Posted by Alex Panait on November 07, 19103 at 00:35:03:
In Reply to: Re: Choice posted by R.Rangan on November 06, 19103 at 23:28:09:
: If you have realized firsthand that you are indeed "the thing-at-itself is ALL AND EVERYTHING, NOTHING AND EVERYTHING" then "who" is worried about notions like motives,etc..?
: "I exist " is the feeling arising out of the fact that one is alive. One need not read or verify or quote from scriptures to know about it. That may be termed as "conviction".
: On the other hand, to say that "one must have to make decisions in order to exist" is just fiction or non-fact, owing to the notional mind. The confusion arises therefore only if you take it for granted that "Mind" or its notions to be real.
: Just being at the root of all existence would be like being at the single point at the depth of the ocean, where all the waves reaching the seashore originate as well as where all the receding waves converge, too,unseen!
: Either you choose to sit the seashore and get involved with a few striking waves, unable to watch even the same waves receding or be at the center of it all.
: Nothing need be done. It would be like a digital change of state in the stillness of which the observer,doer and the observed all disappear simultaneously and one's awareness would keep flowing with each and every wave, ever new, infinite and devoid of notions like directions,desires,will,decisions,etc...
First of all, thanks for your reply!
You seem to think that I said this: "one must have to make decisions in order to exist" but I never said this and did not mean this. What I mean is: As a result of the fact that you exist, you HAVE to make decisions. The fact that you exist FORCES you to make decisions. I say: When you exist and have a mind which CAN yse and which CAN make decisions and which CAN use a human body to execute decisions in the physical world etc. then you HAVE to make a decision. There is no counter-argument. You could say: well do NOTHING then. But in order to do NOTHING, I still have to make the DECISION to do nothing.
You said: '...then "who" is worried about notions like motives,etc..?' Well what does it matter WHO or WHAT has to make the decisions? I just AM in a situation where I am forced to make decisions, no matter WHO or WHAT I am exactly. Even if my "mind/reasoning" knows that there is only ONE thing that exists and that all else is an illusion(even the fact that I have to make decisions!), my conciousness experiences this illusion as real. In fact, this knowledge that my "mind/reasoning" has of that illusion, is an illusion too! How can there be knowledge? Knowledge requires something that is known and someone that knows, so this is a dividing into more than one part. But the knowledge my "mind/reasoning" claims to have, says:'There is only ONE thing, not more.' So.....after explaining this I want to say the following: We truly know nothing, but still I EXPERIENCE myself as existing and therefor as a being that HAS to make decisions, when I CAN not really come to decisions because I have no motives to base them on.....
You also said: "Either you choose to sit the seashore and get involved with a few striking waves, unable to watch even the same waves receding or be at the center of it all." But how can I CHOOSE one of these options? Where is the motive???