Does consciousness really choose anything?

Does consciousness really choose anything?

Hi Rupert,

In your book you say that consciousness chooses to forget itself through seeking, etc. But does consciousness really choose anything? Isn’t it another form of anthropomorphic analogy to say that consciousness chooses this and that like I choose to play golf?

Thank you for your answer,
Jérôme

 

Dear Jérôme,

First of all, there was no suggestion in my book that some things (the choice to forget itself and seek) are chosen by consciousness and other things (the choice to play golf) are chosen by ‘me’.

Let us understand that if we are speaking of choice we are speaking at a relative level, for in choice, cause and effect, and therefore duality, are presumed. From the absolute level there is no such thing as choice, because at that level there is no duality. There is only knowing presence. 

It doesn’t make sense to speak of knowing presence choosing, because all there is to choose from is itself, and it is already itself. Ignorance has to be presumed to be a reality before choice can be considered real. 

At a relative level, where choices (such as your choice to play golf) seem to be real, what is it that chooses? It is obviously the mind, because it is our experience that the choice to play golf arises as a thought. So it is thought, the mind, that creates the choice to play golf and it is also thought that creates the apparent ‘I’ that chooses it.

Now, what is the substance of this mind which creates both the choice to play golf and ‘I’, the apparent chooser? It is, of course, consciousness, knowing presence.

Having thus understood that the mind creates the choice and the chooser, and that consciousness is the entire substance of the mind, we can abbreviate this by saying that consciousness creates the choice and the chooser or, to abbreviate it even more, consciousness chooses.

 

*     *     * 

 

Another way to express this would be to say that consciousness is absolute freedom itself and that every appearance of the body, mind and world, including all apparent choices, are an expression of this freedom.

So there is no question of anthropomorphising consciousness, but rather an attempt within the limits of language, and in a way that is not excessively long-winded, to express something which does not lend itself readily to the concepts of dualistic language.

It is worth mentioning here that nothing can come into apparent existence without consciousness giving itself utterly, intimately and entirely to that particular appearance. Consciousness says, ‘Yes’ to all things.

This ‘act’ of giving its own substance utterly to every appearance (like a mother utterly gives her own substance to the child in her womb) is a relationship of love. Love is in fact not a relationship because there is no room for two things, two entities, in love. So love is this absolute, intimate and complete giving of the substance of itself to all things.

We could say that from an absolute point of view, conception, creation, knowing and enjoyment are simultaneous and therefore there is no room for choice there.

It is only at the relative level that the mind conceptually separates out these elements sequentially and creates, as a result, the concept of choice. What seems to be choice at the relative level is in fact love at the absolute level.

With love,
Rupert

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