Sometimes you are faced with decisions which seem to have massive consequences, whichever choice you take. Sometimes that choice seems to lead to very mixed results, whichever choice you take.
How can you see which choice to take? Life is so surprising in how it plays out. It’s so hard to ‘guess’ the future, to truly have any sense of what will lead on from this very moment. It’s so tempting to think we know how the future will be …. the story plays out in our mind so easily, so temptingly.
But really, the interconnectedness of things is such that the twists and turns of eventualities are so hard to predict.
What can you truly rely on?
So what can we rely on? Reaching deep into the heart/mind …. where lies the bases for taking life-shaping decisions? How do you ever truly know what is right, or best, or even least-bad? How do you judge? From where, with what?
What do you place your trust in … as the basis, the root?
Decisions ….
Many thanks to one and all for your astute and useful reflections.
For myself, it seems that I’m in a period where many things which seemed to work a particular way are no longer working that way. I seem to see the way in which I acted based on certain things as being rather like flowers painted in the sky. The choices are there, the flowers are their, but the bases for the action are not … they are painted in the sky. So much of what was ‘obvious’ no longer is ‘obvious’. Things are shifting, and in the process, less certain.
I take that as a good sign, in a sense, as it’s an opening, a possibility ….
What intrigues me is how much ‘faith’ I placed in logic, feeling, intuition etc etc, when they seem rather baseless at present, from decision-making purposes.
I guess I’m closest to the I-Ching comment at present …. who knows how things develop on whatever choice you make, and casting sticks is as good a way as any to decide.
Dunno!
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In the Forward to the I Ching (Wilhelm translation) Jung writes about the seeming arbitrariness of throwing yarrow sticks or coins in answer to pressing questions. Why do we think gathering information and applying logic is a better choice, he asks. Since there will always be potentially crucial information missing, and logic is not as objective as it seems.
For myself, I rely on what I call the Voice of the Heart. It’s worked for me so far.
Mahala~LuminousHeart
The important thing to remember is that at the ultimate level all choices are arbitrary. It’s only at the level of our likes and dislikes, which are utimately unreal, that choices matter. To quote the famous Zen poem, Afirming Faith in Mind:
The Great Way is not difficult for those who do not pick and choose.
When preferences are cast aside the Way stands clear and undisguised.
But even slight distinctions made set earth and heaven far apart.
If you would clearly see the truth, discard opinions pro and con.
To founder in dislike and like is nothing but the mind’s disease.