3.11.1 Is there choice ?

To see what is Right and not to do it is want of courage...Confucius

First of all is there choice of Right and Wrong ? or is it as a mystic would say just a byproduct
of dualistic thinking ?

Is there always choice ? Lets assume that there is. So if one always has the choice, then one
would always make the Right choice. Why on earth or heaven would someone make a wrong choice
if one is able, or in other words has the power and the knowledge, to make the right one.

Wrong choices are made either due to ignorance, or more fundamentally,

due to lack of  moral power that can and does inhibit wrong doing.

When a person does something wrong, he does so usually with conscious justification
for that wrong doing, or even worse, sub-consciously, like an automaton, without
even being aware of the wrong doing, i.e., in ignorance.

Fundamentally, a wrong is committed by a being whenever the being infringes
upon the natural rights of another living being, or in a more sophisticated manner,
exploits the helplessness of others, or abuses and wastes natural resources
or does not care for these.

From this it would appear that every living creature is bound to commit wrongs by
the very process of its existence in order to merely survive, and this is a fundamental
truth.

But the test of making the right choices lies in not using this truth

as a justification for one's actions, but rather, to use this truth to propel

oneself towards consciously and willfully creating and making the right

choices and to minimise to a bare necessity one's wrongful actions.

Even more important is to be at least conscious of one's choices,

or of one's actions and doings, their likely consequences for oneself

and for others, especially those choices or acts that infringe upon

the rights of others.

"What we say and what we do ultimately comes back to us so let us own
our responsibility, place it in our hands and carry it with dignity
and strength"........Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua

3.11.2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT & RESPONSIBILITY

" For us European earth-dwellers, the adventure played out in the...New
World signifies in the first place that it was not our world and that we
bear responsibility for the crime of its destruction."
....Claude Levi-Strauss

3.11.2.1 THE NEED FOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

There are several doctrines in various religions that talk about how our past actions
determine our present. This is not the space to go into their details, but only to state
here that although there is some merit in each of those doctrines, the flaw in most
of them is that they don't go deep enough, only stress upon the deterministic aspect
of the past, not on how to correctly analyse it and to learn from it.  None of them call
for a probe into how past wrongs reflect in current social and cultural values and
patterns of behavior.

None of them can correctly extrapolate that into the future, or offer any solutions
for the future. The only solution all religions offer is for every human being  to
become subject to their respective religion, ideology, beliefs, rituals, scriptures
and methods, and thus be "saved". None of them call for collective as well as
individual responsibility of past wrong actions. None of them acknowledge that
wrong doings reflect in current reality through social, cultural values.

Particularly those attitudes and values that provide a justification to even the
most obvious of what is a wrong act. The justifications are cleverly cloaked
and masked in the religion and philosophy of the culture. And thus remain
unacknowledged. Even the mention of past wrong doing becomes taboo.

This leads to a vicious circle of action and reaction, cause and effect ; that only
keeps multiplying and building up, and its spread covers the entire domain of
its cultural subjects, and even those that come in contact or interaction of that
culture.

The first step in order to break out of this vicious circle is to fully and sincerely
acknowledge the wrong doings of the past. The first roadblock in this process
is a catch : why should anyone acknowledge the wrong doings of people in the
past, for they were people of the past, and now long gone and dead ? and the
  second  road  block  is  even  more  severe : what use is it to acknowledge
when it is already done and in the past, and best forgotten ?

"He who allows oppression shares the crime."...E. Darwin

In the first case there seems a very valid justification since a wrong has been
committed by someone else, and in the second case also equally valid because
it has happened in the past.   So why should anyone acknowledge it ?  The
normal and logical thing is to forget it. And that is just what all people do.

But there are two assumptions inherent in the logic of that kind of thinking.
The first ; that the people of the past have no relationship to people in the
present, and the second : that their actions have no lasting effect over time.

Both these assumptions are fatal and flawed, although seem correct from
a scientific point of view.

The right assumptions are that all people are related and connected,
even of the past, and that their actions have consequences and
effects stretching over long periods of time depending upon the
strength of those actions and whether these have been
perpetuated subsequently or not, and whether these have
been acknowledged and compensated for.

