Q4-19840429-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-learning_how_to_live_part_ii-1512 Leandra Tejedor (1)

Talk: 19840429-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-learning_how_to_live_part_ii-1512 Leandra Tejedor Start_time: 00:39:56 Display_question: Can you clarify what you mean by choiceless awareness? Keyword_search: choiceless awareness, tomatoes, non-judgmental, attention, mind, sitting, simple, practice Question_content: Questioner: I'm a little confused about the choiceless... Larry Awareness. Questioner: Awareness. Because it seems to me, that when we're going through our daily life’s, and we’re pondering something, and really choose it, then the choiceless Larry: Yeah. Questioner: Awareness seems to be sort of a contradiction to that. Larry: Yeah. No its not… the choiceless mainly means, the non-judgmental quality of attention. Clearly, we have to make choices. For example, I know it's a common misunderstanding, and I'm sorry I've contributed to that. Let's say, you go into a grocery store, and there's a rotten tomato, and a very healthy tomato, and you want to buy tomatoes. Well, I'm into choiceless awareness. Whichever one comes, you just take that one, thinking it's even more spiritual. I'm not ego involved. Just whatever comes my way, I take. We're learning how to be simple, but not simple minded. You know, it's more the judgmental quality you know, of condemning things. And… it's not to dull our ability to perceive, and to make certain distinctions, that make life function. So that use of choice is correct. It's more bringing the attention into what you're doing. And that phrase, in a certain way, the way I was using it, has more to do with a sitting practice, and not having something official, to pay attention to. But even so… we can carry it over. You're sitting, and then whatever is predominant. If you remember the instructions, that's what you're with. Break_line: Okay, you'll see that life is doing that too. You get into your car, what's predominant there? It's just obvious driving. So that attention gets organized around what has to be done, and then maybe the mind wanders. So that what's predominant, at that moment. You're really not paying attention to driving. So you see that you've drifted off, which takes you back to what has to be done, the correct situation. You're driving. It's not going to happen, mystically. In other words, we have to pay attention to how to live. But what it will help us to do, is to make choices that come out of greater clarity. As the mind becomes more serene, then the choices become more obvious, as to what we should, and shouldn't do. When the mind is confused, it's harder. End_time: 00:42:14