Theosophical Independence   JULY 2009 

Making Choices  

  

   Every action has an implicit purpose, and serves some purpose.  Initially, we understand the purpose of life in terms of short term goals we set for ourselves.  So long as we have some goal, we feel our life has a purpose. But almost all our goals are transitory. We realize one goal and then we are after another. When we choose these goals guided by desire, sooner or later, as these desired goals are achieved, we experience existential vacuum. Then comes a turning point. Instead of our choices being guided by desires, we begin to make our desires follow our choices. From setting up self centred goals such as making money, getting power or position, winning a beauty contest or becoming a world-renowned athlete and so on and on, we begin to set goals where emphasis is on “others”.  More and more young people are motivated, these days, to leave well-paying, prestigious jobs, or promising careers to join organizations which work for the betterment of the downtrodden. Life itself gradually leads us from choosing self-centred to self-less goals. But everyone is not fortunate enough to get the opportunity or have the facility to undertake social work, especially when one is handicapped or old or poor. What is he going to make his purpose of life? In such circumstances we do not have much choice of determining the purpose of life. It is then that we begin to see that the purpose of life is common for all. Universe exists for the experience and emancipation of the soul. The purpose of life is to learn and that it is all made up of learning. The purpose of life is self-realization. We then find that whether we set up short-term or long-term goals, or take life as it comes, we only need to be aware of this purpose as an underlying current. Some lessons are learnt consciously while others unconsciously. If we are able to do what comes our way, carefully, cheerfully and selflessly then with every such action we are stepping closer to the grand purpose of self realization, which involves perfection on physical, mental and moral planes. Knowing that there is ever-growing perfectibility to be achieved through continuous process of learning and assimilation, life will never seem purposeless.
Theosophical Movement, November 2008

  My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man's doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny. 
  ELAINE MAXWELL

  What needs to exist is for people to be made aware of how they will get better results, by pointing out the consequences of their behavior and giving them the choice and opportunity to make adjustments.   
  SIDNEY MADWED

  I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime.
  ELISABETH KÜBLER-ROSS

  You must train your intuition -- you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide.
   INGRID BERGMAN

  Don't gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold.
   BOB MARLEY

Liberty, taking the word in its concrete sense, consists in the ability to choose.
   SIMONE WEIL

  To choose what is difficult all one's days, as if it were easy, that is faith.
   W. H. AUDEN
 
  All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.    THEODORE BIKEL

  As human beings, we are endowed with freedom of choice, and we cannot shuffle off our responsibility upon the shoulders of God or nature. We must shoulder it ourselves. It is up to us.      A. J. TOYNBEE
 
  We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
  VIKTOR FRANKL

  Because you are in control of your life. Don't ever forget that. You are what you are because of the conscious and subconscious choices you have made.  BARBARA HALL

  There's a right way and a wrong way to do things. If you make a chair, you want to make a nice chair. You want people to admire it. I think doing something well is a form of respect for humanity in general. I have found that all incompetence comes from not paying attention, which comes from people doing something that they don't want to do. And doing what you don't want to do means either you have no choice, or you don't think that the moments of your life are worth fighting for.    HAL HARTLEY

  The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.    JOHN DEWEY

One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.
    ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

  We can learn from history how past generations thought and acted, how they responded to the demands of their time and how they solved their problems. We can learn by analogy, not by example, for our circumstances will always be different than theirs were. The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. They foreclose the possibility of making other choices and thus they determine future events.
  GERDA LERNER

  By the choices and acts of our lives, we create the person that we are and the faces that we wear.     KENNETH PATTON

  Consciously or unconsciously we all strive to make the kind of a world we like.
  OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

The power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all.   ORIGEN

Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free.   PAUL TILLICH

  Abraham Lincoln did not go to Gettysburg having commissioned a poll to find out what would sell in Gettysburg. There were no people with percentages for him, cautioning him about this group or that group or what they found in exit polls a year earlier. When will we have the courage of Lincoln?
    ROBERT COLES

    “Theosophical Independence”  is produced monthly by Associates of The United Lodge of Theosophists in Philadelphia located at 1917 Walnut Street,   Philadelphia, PA  19103.   The contents of this newsletter are provided freely and anonymously.  It may be reproduced without permission.