**Choiceless awareness** is a philosophical and psychological concept developed primarily by [Jiddu Krishnamurti](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiddu_Krishnamurti), and implicated in a number of other fields. It proposes that an intact state of awareness negates the experience of choosing, that actions are necessitated by complete comprehension of the immediate circumstances. Thus, the experience of choice indicates confusion, or bias and attachment toward an outcome. Spontaneous creativity arises within a state of choiceless awareness, similar to the psychological state of [[Flow]]. The concept of choiceless awareness has interesting implications in the discussion of [[Freedom]] and autonomy, specifically with regard to theories of [[determinism]]. If complete awareness reveals necessary action, then the actions are determined rather than selected, thus negating subjective [[Free Will]]. However, Krishnamurti [claims](https://www.jkrishnamurti.org/about-core-teachings) this is the ultimate form of liberation. > [!cite] Jiddu Krishnamurti > Freedom is found in the choiceless awareness of our daily existence and activity. This is "pure observation without direction, without fear of punishment and reward." In this telling, choiceless awareness coincides with the [dharma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma) of Buddhism and Hinduism, that the "path of rightness"[^1] follows from mastering one's inward and outward [[situational awareness]]. An individual's reality unfolds and emerges out of the manifold of their movement through life. It is not organized by religion or constructed by society. >[!quote] Sasha Chapin >[...] my actions don’t feel like a selection I made from menu of options, presented moment-by-moment—it feels more like I’m falling through space. I don’t feel like I’m making many choices. In the process of giving up the life you have planned for the one that is waiting for you, it is important to remember that the life that is waiting for you is in fact waiting. Bliss is choiceless awareness. This experience is [reported](https://sashachapin.substack.com/p/how-my-day-is-going) often by practitioners of meditation. My personal experience resonates with this assertion, yet I also bristle at [academic thinkers](https://profiles.stanford.edu/robert-sapolsky) who [[Determined - Robert M Sapolsky|reduce]] the experience of free will to neurophysiological complexity. At the same time, I don’t believe Krishnamurti would disagree with Sapolsky’s thesis outright. Reconciling this internal dichotomy seems to rest on the individual’s recognition of their own [[personal subjective continuity]] situated within the [[generic subjective continuity]] of their locale and the cosmos. Perhaps free will is the choice to surrender one’s will to the directives unfolding within one’s environment. [^1]: Rosen, S. (2006). _Essential Hinduism_. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 34-45 ### The Science of Woo * The moves you make in jhana meditation are similar to those you make in yin yoga, except you make them in your mind.