Making Choices
We can only make choices when we are aware of different possibilities. Through meditation you can become aware of possibilities that you were previously unaware of. The ultimate choice meditation can make available to you is to be happy and to be love in any moment. In between that and where we are now are many other smaller choices we can make in any moment to improve our disposition and outlook.
We can choose to be focused in the present and not let our mind run away with us into future situations that are often imagined negatively. Likewise, not let our mind dwell unnecessarily on the past and the regrets and guilt that may reside there.
We can choose to be aware of the “being” aspect of any moment and not so preoccupied only with what we are doing. In other words being more conscious of the state we are in while we are doing something.
In any situation, whatever we are feeling, we can choose to feel into, through and beyond that feeling towards the greater feeling that transcends the lesser feeling. In that way we are always moving towards the greatest feeling, that of love and happiness.
We easily slip into taking things for granted and feeling familiar with our situation whereas our actual situation is always one of abiding in mystery. To take things for granted and be familiar with a situation is a superficial orientation. To feel the mystery that is life is a profound orientation to life. We may think we know what is going on, and on a superficial level we may, but on a profound level we do not have a clue what is going on or who, what and where we are. So we can choose to view life from a profound perspective. The unknown can be frightening or an adventure – you choose. The mystery is where unconditional happiness is to be found.
When we react to a situation we likely as not do not feel we have a choice. By becoming more aware, more conscious we can become aware of choice. We can then respond rather than react. Responding comes from a deeper place within us than reacting, which is often just an immediate reflex.
Through meditation we can choose to release control of various aspects of our life and allow life to unfold with its own intelligence. Once again control is a relatively superficial act compared to allowing. Control comes from fear, allowing comes from acceptance and trust. Through allowing we can find the quality of grace entering our lives.
I have not learnt these truths from a book but from my own experience. I know them to be true through observation, experimentation and application. I am able to feel the relative profundity or superficiality of things and I have noticed the increased peace, equanimity, acceptance, love and happiness that comes with profundity.
Many of these choices can only be made once a greater level of consciousness and awareness has been achieved. The main way to develop this is through regular meditation. Then you will find you have greater clarity in the midst of situations and therefore more choices. You will become more aware of how you function in a mechanical, predictable way and what those mechanisms are. They all work to diminish your native love and happiness and they all need to be dismantled. As we dismantle old habits and patterns then a new life grows, a life of grace, spontaneity, a life at one with existence rather than at odds with it.