Chapter:
Three Kinds of Action
There are three types of action:
- Actions emerging from the law of accidents.
- Actions driven by the law of recurrence; actions always repeated in each existence.
- Actions intentionally determined by the will of the unconditioned consciousness.
We assume our actions are conscious. We presume that because we are not in bed sleeping, then we are awake and able to make conscious choices. Unfortunately, however, this is not the case. The truth is that our consciousness is asleep. Even when our body is active, our consciousness is passive, dreaming, distracted; it is rarely present and awake. Thus, most of our “choices” are not really choices at all, but merely reactions to circumstances.
We have a small amount of “free will.” We are able to make some small choices for ourselves. However, life for us is such that we do not have complete freedom: we are swept along by our karma. Everything important in life just happens to us.
If you objectively, disinterestedly, examine your life and the major circumstances, were they a matter of choice? Did you choose your parents? Many people like to think that we choose our parents, but really, who is conscious of having made such a choice? Did you choose your race, your sex, your level of intelligence, your heredity, your circumstances as a child? If we are suffering in this life, do you really believe we chose that suffering? Would we really choose to have our children suffer? Our loved ones? Why would anyone chose to have so much pain? If we choose our life circumstances, then why do we all not want what we have, and long to have what we do not?
The idea that people “choose” their modern lives is a ludicrous theory invented by new-age dreamers: there is absolutely nothing in any true teaching that indicates such a belief. They believe it because it makes them feel better about the terrifying reality of karma and suffering.
We do not want to face the facts: that human beings suffer intensely, and to our blind eyes, without good reason. We are blind to the truth because we are asleep psychologically, and cannot see the karma behind the suffering.
We are victims of our own harmful actions. Our circumstances are a result of our karma, or in other words, our past actions. Everything in our lives is as it is because of our previous actions, and because the conditions are ripe for the results to manifest.
Even when we make a “choice,” most of the time, we really have no choice.
The events and circumstances of our life are nothing more than a series of repeating patterns that we set in motion unconsciously, and react to unconsciously.
For the vast majority of humanity, their actions are accidents and recurrence. Very few individuals know how to act with the will of the free consciousness.
