To counterbalance the flighty, changeable types, there is the opposite sort that never changes their minds, not even after their decisions have been absolutely proven wrong. These bullheaded types are most often chosen to head governments and corporations. They make a show of having will, but without intelligence. Such willfulness is not decisionmaking, but the acting-out of immature omnipotent fantasy that refuses to consider the demands of reality. Are we not constantly astounded at the incompetence we witness in high places? And do we not see that the larger the organization, the more stupid the decisions that are taken? Great corporations, empires, systems of all kinds seem to lose their touch, their intelligence, at a certain point in their development—when they get large enough to dare to reveal the grandiosity of the ego’s shameless arrogance. Then all decisionmaking capacities are lost forever.

So we find people who either cannot come to a decision, out of insecurity, lack, and loss of centeredness, and those who can stick to a course of action—usually an incorrect one based on wishful thinking—but have no flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances. In either case, there is no real capacity for decisonmaking in the true sense. One who is truly able to make wise decisions and follow through on them, and be flexible enough to change course when situations dictate, is a rarity. A great part of spiritual development is thus mastery of the lost royal art of the decision.

Ironically, the contemporary ego is far more involved in making choices than people ever were in times past. We learn to choose from a very young age, before we are able to decide rationally, what food we want to order at the restaurant, what flavor toothpaste we want to use, what TV channel we want to watch, and other consumer decisions. But these choices are made at an emotional level. They are not exercises in rationality. And at the other extreme, we are trained to make our rational decisions by blocking out our feelings. The result is that our reason is cut off from the intelligence of the heart.

At the same time, we learn through ideological messages and innuendo that it is not in our jurisdiction to make decisions regarding the kind of world we want to live in, the kind of values we wish to live by, the kind of character we want to develop. It is even frowned upon in many circles to be too curious about alternative ways of living and thinking. The matrix of our reality is accepted as a given, rather than recognized as a product of consciousness that can be altered by more fully developing our consciousness. We are told we must decide what to be when we grow up, but we are never informed of what it means to be a grown-up, nor how to mature psychologically and spiritually, so that our life decisions can bear some relationship to a higher meaning than mere opportunism. It is arguable that overall we are thus less capable of making decisions today than in previous eras, in which such higher values were still palpably recognized.

To overcome the incapacity to make decisions, people go to exotic lengths. Some, as in the ancient world, consult oracles. They may throw the I-Ching coins (or just flip a coin for yes or no) or read Tarot cards, play muscle-testing (kinesiology) interrogation games, or see which way a pendulum swings. Or they may look for secret signs left for them by the Universe—a feather found on the street, a random headline in the newspaper, some words overheard spoken by strangers, synchronicities interpreted as interpellations by some Higher Intelligence. Or they may ask the opinions of friends, family, therapists, business consultants, astrologers, or other authorities. But none of these methods is satisfactory. People are always left in doubt, they second-guess every answer, and their minds can never rest.

The human incapacity to make decisions has been systematically hidden from us. In order to accomplish this, social systems have historically been created in which it is simply assumed, in fact mandated, that others will make the decisions for us. In the context of ancient India, for example, the caste system operated as a decisionmaking matrix. The Brahmins (the priesthood) made many of the basic decisions for the Kshatriyas (the nobility), and the Kshatriyas made them for the Vaishyas (the merchant class), and the Vaishyas for the Shudras (the manual laborers). Husbands made decisions for their wives. Parents made the decisions regarding to whom their children would marry. Divorce was rarely an option. In medieval Europe, the feudal hierarchies and Church made the important decisions. Rabbis made them among the Jews in accord with the Talmud. The mullahs and caliphs made them among the Muslims, according to the Sharia law. This indeed was the main purpose of religious institutions. Then, the baton gradually passed. First, the elders of the extended clans made the decisions. Then gradually it came down to nuclear families. Today, all those traditional sources of decisionmaking have been eliminated.

Now that all our traditional paradigmatic social scaffolding has been removed, no one can make decisions any more. There are no longer criteria that have legitimacy or validity—because the personal self has no validity. So almost no one can make a commitment. What substitutes for commitment is either passivity or hostile dependency.

Societies depend for their survival on the ability of their members to sustain trust in the promises of others, on the capacity of their fellows to make wise decisions in carrying out responsibilities, and the durability and constancy of their presence and performance. This is the essence of social capital. The social system today maintains itself only on the basis of intimidation and because it has created a single decision-making criterion for all decisions: monetary profit. That is the purpose of capitalism. It makes all our decisions for us. We do what we do on the basis of what is going to make a larger financial profit for our business, our nation, our family. On the individual level, that is how we decide what we will study at the university, who we will marry, where we will live, and so on. On the national level, it determines foreign policy. On the social level, it determines industrial policy. Unfortunately, such a criterion is utterly inadequate. It leaves out all higher values, all ethical, aesthetic, and spiritual considerations, in fact, even biological considerations, including our own longterm survival. The system is therefore destroying us. But we cannot decide to change it. We have no will with which to oppose the system. We cannot make a decision even to save our planet. Is it not scandalous? Or is there a more encompassing perspective from which to view this phenomenon?