Good and right actions inspire others to do good.  Inaction

perpetuates inaction as well as condones wrong actions of

other people. Wrong actions then spread like an infection,

providing an example as well as a readymade justification

for others to repeat and follow, till it becomes the habit of

an entire culture.

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as

he who helps to perpetrate it"...Martin Luther King Jr

The process of correction of past wrong doings starts with the

acknowledgement   of  these  not by one or two persons but by

all or most people, and only then can the possibilities open up

for those actions and change of attitudes and values that can

compensate for these wrongs so that the vicious circle of

cause - effect is broken.

3.11.2.2 ASSUMING RESPONSIBILITY

And even more important is to assume responsibility for whatever

consequences result out of one's actions, without which there is no

way  one can   correct  one's  course  or  even realise the nature and

essence of one's Will. Only the genuine acceptance of responsibility

can provide the necessary feedback that strengthens one's Will

and moral integrity.  

But then again 'responsibility', i.e., 'the ability to respond and act rightly to any
situation that presents itself ', is something that has to be self-learned and
self-developed. Sadly, nowhere in the world this most elementary necessity of
human existence is encouraged or urged to be developed or even initiated as
a vital part of education.
Typically it is only a crisis situation where one's life itself is threatened that one
begins to wonder why the world seems to be in a sort of conspiracy against oneself.
But by then it is usually too late to examine one's attitudes and possibly to reverse
these.

It is an important point that only if one is trained early in life to be

conscious of one's choices and consequent responsibilities, can there

be a chance of developing a continuously ascending ability to make

Willful, creative and moral choices in consonance with one's

uniqueness and individuality.

The most important thing therefore is to break out of the vicious circle of the
deterministic belief system that as part of a scientific education convinces its
subjects that they are merely objects evolved out of definitive "laws of science"
and thus can have no choice except that which is determined by these "laws of
science". This kind of programming kills the spark of the possibility in the belief
that one has or can have the power to make willful choices.

Once that belief dies, one is at the mercy of this automation that has been
programmed only to think in a way that excludes everything that has not been
conclusively established as a scientific fact or a religious truism by the scientific
establishment or by the religious institutions.
Both of these institutionalised forms of thinking and believing are opposed to
individual choices, individual uniqueness and individual Will. Generally speaking,
both strengthen the automaton within, and makes one less likely to examine
critically one's values and choices made thereof.

" I can't understand why people are frightened of new

ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones." ......John Cage

3.11.3 INDIVIDUAL AS CHOOSER

"The most dangerous aspect of present-day life is the dissolution

of the feeling of individual responsibility"....Euginio Montale

"The success of any great moral enterprise does not depend on

numbers."..........William Lloyd Garrison

All real choices are 'one's' choices,  they belong to the individual who has

made a committed choice and to no one else.  The individual being, who

has  as   a  result  of   this  commitment,  also accepted complete and full

responsibility for the choices and actions made by the being.

"Whenever morality is based on theology, whenever right is made dependent
on divine authority, the most immoral, unjust, infamous things can be justified
and established." ..........................Ludwig Feuerbach

The individual, in fact, is defined by the committed actions and

choices made and consciously acknowledged by the being.

"Deliberation is the work of many men, action of one alone"

.....Charles de Ca..

It should be clear to anyone who is interested in right and wrong that there can be
no choice and therefore choice of right and wrong without there being an autonomous
individual entity that makes the choice. Therefore to assume and insist that there is
no such thing as an individual entity ( self ), and that its all a unity expressing itself
in diverse ways, is to negate the possibility of Willful choice.
Once such a thought process takes hold, it becomes easy to take recourse or hide behind
religion or science as the sources or the laws that govern our behavior or choices.
It then follows as a corollary that responsibility itself becomes redundant, since all of our
behavior is assumed to be attributed to entities or laws that are primary,
unchangeable, definitive and beyond the self.

"The individual who wishes to have an answer to the problem of evil, as it is
posed today, has need, first and foremost of self-knowledge, that is, the
utmost possible knowledge of his own wholeness. He must know relentlessly
how much good he can do, and what crimes he is capable of, and must
beware of regarding the one as real and the other as illusion. Both are
elements within his nature, and both are bound to come to light in him,
should he wish — as he ought — to live without self deception
or self-delusion"....Jung

This article emphasises that in order to make any kind of moral consideration,

the belief in a distinct and autonomous individual entity called the self, is

indispensable.

