By “messy mind”, I am merely saying that we are carrying distortions with us that prevent us from directly experiencing the ever-present, fundamental reconciliation of all time, space, and phenomena. 


To experience this fundamental state is the entire purpose of the path – and of life. But in order to make any progress toward that possibility, we must first choose to do that – which means we must choose to put an end to all of our mental drama. And to choose to put an end to our mental drama, we must be able to see that we are the ones who are making up the drama in the first place. To see this, we must reduce the “mental momentum” that constantly carries us away into lala land. For this, we need mentors. Authentic mentors help us see that if we don’t actually understand the causes of suffering, any action we take, no matter how “clean” or “pure” the intention, will just enable our addiction to our mental dramas. 


The lineage has long understood that nothing exists in isolation, and therefore, choosing a team wisely is critical. Of all choices then, choosing with whom or with what we wish to associate ourselves, our efforts, and our lives is most precious. Traditionally, choosing to study with a mentor and the lineage takes precedence, precisely because of the fact that, “since the beginning of time”, the lineage has been dedicated to “the purification of motives”. It is this activity alone that liberates us from being enslaved by our mental dramas – and catapults us toward the meaning and magic of being human.


It is also extremely important to see that we can only “choose” what we have been exposed to – and that we can’t think about something we haven’t experienced or that hasn’t been available conceptually. This is the true gift of the lineage – that enlightened beings have served to “model” certain types of behavior – and have shown up on our radar screens demonstrating that magic is possible.

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page