The Anatomy of a Free Choice
La Anatomía de una Elección Libre
A reflection on how decisions arise, distinguishing between conditioned, automatic choosing and the mysterious moment of free discernment that occurs beyond the mind's own offerings.
The Anatomy of a Free Choice
A reflection on how decisions arise, distinguishing between conditioned, automatic choosing and the mysterious moment of free discernment that occurs beyond the mind's own offerings.
Consider what a decision actually involves. You look at the options. There is no decision if there are no alternatives. Let's say there is option A and option B, left or right. You think about what the possibilities of A are, what the possibilities of B are, and you contemplate. All of this takes place in thought. Going left, going right. Left is the lake, right is the mountain. I want to go for a swim, but I also want to go for a climb, and so on.
Automatic choosing from conditioning
At the moment that choice happens, we can talk about choosing from conditioning: automatic choosing, which comes from the past. There is no discernment in it. It is simply automatic.
The mind as a provider of options
Now, let's say that automatic choosing is not happening, and instead there is discernment. You are looking at two options that are provided by the mind. The mind is providing. You are asking the mind for the possibilities of A, the possibilities of B, and the mind is providing images and, to some degree, alternatives: what is the positive, what is the negative. All of that information, all of that imagination, is the magic of the tool of our mind.
Where free choice originates
But then, at the moment of choosing, let's say there is a free choice, which by definition is a choice that is not based on automatic patterns from the past, not a choice that is already pre-made. If there is a free choice, the choice comes from somewhere you cannot locate. You cannot place it. It is coming from beyond the mind. It will feel like "I chose," but if there truly was discernment, the choosing is happening outside of the mind. It is happening while observing the mind.
A choice that is without discernment, that is conditioned, is happening within the mind. And so it is automatic.