When I was a little girl, I remember being in the pharmacy with my mother looking at all the toothpastes on the shelves. She was lamenting all the choices and told me, "Whitening, Sens
itive teeth, for gingivitis...when I was a kid, all we had was one kind of toothpaste. You didn't have to think about it." American culture glorifies choice in everything. The idea is very related to the concepts of freedom and opportunity. The ideal that all doors are open at all times. However choice is not to be confused with abundance and fulfillment. Human beings actually do not like choices. They take energy and time, and often can leave one with a sense of insecurity. In order to choose one thing, something else must be left behind. One of meditation's interesting effects is creating choicelessness. By letting the mind settle to its most subtle strata twice a day, one's intuition becomes so clear that the path forward is always lit up. Do I stay in this relationship or break up? Do I quit my job or not? Do I get Crest or Colgate? The meditator doesn't wrestle with these. They check their intuition and go forward knowing they've made the right choice for them, even if it's not necessarily an easy one. There's a phrase used by masters of meditation in India–"Grounded in Being, perform action." This is their foundational instruction of how to live life. It is through meditation that we are able to ground ourselves, to hear ourselves, and move forward in a singular, purposeful direction.