Whether this entity is absolute and eternal or not, is not the consideration here,

but that an individual entity, a being, exists in time and space that makes

conscious choices is the operating axiom here, without which all questions

of choice, morals, right and wrong, becomes meaningless.

"The individual in a crowd easily becomes the victim of his own suggestibility.
It is only necessary for something to happen, for instance a proposal backed by
the whole crowd, and we too are all for it, even if the proposal is immoral. In the
crowd one feels not only no responsibility, but also no fear ( of wrongdoing )"
..... C. G. Jung

3.11.4 Having to Choose :

Making conscious choices

" The individual must decide which situations are to count as moral

situations."..........Nietzsche

Thus the most important event in a being's life comes when one becomes conscious of the
automaton within and starts consciously making decisions independent of the automaton,
in harmony with one's innermost predilections, and also take responsibility
for the short as well as long term consequences of these decisions.

That is, not only does one HAVE to learn to make conscious responsible
choices, but also be conscious of the potential rightness or wrongness
of these choices.

"In order to act, you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible
man is satisfied with thinking. When a man asks himself what is meant
by action he proves that he isn't a man of action."
...............Georges Clemenceau

It is the easiest thing in the world to take the comfort of ignorance
and claim one's helplessness, to pretend that one has no choice.
The worst thing that one can do to oneself is to convince oneself
that one is entirely at the mercy of entities beyond oneself and
therefore have no personal choice to make and therefore not
responsible for anything that happens.

"The work of the political activist inevitably involves a certain tension
between the requirement that position be taken on current issues as they
arise and the desire that one's contributions will somehow survive the
ravages of time.".......Angela Davis

Both science and religion deflect from this belief of willful and individual choice :
science by claiming that anything that cannot be formulated, defined as an object
of observation, and analysed for its properties in a consistent definitive method,
does not exist except in somebody's imagination, and religion by attributing
choice to entities beyond self.

"As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise,
human science is at a loss"..Noam Chomski

In one case choice is determined by the laws of science, in the other case choice follows
the Will of God, Spirit, etc as entities beyond self. Both consider moral choices as irrelevant
by claiming that there can be no true choice, and even that choice is itself irrelevant
because there is no self at all.

The question of morals and choice is usually an uncomfortable one for
well entrenched institutions, because true choice comes from individuals
and carries an inherent risk of  instability and unknown  consequences
for institutions and institutionalised behavior.

The important point is that choices made are hardly ever questioned unless one is
in a crisis situation. Our minds tend to justify all our past actions as well as projected
future actions as a cushion against uncertainty, doubts, fears, risks and in general
against the unknown and the uncertain.

To expose oneself to the unknown is to court risk and danger to oneself, but to
just keep fortifying and protecting one's known and comfortable position against
any uncertainty is to kill one's own Spirit, eventually reducing oneself only to
a pleasure, comfort, peace, bliss and satisfaction seeking automaton.

"To provoke dreams of terror in the slumber of prosperity has become
the moral duty of literature"............Ernst Fischer

What is being brought out in the above listed points is that our inherent nature
is to generally evade the question of right and wrong because one of the operating
generalizations of our mind is not to question the choices we have made, since
we assume that everything that we do must be right anyway or else we wouldn't
have done it anyway. Our defensive mechanisms are anti-Willful choosing.

In this analysis so far it has been emphasised that all default choices are made by
us automatically by the pleasure, happiness seeking and pain, fear avoiding mechanisms
of our mind that operate almost sub-consciously, i.e. without Willful choosing
independent of fear, desires and ambition.
But real choice has to be more or less independent of expectations of rewards and fear
of pain, because if choices are based only upon these automotive factors, then for all
pragmatic purposes there is no right and wrong choice, only those choices that appear
to give maximum pleasure and minimum pain or that follow the path of least effort and
resistance. Merely following the most appealing choice for our senses then only gives an
illusion of choice, whereas all that happens actually is a machine at work with its choices
almost entirely predetermined, however complex it may get or appear.
Choice that is made by the automotive component of a being, does not come from or is
caused by an internal Will, but from the cause - effect reflex mechanistic action of an
external event that gives pleasure or avoids pain, therefore is no choice at all but only
a cause - effect reflexive automatic reaction.

