Discernment, Choice, and the Heart
Discernimiento, elección y el corazón
A question about whether discernment is a quality of consciousness, and how free choice can arise when there is no separate self to choose.
Discernment, Choice, and the Heart
A question about whether discernment is a quality of consciousness, and how free choice can arise when there is no separate self to choose.
Would you say that discernment is a quality of consciousness?
Yes, though we don't have to call it consciousness. We could call it totality. Reality. A free choice comes from totality.
The paradox of choosing without a chooser
This is where it becomes interesting and paradoxical, because if there is no "I" to choose, is it even a choice?
That's why I say it comes from somewhere that you cannot know. It is mysterious. It is identical with being.
The problem is what you define the chooser to be. If you think the choice is coming from a separate self, it is probably going to be conditioned. That is one way to look at discernment.
Discernment as seeing beyond thought and sensation
But there is another way. If you can look at what is thought and what is not thought, that also involves discernment. The looking at thought and sensation, for example: if discernment is present, if you can see the distinction, it is happening outside of thought and outside of sensation. "Outside" is just a word. You could say it is happening before, but not in time.
I know what you mean.
You can also say that a choice is made by the heart, if it is free. That is why so many spiritual traditions place such emphasis on ethical work: so that we can develop discernment.
The ethical work is like a framework for discernment within the mind.
No.