Do we have the choice to be aware or not?

Osho, is choiceless awareness also a kind of choice? It seems to come down to a paradox.

No, choiceless awareness is not a choice. Choiceless means we do not make any choice, we do not select any option; we simply awaken. In that awakening we do not decide, “This is right, that is wrong; this should be accepted, that should be dropped.” We make no decision. We simply look, awake. In this awakened seeing there is no choice at all. And as long as there is choice, we cannot see with awareness. “Awareness with choice”—there is no such thing. Awareness, as such, is without choice. Awareness by its very nature is choiceless. So awareness can never be together with choice, because choice means bias has begun; sleep has begun. There are so many people sitting here: if I say, “Bacchu-bhai is a fine man,” then I cannot be aware in relation to Bacchu-bhai either, because my attachment has begun. Nor can I be aware in relation to…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, YOUR STORY ABOUT BUDDHA AND THE FLY HAS ALWAYS INTRIGUED ME. DO YOU HAVE THE CHOICE STILL TO BE AWARE OR NOT? No, I don't have any choice any more. I am in a choiceless awareness. I don't have to be aware. I am simply aware. Now it is just like my heartbeat or like my breathing. Even if I try not to be aware, it is not possible; the very effort will make me more aware. Awareness is not a quality, a characteristic; it is your whole being. When you become aware, there is no choice left to be otherwise.

A friend has asked, Osho, one can die with awareness, but how can one be born with awareness?

Most fasters spend twenty-four hours repeating, “I am hungry; I have not eaten,” with their minds absorbed in planning tomorrow’s menu. Then the fast is wasted; it is merely a hunger-strike. That is the difference: a hunger-strike means not eating; upavasa means “dwelling nearer and nearer.” Nearer to whom? To oneself. Away from the body, closer to the self. Even the word upavasa carries no implication of starving; it means nearer-dwelling. Thus one could be in upavasa even while eating—if one knows the eating is at a distance and “I am elsewhere.” And one could not be in upavasa even while not eating—if one keeps thinking, “I am hungry; I’m dying of hunger.” Upavasa is a psychological knowing of one’s separateness from hunger. Other sufferings too can be invited voluntarily. A man can even lie on thorns, simply to see that the thorns do not pierce me; they pierce elsewhere,…

I feel as if I had no choice in coming to you. Do we really ever choose things that happen in our lives?

I have heard: The owner of a large company bought a sign which said "Do it now", and hung it up in the office hoping it would inspire his staff with promptness. A few days later a friend asked him if the notice had had any effect. "Well, not in the way I had hoped," admitted the boss. "The cashier absconded with $10,000 -- Do it now -- the head bookkeeper eloped with my private secretary -- Do it now -- three clerks asked for a raise, a typist threw her typewriter out of the window -- Do it now -- and the office boy has... just... aah... poisoned my coffee... aaah!" You listen through your sleepiness; you will interpret it in your own way. So if you really want to listen to me, don't interpret. Just the other night, a new young man became a sannyasin. I told him,…

Assagioli says that all the awareness in the world will not help until you choose -- "it is the willingness to choose that produces change and thus growth." yet you talk of choiceless awareness. Is there really a choice?

I don't teach you will. It is because of will that you have become so miserable. It is because of will that you feel guilty. It is because of will that you go on carrying scorpions, snakes and crocodiles and all kinds of things inside you. You have lost all beauty and grace. What is will? Will means struggle against the whole. The real man of understanding is absolute will-lessness. That's why Jesus says: THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE. How is Assagioli going to explain it? -- THY WILL BE DONE.... Not mine! Because whatsoever is MY will is going to be against God's will. I have to efface my will completely. I have not to be. When I am in an absolute will-lessness, then God's will starts functioning. And about synthesis too -- Assagioli's idea of synthesis is more philosophical than existential. There are two possible kinds…