If we are to discover a more profound meaning in all this, we must understand why the ego is such a failure when it comes to taking decisions. By definition, the ego is a false self, and therefore operates from a false paradigm of reality. Of course, some egos are more false than others. It depends on how much repression is in effect, what sort of defense mechanisms are operating, how much denial one is in, how narcissistic and psychopathic is the ego structure, and similar related factors, including, most importantly, how cut off one is from the real Self, that is, from God. The more pathology is present, the less able is one to make good decisions or to honor commitments or maintain internal consistency.

Ultimately, every ego lacks a true center. The center of our being lies beyond the ego. That is the source of our clarity, wisdom, will power, creativity, love, and serenity. Until we transcend ego consciousness, we cannot gain the power of true decisionmaking. Wise decisions are manifestations of the archetypal Self. They occur when paradoxically we do not feel we are making decisions. Instead, we are flowing spontaneously as vehicles of the divine luminous presence. We do not make the decisions, but the One Supreme Intelligence makes them through our bodymind once that has been surrendered to the will of the Absolute. We enter a state of trans-decisive living.

The only decision necessary, therefore, is the decision to surrender to God. And even that decision is not really taken by the ego. But a moment comes when one realizes it has been decided. Once the ego is absorbed in God’s presence, all else follows magically and life becomes a celebration of the miraculous. However, to accelerate our getting to such a point, it is still useful to take vows of self-discipline. A vow is a commitment that cannot be broken. This is the way it was done by the ancient yogis. Unfortunately, these days few people are capable of keeping a vow. That is why twelve-step groups developed the motto, ‘one day at a time’. That is also why they recommend that people come to a meeting every day, to reinforce the commitment to stop the intake of alchohol or whatever other addiction is involved. The commitment to come to the meeting becomes the point of rebuilding of the integrity of the damaged ego-system.

A healthy spiritual community operates in a similar way (although without the self-distrusting dogma of twelve-step groups that one will always remain a latent addict), offering group meditations, discussion circles, and new teachings on a regular basis to sustain the momentum of transformation and the ability of the members to function consistently from their true center. In addition, an ongoing schedule of individual meetings with a spiritual teacher to confront the ego, to encourage the emergence of the Real Self, to clarify issues, dreams, life confusions, and to infuse students with energy, courage, and self-trust are essential ingredients to attain the goal of authentic trans-decisive existence.

The achievement of mastery of the art of decision ultimately requires an internal transfiguration of our being. We must harmoniously braid the powers of will, knowledge, and action. The roots of our spiritual powers lie beyond the ego. To reach the level in which we can re-decide our identity, our character, and our relationship to our Source, we must cut off the ego. The word ‘de-cide’ in fact means exactly that: to cut off. Only when our knowledge is no longer obscured by unconscious ego agendas and our minds have become receptacles of the higher, noumenal truth; when our will is no longer split, paralyzed, and dissipated in futile desires; and when our skill in action has been refined to immaculate virtuosity through disciplined and dedicated practice; in short, when we have committed our lives, our powers, and our hearts to the service of our Supreme Identity, will the grace of trans-decisive rapture descend upon us and flow through our every thought and gesture.

The fundamental realization that must dawn within the mind is that fulfillment is not to be found in the shadow world of phenomenal forms—whether in the petty pornographic pleasures of sexual possession, the power plays in the arena of politics and finance, the phony bliss of drugs and pseudo-spiritual revelry, the futile fusion with incestuous projections, or the plodding purgatory of pointless submission to the social dharma—but rather, our salvation lies in the return to the Self. The remembrance of God is the only exit from the hell of this disintegrating bardo. Our collective passion of forgetfulness of our true Being has led to the demise of our once-paradisiac planet, through neglect, greed, aggression, and all the other aspects of our pathological narcissism. The only way out now is to take responsibility for our sins, to auto-dissolve the poisonous ego that we have produced, and surrender ourselves to the Supreme Authority.

Once we realize our true relationship to the One Self—a relation of unity—the ego mind indeed will dissolve into the Ocean of Pure Loving Intelligence, and thence will ensue the ultimate rapture of divine Beatitude. It is in this return to our original and eternal essence that the world is revealed also as a manifestation of the Absolute, and all our actions become spontaneous gestures of grace. There are no longer any decisions to be made. God is the one decider.

At some point, you will find yourself on such a path, perhaps even without having decided to do so. That which is in you that is greater than your ego has already made the decision. It may seem scandalous, but it is already time to celebrate.

Namaste,
Shunyamurti