Everything is a Choice (HH 073)

This evening’s talk is partly a continuation of the theme of NDE of Anita Moorjani. It explores some of the issues raised by the video document, for example, regarding the validity of the experience, the inner causes of illness and spontaneous remissions of cancer. Finally we explore the most fascinating of all aspects, the question of our inner choice that changes balance of forces that go by the name of Fate.

Words of the Mother

This morning I lived for two hours in a sort of blissful state in which there was, oh, such a clear awareness that all forms of life, in all the worlds and at all times, are the expression of a choice: you choose to be that way.

It’s very hard to put it into words…. The sort of compulsion in which we think we have to live and to which we think we are subjected had completely vanished, and there was a perfectly spontaneous and natural perception that life on earth, life in the other worlds, and all the types of life on earth, and all the types of life in the other worlds, are simply a question of choice: you chose to be that way, and you constantly choose to be this way or that, or choose that this or that is going to happen; and you also choose to think you are subjected to a Fate or a Necessity or a Law that compels you – everything is a question of choice. And there was a sense of lightness, of freedom (same dancing gesture), and then one of those smiles at everything. And at the same time, it gives you a tremendous power. All sense of compulsion, of necessity (and even more of fate) had completely vanished. All the illnesses, all the events, all the dramas, all of it – vanished. And this concrete and so stark a reality of physical life – completely gone.

The interesting point is that the experience arose from my encounter with Purani last night. I met Purani in a certain world and he was in a certain state, like the one I have just described, but then the difference between Purani as he was here and Purani as he is now … suddenly, it was like a key. I spoke to him, he spoke to me, saying, “Oh, now I am so happy, so happy!” And it was in that state that I lived this morning for more than an hour and a half. Afterwards, I am obliged to come back … to a state I find artificial, but which can’t be helped because of others, the contact with others and things and the innumerable amount of things to be done. But still, the experience remains in the background. And you are left with a sort of amused smile at all the complications of life – the state in which people are is the result of a choice, and individually the freedom of choice is there, but they have FORGOTTEN it. That’s what is so interesting!

At the same time, I saw the whole picture of human knowledge (because when those states are present, all human realizations, all human knowledge come like a panorama in front of the new state and are put back in their proper place – when an experience comes, it’s always, always as though retrospective), and I saw all the theories, all the beliefs, all the philosophical ideas, how they were connected to the new state…. Oh, it was such fun!

And it doesn’t require rest; these experiences are so concrete and spontaneous and real (they aren’t the result of a will, still less of an effort) that they don’t require rest: I was busy washing. I took my whole breakfast in that state, it was charming. It was only when those people came (and I even did the “egg distribution” – I don’t know if you are aware of it, but I am the one who puts your egg in your box every day – I did my egg distribution in that state, I gave the flowers in that state), it was only afterwards, when letters came that I had to listen to and answer and all manner of things (gesture of a truckload being dumped) – then it fades away, it gets erased. It still leaves me in a half-dream, but the experience is gone: it’s no longer that.

But those who got hold of this experience for some reason or other without having all the philosophical and mental preparation I had (the “saints,” or at any rate all the people who led a spiritual life) had instead a very acute impression of the unreality of life and the illusion of life. But that’s only a narrow way of looking at it. That’s not it – that’s not it, EVERYTHING is a choice! Everything, everything. The Lord’s choice, but IN US; not there (gesture above): here. And we are unaware of it, it’s deep down in ourselves. But when we are aware of it, we can choose – we can choose our choice, that’s wonderful!

For instance, when that state was there, I told my body, “But see, you clumsy fool, why do you choose to be dramatic? To have pain, to be this and that?…” And that sort of fate and bond and hardness of existence – all that had vanished. All vanished. It was light blue, light pink, all luminous and clear and … (same dancing gesture) … buoyant.

I very well imagine that it’s not something absolute; it was only ONE way of being, but a charming way of being! … Usually, when those who don’t have a sufficient intellectual preparation have an experience like this one, they think they have caught the “only” truth. And then, from it, they dogmatize. But I clearly saw it wasn’t that: it’s ONE way of being, but a wonderful way of being, of course! Infinitely superior to the one we have here. And we CAN have it here: I had it. I had it quite concretely. And there is always something going wrong (a pain here or a pain there, or this or that, and then circumstances going wrong too, always difficulties) … the color of it all changes. And it becomes buoyant, you know, light – light, supple. All the hardness and rigidity – gone.

And the feeling that if you choose to be that way, you can go on being that way. And it’s true. It’s all the bad habits – habits that have been on earth for thousands of years, obviously – it’s all the bad habits that stop you; but there is no reason why it couldn’t be a permanent state. Because it changes everything! Everything changes! … You know, I was brushing my teeth, washing my eyes, doing the most material things: their nature changed! And there was a vibration, a conscious vibration in the eye that was being washed, in the toothbrush, in … All that, all of it was different. And it is clear that if you become the master of that state, you can change all circumstances around you.

* * *

But there is nothing other than God, only He exists, there is nothing outside Him. And if something seems ugly to us, it is simply because He no longer wants it to exist. He is preparing the world so that this thing may no longer be manifested, so that the manifestation can move from that state to something else. So naturally, within us, we violently repulse everything that is about to go out of the active manifestation there is a movement of rejection.

But it is Him. There is nothing but Him. This is what we should repeat to ourselves from morning to evening and from evening to morning, because we forget it at each moment.

There is only Him. There is nothing but Him He alone exists, there is no existence without Him, there is only Him!

CWM, Vol. 10, pp. 102 -103