A real choice response is one that originates from one's Will,
specifically the Will to make decisive conscious choices or in
other words in "having to choose".

"Having to choose" is that condition of an individual, wherein a
decisive choice has to be made, and where the totality of the
individual being is at stake and behind that choice.

That is what can then be called as Real choice.

Real choice occurs when "having to choose" leads one to conditions
wherein a novel possibility of choice is created, where none existed,
or where the existing were not right, and therefore unreal choices.

   Simply put, Real and Right choice is the creation of a
way, or a solution, in a condition where all existing choices
appear wrong, or unsatisfactory, or just not good enough.

The Right course of action always has a creative element
to it, and therefore cannot be sourced from outside a
being, only from within the resources of a being.

Unless a being has some minimal measure of its
totality, real choice is elusive.

3.11.5 DEFAULT WRONG CHOICES

" The final purpose of art is to intensify, even, if necessary,

to exacerbate, the moral consciousness of people"

.................Norman Mailer

"Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it."
....Lewis Carroll

Choice, unless it is Willed, follows the default path of the mind's inbuilt operating path of
maximising pleasure and minimising pain. This default path is derived from the biological
and social, needs and priorities for physical survival and unless this default operation
undergoes critical self-scrutiny, it will continue to determine choices and behavior
according to the underlying default mechanisms of survival and pleasure
seeking.

To bring under conscious observation the default choice

mechanism is the first step towards making Willful choices.

Wrong choices therefore are by default made in several ways ........

• Never considered that there is such a thing as right or wrong, everything just happens.

• Reality is unitary, and right /wrong is dualistic, and thus unreal.

• Denial that there is a Self, and so the question of choice does not arise, its all part of
     
  dualistic thinking that has to be transcended by meditation.

• To think that there is a distinct individual is the greatest illusion, since reality is
  
  unitary.

• Everything that exists is only a manifestation of a unitary reality, any other
  
  conception is false and wrong.

• Everything occurs by the will of God, nothing can happen without His will. Not even a
  
  leaf can move without God willing it.

• No one can decide what is Right or Wrong, only God can make such choices,
  
  and God is never wrong. And God does not play dice with the universe.

• Everything happens according to the laws of science, not by choices.

• The moment a unified theory is found, everything can be then explained, and
  
  then all events can be predicted and determined by the theory of everything,
  
  then such things like right and wrong will become redundant. 

• All such concepts like choice, self, and even this world are illusions that need to be
  
  dissolved, so that one can achieve peaceful and blissful union with ultimate reality and God.

• The concept of choice itself is illusory as all behavior depends upon sub-conscious
  
  processes over which we can never have control.

• The very idea of control itself is an illusion since every event is only an
  
  effect of a previous cause and so it is bound to happen.

• Denial that there is anything like choice at all, its all destiny.

• Only fools think there are choices, the wise go with the flow.

• One can never be sure of anything so why take risks.

• Everything happens for the best, whatever we do.

• All that has happened so far is good, all that is happening is good, all that will
  
  happen will be the good.

• Already surrendered oneself to the choices others, society and unknown forces
  
  make for you.

• So Self -satisfied about your own life that there is no need to be bothered about right
  
  and wrong choices.

• You feel that many things going on around you are wrong, but you yourself have
  
  done no wrong, so its not your business to interfere in what others are doing.

• Now you have come to know that a lot of wrongs were done by people in the
  
  past, but since the past is gone and cannot be changed, its best to ignore the past.

• The past is already over, and exists only in our memories, the future is yet to come
  
  and exists only in our plans, the present is there only to live in the moment, and so
  
  there is nothing to choose, as nothing that is right or wrong in the present, since it is
  
  all a continuous flow in reality.

• The mystics have already proclaimed that everything that happens is a part of
  
  great cosmic cycle or drama, and the present is but an illusory moment in infinity.

• A Great Lama has revealed that the purpose of life is joy, and boy, you are already
  
  brimming with it.

