Is control an illusion?
By control I mean controlling the mind.
It has thoughts.
So if we can't really control the thoughts, then there's only observers, right?
Then we have a choice, isn't it?
We have his choice.
I see it.
I don't quite get the grammar there.
Then we have his choice.
All we have is choice?
I think that's exactly how I would answer it, if that's what you're saying.
All we have is choice.
We don't have control.
Control is an illusion, but we have choice.
We can choose every moment to do something, to respond in a certain way.
That's how I see it.
I don't know if it's exactly true or not, but this is the best way for a limited human mind to come to terms with reality, Buddhist reality, because we deny control and it turns out, quite quickly turns out to be a falsehood anyway.
And yet we're not robots, we're not automatons.
So it seems proper to say, and it's very much based on what appears to be the truth, that we have choice.
There is a choice that can be made.
At every moment.
So this is the Buddha called present karma.
Karma here and now.
You create here and now.
Actually I don't know if the Buddha called it.
This is how we understand it.
You create karma in the here and now.
At every moment you have the opportunity to create karma.
To intend this or intend that.
Or to not intend anything at all.
So yeah, I would say there's not just observance.
There's also intention and choice.
So you can choose not to observe.
You can choose to try to force things.
You can choose to, in other words, can choose to deal with things improperly, can choose to misunderstand things and say, I'm going to control this.
I'm going to turn off my anger.
I'm going to grow a third arm, and so on, things that are impossible.