We can picture choice as an unpracticed skill-set, where the goal is to turn the choice into mastery.
Take for example practicing to play a musical instrument. As I’m practicing a particular technique sometimes I’ll play it smoothly and sometimes I won’t. I’ll notice that I’m being stiff and have to practice it more slowly first, or I’ll notice a smaller skill within the skill that I have to focus on first, and not try to accomplish too much at one time.
Once I’ve gained mastery, there’s no longer any need to practice this particular skill. I can assume I have it, put any effort in this area behind me, and move on to a higher level skill.
What was once a choice (whether or not to play it melodically and correctly) is no longer a choice but a sure thing. There’s no longer any question about it.
The same is true of practicing any emotional, behavioral or spiritual skill. Once I’ve integrated it into my personality so that there’s no longer any question about whether I will stop interrupting someone who is talking to me or not, whether I will eat the candy bar or not, whether I will jog every day or not, or whether I will panic or not, then I can put that skill set behind me and move on to the next skill.
Choice is present in the absence of mastery.
The goal is to gain mastery and eliminate choice.
This raises a question. We are creatures of choice, and choice is perhaps the most important spiritual capacity there is.
Why, then would we want to eliminate it?
We never eliminate choice. We only raise the bar. We move the capacity of choice to a different place, to a new challenge. We continue to change and grow, only because we have the capacity for choice.
Before, as after mastery, is the phenomenon of “no choice.” We have no real choice about whether or not to play the music well if we haven’t practiced. Neither do we have a choice about any kind of habit or character trait that we were born with or that was strongly ingrained in childhood.
To do what we do naturally and effortlessly is nothing to feel badly about and is nothing to brag about.
The goal of life is to take what’s given and create something new with it.
Unlike the non-choice of pre-mastery, the non-choice of mastery is a testimony to choices we’ve made in the past to get there. Through our choices we develop skills by which we succeed in fashioning ourselves into who we want to be.