Have we become trapped by the act of choosing?

Simply put, yes, but this is a surprising idea because it runs counter to a lifelong behavior. For all of us, life has been lived one choice at a time. The external world is like a huge bazaar offering a dazzling array of possibilities; everyone shops the bazaar, seizing what is best for them and theirs. Most people know themselves by what came home in their shopping bag -- a house, job, spouse, car, children and money. But every time you choose A over B, you are forced to leave some part of the one reality behind. You are defining yourself by selective (and completely arbitrary) preferences.

The alternative is to stop concentrating on the results and look to the cause. Who is this choice-maker inside you? This voice is a relic of the past, the accumulation of old decisions carrying over beyond their time. Right now you are living under the burden ofyour past self, who is no longer alive. You must protect the thousands of choices that make up this dead self. Yet the choice-maker could live a much freer life. If choices occurred inthe present and were fully appreciated right now, there would be nothing left to hold on to, and then the past couldn't accumulate into a crushing burden.