If we are not the doer, how is it that we can make a choice and act on it?

 

Q: If we are not the doer, how is it that we can make a choice and act on it?

 

A: A 'choice' is a series of thoughts appearing in Awareness. Let's say you're choosing between pasta and a sandwich for lunch. A thought appears 'ooh, pasta sounds great!', but another thought also comes 'I haven't had a sandwich for ages, though, I'd really love that too'. After a few thoughts, a 'decision' is made - itself a thought in Awareness, and the body moves accordingly.

 

Notice, now, that there is no thinker of thoughts, they simply appear in Awareness. In the same way, there is no mover of the body, it just moves.

 

Let me know if the above makes sense? 

 

p.s.: surrendering my decision-making to dowsing helped me understand this process very clearly. I've just published a new 10-day video course on dowsing for others to also truly live the non-dual understanding in day-to-day life. I loved this quote from Sri Ramana Maharshi: "Let us not pose as doers but resign ourselves to the guiding power."

 

Q: But action is not a thought right?…. it happens because of a thought? Or is it all just automatically happening… Is it that things happen then we interpret and make sense of it afterwards?

 

A: Bring it back to experience - let's say the thought occurs "I will now move my left arm". The left arm either moves or doesn't move. If it moves, it is a movement happening within Awareness, just like a thought is an 'activity of Awareness'. It is not 'you' doing it, since there is no separate 'you'.

 

Thought can happen before, during, and after an activity - in this case it could be 'I will now move my left arm', and the left arm moves. 'I am now moving the left arm' as the left arm moves (what we label ‘mindfulness' or ‘the flow state’). Or the left arm moves and a thought claims to have moved it after it is already happening. 

 

Or no thought, but still a belief in a separate self: notice that so many of your movements are already happening without thought - the beating of your heart, blinking, other involuntary facial and bodily movements... The 'me' that claims to be thinking or moving is just mostly claiming to be the doer of old thoughts related to recurring patterns of behaviour.

 

Q: Mind blowing stuff… Thank you.