There is no person. No thinker. No doer. No chooser.
There is nothing to be, nothing to to do, nothing to think about, nothing to choose, nothing to to plan and no need even to notice.
All these things happen spontaneously, naturally and effortlessly within the Presence I Am; exactly as they are meant to
No need to worry or fear; no need to try, no need to control anything at all ..
... simply a sitting back on the sofa of Life ...
... an enjoying of the stream of life experiences as they flow into and out of the Awareness I Am ...
… the joy of creating, expressing, loving, choosing as they naturally arise ...
... an allowing of all things to come and go ...
.. and a resting in the peace that passeth all understanding.
I remember Eckhart posed the question: to become present in any moment, does Presence choose us or do we choose Presence? He said it doesn't really matter. In this play of form, there is the appearance of choice, and that's all that matters.
I like to think of free choice in this way: When I am unconscious, I follow the script of my conditioning so there isn't really any free will or choice. When I'm truly present, I surrender completely to Presence, so it is the Presence I am (not the script of the thought identified mind) that makes all the choices. I surrender completely to Life's flow. And that is true freedom.
A puppet is free as long as he loves his strings. Sam Harris
In presence, when the little "I" falls away, there is no longer a "chooser." All sense of "self will" falls away and is replaced by a sense of "Your will be done, Life". Choices arise and are made naturally and spontaneously in Presence; sometimes through thought; sometimes through intuition. Choices are made within a vastly deep, intelligent space that is free of the limitations of conditioning. Thus, the script falls away and infinite possibility arises.
Even the choice of whether to be present or not arises in Presence, whether we are aware of it or not. And the only true response when awareness does arise is the deepest gratitude to Life. For what greater gift is there than the arising of the Presence we are. That's true Grace.
To get to the heart of it, I don't think it matters whether we believe in free choice or not. Free choice is merely a concept of the mind, arising in awareness.
In the spiritual realm, all thoughts and concepts are inherently empty, arising from emptiness and returning to emptiness. No need to attach. Nothing to believe in.
Ypgi, if the thought, "I choose presence" or the thought "The awareness I am makes choices" helps you to reach a state of presence, then it is a beautiful signpost for you, pointing to a surrendered state in which choices are made effortlessly and intelligently. No need to discard it.
Buddha once said, to awaken, we do not need the entire forest, just a few leaves. To awaken, we do not need to try to understand the entire workings of the cosmos, just a few useful pointers to stillness.
Of course, any particular pointer is subjective. It may work for one, not for another. That's the beauty of the diversity of consciousness's expression through the human form.
