Tuesday

Choiceless

Krishnamurti spoke a great deal about being choicelessly aware. He said, "Freedom is precisely the state of not having to choose." Now, that sounds quite paradoxical, because we are always talking about freedom of choice. But choice in this sense of the word is not a form of freedom.
What is choice in Krishnamurti's sense of the word? It is the act of hesitation that comes before making a decision. It is a mental wobbling, much like when some people take up a pen to write but don't just start writing; they jiggle the pen around indecisively for a while and then start. When a person comes into a room and hesitates and wonders who to talk to, in that moment he is choosing. Whereas when a person comes into a room and goes up to someone without waiting to choose, we say he is decisive. But that is a funny thing to say, because it really means that he hadn't stopped to decide.
(Alan Watts)

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