Another Choice

And we also understand that these determinisms can only act through the fact of separation.

It is precisely because we are only conscious of the reality of the world through the separate ego, that we are bound subjects.

Our experience of the situations and circumstances we find ourselves in at any moment is dictated by the determinism that governs us right then.

For this experience is largely dominated by the activity that occupies our physical consciousness at the time – whether a worry, an expectation, a desire, a dread, a regret or a want – and, in this fashion, our personal condition acts as a filter on all that reaches our senses or nears us, incessantly and with no respite.

Rare are the instants of real openness.

Even rarer are the human beings who have attained a state of receptive neutrality and conscious aspiration.

***

The desires, thoughts and intents to which we have yielded and given up our personal space are in our stead meeting the common reality and they select out of it whatever matches their concerns or appears to offer the possibility of enjoyment, satisfaction or fulfillment, of a response or an indication.

Indeed and de facto, our encounter with the world is almost always exclusively egotistic and reduces reality to the measure of our personal concerns.

It is only through another measure, that of self-giving – to an action, a task, an expression, a service, an art – that we emerge from this contagious all-swallowing greyness into which an entire life can be dissipated.

***

And so, are we then the masters of our homes?

Not so, for it is most often our own guests who rule the house.

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