"So this word choice has to be understood very deeply, because only through that understanding can choicelessness flower in you.

"Why can't you remain without choosing? Why does it happen that the moment you see a person or a thing, immediately a subtle wave of choice has entered in you, even if you are not aware that you have chosen? A woman passes by and you say she is beautiful. You are not saying anything about your choice, but the choice has entered, because to say of a person that she is beautiful means, 'I would like to choose her.' In fact, deep down you have chosen; you are already in the trap. The seed has fallen to the soil; soon there will be sprouts, there will be a plant and a tree.

"The moment you say, 'This car is beautiful,' choice has entered. You may not be aware at all that you have chosen, that you would like to possess the car, but in the mind a fantasy has entered, a desire has arisen. When you say something is beautiful, you mean that you would like to have it. When you say something is ugly, you mean that you would not like to have it.

"Choice is subtle and one has to be very minutely aware of it. Whenever you say something, remember that saying is not only saying, not a mere saying; something has happened in the unconscious. Don't make the distinction: this is beautiful and that is ugly, this is good and that is bad. Don't make the distinction. Remain aloof. Things are neither bad nor good. The quality of goodness or badness is introduced by you. Things are neither beautiful nor ugly; they are simply there, as they are – the quality of being beautiful or ugly is introduced by you; it is your interpretation.

"What do you mean when you say something is beautiful? Is there any criterion of beauty? Can you prove it that it is beautiful? Just standing by your side, somebody may think, 'This is ugly!' – so it is nothing objective; nobody can prove anything beautiful. Thousands and thousands of books have been written on aesthetics, and it has been a long, arduous journey for intellectuals, thinkers and philosophers to define what beauty is – they have not yet been able."