• Everything is evolving anyway, and so its only a matter of time before you evolve.

• Even a rock will one day become a mystic.

• A master has said that you have to go along with the natural course of life, and
  
  you are in the process of doing just that.

• All that you have done and are doing is only what everyone else is doing, so what's
  
  the big fuss ?

• Even great sages have said that we can never understand the world, its all a mystery.

• Some other great sages have said that the world is perfect just the way it is.

• As an individual person, one can never know enough to make right choices.

• In ignorance or lack of knowledge about the capabilities, potential of oneself.

• Ignorance about the long term consequences of choices that have a short term rewards.

• The awareness is there about the right choice but that choice has dangerous, painful or
  
  even life threatening consequences.

• The awareness is there about a seemingly right action, but will make one appear
  
  silly and ridiculous to other people.

• The awareness is there about the wrong choice one is about to make, but the
  
  immediate rewards are so high that these override all other considerations.

• Never considered these things because you are doing only what everyone else
  
  is doing, and you have committed no crime.

• There is no motivation to look for the Right course of action, you are quite content
  
  with the way things are.

• There is no need to examine or look for Right or Wrong since everything is going just
  
  perfectly with your life, the world itself is just perfect, only some people just can't get it -
  
  and well,too bad for them.

• From all available choices, you have already made the most rightful of choices,
  
  there's nothing more to do in this department.

• There is no right and wrong as such, only levels of evolution to which one reaches.

• You have already experienced the unity of everything, experienced God, and in this unity
  
  there can be no Right or Wrong, no Good or Bad, all and everything is just what it is.

• You have already done more than your share of helping other people, the environment,
  
  etc, and just about had it with all this green stuff, and no one else seems to care.

• The world has to end some day anyway, so why wreck your brains about it ?

• Even if we do our best, some jerk is bound to come along and spoil the party.
  
  
  "What is called human progress is purely an intellectual affair - not much
  development, however, is seen on the moral side. It is doubtful whether
  the methods of modern warfare are preferable to the big stones used
  for cracking the skulls of fellow-Neanderthals"
  ..............Ludwig Von  Bertalanffy

Summation of defaults :

"It is well worth the efforts of a life-time to have attained knowledge which
justifies an attack on the root of all evil . . . which asserts that because
forms of evil have always existed in society, therefore they must always
exist . ." ............Elizabeth Blackwell

In almost all of the above points there is one thing common : an amoral
or evasive defense or justification of wrong doing or immorality.

A blanket or mask that tries to hide an ugly and frightening truth about
human nature : we are inherently and mostly, immoral and destructive.
By the denial of the fact that wrong choices are made by default; almost
always, a wrong action, if at all questioned, is  justified by an amoral
reasoning as a defense shield that deflects from the Self as the cause
of that wrong doing.

The last temptation is the greatest treason
          To do the right deed for the wrong reason...T S Eliot

The first temptation is the worst self-deception ; 
               To do the wrong thing but with the perfect justification....Updated

3.11.6 DRAWING A LINE

"Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.'
.........Chesterton

" The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort
and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
.........Martin Luther King, Jr.

We proceed here with the following conclusions :

1. That for a human being to claim having no choice is as good as not being in

the realm of current reality.

2. That as human beings we invariably commit a lot of wrongs, and have an

inherently destructive nature.

3. That wrongs can only be offset by Willful, creative and responsible actions.

That true choice and responsibility are inseparable.

4. That responsibility lies in developing the ability to positively and creatively

respond to society and environment.

"By denying destructiveness in ourselves and others, it turns us toward easy
and unwitting complicity with evil".....Sheldon Kopp

Once we accept these premises of controlling our behavior, we have to be keenly aware
that we must draw the line between the use and the abuse of that which is given to us :
our intelligence and our resources.

The rules upon which a society can morally sustain depends entirely
upon where this line is drawn, maintained and defined. With time this
may need to be redefined and redrawn.

But even more so, this will require to be continuously refined through
creative inputs, and even healthy conflict.

" No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the
beginning of our history has determined the very existence of politics ......
...the cause of freedom versus tyranny "........Hannah Arendt

3.11.7 CREATIVE CHOICE :
The only Real choice.

Creative choice is the creation of possibilities beyond what are currently available

choices or what appear to be currently available.

