According to Osho, ordinarily we do not choose; we move mechanically, like sleepwalkers. Real choice appears only with awareness, and awareness arises through choicelessness—dropping preferences and simply witnessing. In wakeful presence you can truly decide; until then, life is accidental and borrowed. First be alert and conscious; then action flows from clarity rather than conditioned habit.
We don’t really choose while we’re inwardly asleep; wake up by calmly watching without taking sides, and real freedom to choose appears.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
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,…
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…
Osho, if the ego decides on non-choice—“choicelessness”—what will be its state?
The ego cannot make such a decision. Non-choice, “choicelessness,” is the name of the state of consciousness when the ego is not. The ego cannot decide, “All right, from now on we are choiceless.” That itself is a choice. You have chosen again. You remain the chooser. People come to me and say, “The mind doesn’t become quiet. We try hard to meditate, but the mind won’t settle.” I tell them, “Drop worrying about peace. Just meditate; it will quiet down.” They ask, “Then it will become quiet?” I’m telling you to drop the concern. They say, “We agree to drop even the concern—but will it become quiet or not?” They don’t drop it. Even when they say they agree, they don’t really agree. A fortnight later they come back: “You said drop the concern; we did—but it still hasn’t become quiet.” They don’t even notice what they are saying:…
Beloved Osho, do you make decisions? Or do things just happen around you? Can you give some examples?
Just the other day Vivek was very amazed.... In the morning, after my bath and taking my breakfast, which is nothing much, just a glass of juice.... I am always in such a beautiful relaxed state that although I have slept the whole night -- that was also beautiful -- after my bath I can fall asleep again. I have to come here, so I have to leave at eight-fifteen. Vivek came and she saw me fast asleep. She woke me up, and she said, "It is now eight-twenty. Your secretary is waiting outside, and you are sleeping!" So just out of sleep I come here and start. But there is no doing in my life. You all have come to me, I have not called you. Just think, your coming to me was a happening. Your being here with me is nothing like doing. Anybody who is here with…
The past is no more and the future is never going to be, so this is the moment. You can celebrate it: you can love, you can pray, you can sing, you can dance, you can meditate, you can use it as you want. And the moment is so small that if you are not very alert it will slip out of your hands, it will be gone. So, to be, one has to be very very alert. Doing needs no alertness, it is very mechanical. But don't use the word 'wait' -- because that means the future has entered again from the back door. You follow me? If you think that you should just wait, then again you are waiting for the future. So doing or waiting are not separate things. There is nothing to wait for. The existence is as perfect this moment as it will ever be.