Choosing

"This is the reality where you must choose. It is whether you choose reunion with God or Separation from God. You choose this every day. You choose this in what you choose to think about, what you choose to believe in and how you choose to respond to difficulties and decisions in life."

"When you are functioning from trial and error, disappointment is with you constantly. It is very hard to sort things out if this is the only means you are choosing."

“The Will of God is considered an option and not a certainty. As long as this be the case, we must instruct you in how to choose wisely. But beyond this, choosing is not necessary.”

"The stronger you are with Knowledge, the more you will be like Knowledge and the more difficult it will be for you to make a mistake. What are mistakes but mistakes in discernment—not knowing what something is, not knowing where you stand with it and not knowing how to relate to it? Choosing the wrong person, choosing the wrong time, choosing the wrong place, choosing the wrong moment, choosing the wrong idea—these are all problems in discernment. With discernment comes discretion—the ability to remain silent, the ability to remain concealed."

Directives

'Never think that your purpose will arise from what you want for yourself. People make this mistake every day. They think, 'Well, my purpose? Let’s see, what do I want?' as if they were choosing from a great wish list. Purpose has to do with what the world needs from you and what you are able to give to the world, which may or may not conform to your personal goals, plans and ambitions."

Of our own choosing

“It is true indeed that we have been assigned to you, out of our own choosing and yours as well. But you have forgotten and we have not.”

Choosing to end up in a box canyon

“Have you not wondered, being as intelligent as you seem to be, why you have not been able to resolve your dilemmas? Indeed, many of you establish relationships and involvements fully knowing that they will not prosper and progress. And yet you will maintain them with great devotion. Why is this? Is it not curious? It is because you seek to establish a condition for choosing that will be unequivocal.”

Choosing the higher good

"The next time you ask yourself, 'What do I really want?' ask yourself a different question. Ask yourself, 'What would I seek if I did not want anything?' Ask yourself this different question, and new questions will come to mind to ask. This is a different kind of questioning and leads in a different direction. If you believe that your attempts at fulfillment are satisfactory, then go spend time with people who are further along in their pursuit than you are and see what kind of results they are producing. Look at the quality of their lives. Look at the degree of their satisfaction. Look at their ability to be in relationship, to experience affinity and community. Do they inspire you or does what they own inspire you? It will be no different for you. Win or lose, you will miss the essence of life. That is why you must choose again and ask a new kind of question of yourself."

The consequences of choosing wrongly

"Of being attracted by meaningless things; of being seduced by others; of being trapped in relationships, held in place by someone else, unable to extricate yourself, sold on a relationship because there is nothing better or there is something there you want: financial security, beauty and charm, shared interests."

Choosing The Way of Knowledge

"In choosing The Way of Knowledge you enter into the Mystery. In choosing the way of ambition you follow the ambitions of others. Here you will have a great deal of company. As you follow your own ambitions, you will judge yourself and others very harshly, calling this group winners and that group losers, this group good and that group bad, all the while trying to be in the winning group.

To choose a different way, you must first stop—stop the ceaseless striving to have this, to be that, to attain this and to avoid that. You must stop driving yourself and be still for a time until you can sense that there is a different direction for you to go."

"Maturity here is being able to recognize what is true and what is false and to separate them and choose accordingly. Time, practice and wise decisions bring this about, as well as the great assistance from your essential relationships—your relationships with other people and your relationship with your Spiritual Family, whose help and guidance are unknowingly received and utilized so that their benefits can be known.

"As the world teaches you what not to value, your Knowledge and the exemplary life of certain individuals provide a contrast. Studying The Greater Community Way of Knowledge provides a contrast. Once the contrast is recognized, you will have no doubt which way to choose. Once the choices are made plain to you and you can see them as they really are, there is no choice at all. When we say that freedom is no choice, it does not mean that there is no choice. It just means that the choice is so obvious that it is as if there were no choice at all.

When you are attempting to choose between two things that are alluring and you cannot decide, then you have not yet come to recognize the investment and the reward. Often people are bogged down because they are trying to choose between two things, neither of which is the way to go, and so they go back and forth, back and forth, trying to weigh the benefits and the liabilities, and so forth. They cannot proceed by doing this."

See also

Contribution

Decision making

Discernment

Wandering

Further study

• Secrets of Heaven, Secret 112: “a state of no-choice”

• The Power of Knowledge, Chapter 3: The Soul’s Journey on Earth

• Wisdom from the Greater Community, Book 2, Chapter 5: Working with the Mind