 It is driven by the inspiration for seeking that which is

better than what is currently present.

Or by the knowledge that the present is just all wrong, or unacceptable, or even :
just not good enough. From the knowing that there must be better. From the need
to improve upon whatever is already there.

  From the initiation and drive to seek and attain perfection.

From the creative or artistic balancing of  beliefs and counter beliefs, both required and
necessary to test, correct and complete each other for their validity and limits for oneself.

Clearly, the inspiration, the motivation to initiate the search for the better must be
present as a vital essence of one's Will. For if it is not, then the only possibility is to
come across the better, is by accident or chance.
And even that is likely to be missed if one is not on the alert, or at the very least,
open to the possibility.

Real choice then comes from the force or motivation of having to choose in accordance
of one's Will, which is a reflection of one's uniqueness. The Will itself is exercised and
developed by the act of Willfully believing, choosing and being responsible.

" We are what and where we are because we have first imagined it"...Donald Curtis

This development then leads one not only to make the best of available choices, but
also to be able to create choices by creating opportunities by experimenting with and
testing one's given potential. It is the given potential of one's intelligence that has the
capability of creating opportunities for the Will to make its bidding to create
possibilities where only the routine or none seem to be available.

This implies a break from the routine and mundane. And a break from the routine is to
invite conflict or tension, as the creative has to arise from the unknown and so upsets
the known and the routine. And it is here that the battle between the established
known and the new known takes place.
The created new known also carries the risk of destroying and not merely modifying
the established  known. This battle is a battle for morals. The battle for right or wrong,
for better or worse, within oneself, or in a social or political setup. A battle between
clashing or opposing forces.

" Search for the seed of good in every adversity "...Og Mandino

A creative choice arises from the tension of clashing forces, but this
choice can be for the better or for the worse. To be aware of this is to
be forewarned, for a decisive moral battle takes place. To be ignorant
of this is to get invariably trapped in the worse.

Real choice is when the whole of one's being is behind that choice.
But the attempt, the direction has to be provided by our intelligence
driven by the Will.

Real choice is that creative choice that is preceded by setting up or
preparing the conditions of having to choose - a condition that
demands forceful decisive action.
This cannot happen unless one realises the necessity of having to
choose or make willful choices that affect one's society and
environment in a positive manner.

The easiest thing to do is to withdraw from the world in a secure, secluded shell,
where nothing affects you anymore and attaining a peace of mind is the only choice
that is sought.This is the easy way out for most meditating cults or religions.
They propagate that attaining peace of mind and experience of unity, soul etc is
the ultimate human accomplishment. The value for creativity, social responsibility,
intelligence and Will are all looked upon as illusory or less worthy pursuits.

They  presume  and  propagate  that  everybody  eventually will reach to and merge
into the creator sooner or later,  so  no  need  to  exercise one's mind and brain over
social order, morals, etc. It is no wonder then that the societies in which such attitudes
prevail are today the most corrupt, inefficient, immoral, degenerate and uncaring
about society, environment and just about anything related to life. The whole world
is an illusion according to them. A state of  blissful ignorance is their priority.

But to demean intelligence is to demean life, and have no value for creativity,
and so this work attempts to warn a self-explorer about the pitfalls of religion or
too much meditation. 

A self-explorer seeks knowledge and power to enhance one's intelligence,
efficiency and creativity, and not to diminish or demean these. Having
to make right choices depends upon developing the potential of all
aspects of being human, not just by feeling good and peaceful.

3.11.8 In conclusion :

  Creative choice  is  having  and needing to make choices in which one's

entire being, or the totality of one's being is behind that choice, in which

even one's own life is at stake and death is the ruling parameter. 

  Real choices are life and death choices.

Right action comes before everything else.

It involves an acute awareness of possible and probable consequences

of choices made, and thereby a preparedness to face all probable and

possible consequences, even if they are not according to expectations.

Making forceful choice in consonance with one's Will, intelligence and

the force of one's death.

It may be too late to save this world, but it

is never too late to do the Right thing.

NEXT PAGE No 22 : Time, Space and Meaningfulness

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